[ WP ] You gained the ability to freeze and resume time at will long ago . Recently when using your powers , you notice when you unfreeze time , everything seems a little bit more twisted than when you had paused it .

I stared back at the cashier in shock. I *knew* I froze him mid-conversation with me at the front counter, so how in the absolute hell was his head turned over his shoulder, his eyes focused directly on mine, now that I had picked up the PS4 behind him? 
 
 I let go of the box and stood up warily, feeling decidedly unsafe for the first time in my own safe space. Leaving his eyes focused on where I had been crouched was a lot less unnerving than having them focused on my own eyes. I scanned around the store: everyone else was normal, stopped dead in their tracks, mid-page flip in a gaming magazine or shouting match over the superiority of some game over another. The cashier, meanwhile, was glaring directly at me over his shoulder. Moreover, though he had n't moved a muscle since I looked away, his eyes had refocused directly back on mine. 
 
 I approached the cashier to take a closer look at him. Surely enough, within moments, his eyes met mine. 
 Inches from his face, I slowly moved my head side-to-side. After a beat, his eyes began to track mine, although they dragged as if unable to keep up. 
 
 I stepped back to give him some space. 
 `` Can you hear me?'' 
 It felt more than a little silly to try asking. 
 He just stared. 
 
 As I pondered my next steps, still not quite ready to let time resume, I noticed that, little by little, his lips were starting to part. He was trying to speak. 
 
 I stepped back around the counter, and took another few steps back away from it. His head was still turned to his shoulder, but his eyes were still on me. 
 I drew a deep breath and resumed time. 
 
 The familiar crash of sound played all around me as everyone else in the store continued right where they had left off. I had never seen *resuming* time have any particular effect on anyone before, but the cashier had clearly experienced it differently: whatever he was about to say or do when I had time frozen was interrupted, as he shuddered, eyes closed, muscles and fingers tensed and curled as he leaned on the counter for support. 
 
 `` Are you okay?'' I asked. 
 He took a second or two to collect himself, his head still bowed from the strain of weathering whatever had just come over him. And when he lifted his head and opened his eyes to look at me, I knew he was the furthest thing from `` okay'': his eyes, opened as wide as they could without leaving their sockets, black as smoke in their entirety, stared at me with an intense combination of surprise, dread, and contempt. 
 His mouth fell open, also seeming to stretch itself to its widest limits, showing no teeth and no tongue, but a pitch-black void. And from its depths, a monstrous voice only distantly resembling his own echoed inside the store: `` ANATHEMA.'' 
 
 I froze time again immediately. 
 With no pupils to speak of, I could n't exactly tell where he was looking anymore, but he at least remained frozen. My greatest weapon, and get-out-of-jail-free card, was still fully at my disposal, and I was ready to get every advantage I could from it. 
 I reminded myself that my best coping mechanism for fear was comprehension -- freezing time to examine, to ponder, to *understand* what I'm dealing with, has guided me through social anxiety, stage fright, an abusive relationship, and every fight I've ever had in my life. Obviously, this was on another level entirely, but I was confident I could beat it with the same means. 
 So: what was I dealing with, here? If I was hallucinating, it would have continued, but this thing was now static. Clearly, it seemed supernatural. And that was n't out of the question, since I did n't exactly obey the laws of physics, myself. As I looked it over, I noticed that its fingers had changed as well into long, black, elongated spikes. It otherwise looked to still be flesh and blood, although it might transform some more, the way it had changed its eyes, hands, and mouth. Speaking of which, it did genuinely seem like its mouth just led to some kind of endless void. 
 
 As I was entertaining the idea of probing into its mouth with a nearby Wiimote, it started making a noise. It seemed to be straining. I took another step back. 
 The sound of its struggle grew louder. Its muscles tensed up. And, to my utter horror, I felt it start to push the flow of time forward. The other people in the store began to move and speak in super-slow motion. 
 I froze time again, and it complied, but I could still feel it pushing against me. And while I could `` shove'' it to a stop, it was stronger than me. I could only slam the door, so to speak, but could not hold it closed. 
 
 *Now*, I was panicking. I could feel my heart pounding in my throat. My mind was racing. I no longer had the luxury of time. I've never had to think on my feet like this before. 
 Time was slowly winding back up again. I was putting all the mental effort I could muster into keeping it from surging forward. 
 I was n't going to beat it. I had to run. 
 
 The instant I let time spring back into step, I could see the impact it had on everyone around me. The thing that was once the cashier shuddered again as if a great weight was dropped onto its shoulders, but so did everyone else. As I backed out of the store entrance, I watched a crowd of pitch-black eyes open to look at me, open mouths empty as the void, and a chorus cry out, `` ANATHEMA.'' 
 And, all at once, they sprang forward into a full sprint. 
 
 On reflex, I slammed time to a stop. I did n't push to keep it still. It swelled back to full strength within a second, but it did seem to disorient them again, and it at least bought me a head start. 
 I felt trapped and surrounded in the mall complex, so I made for the escalators to the ground floor, shouting at people to clear the way and shoulder-checking the ones who did n't. 
 A great collective howl erupted from the game store as the things recovered. The crash of breaking glass followed as they made after me. 
 
 Halfway to the escalators, I glanced back to see if they were gaining on me. They were. But it was somehow even more disturbing to see that none of the other mall patrons were reacting to the things at all. They just stood to the side and continued their conversations, or absent-mindedly angled their bodies to pass through the horde as it ran around them. 
 
 Seeing them gaining on me made me freeze time again out of panic, and I instantly regretted it -- even though it stopped the horde dead in their tracks for a moment and gave me a little more distance, I could see the other people around me buckle under the impact of it and turn into more of those things, greeting me with a sea of black eyes and mouths, and a fresh chorus of `` ANATHEMA.'' 
 
 They were at my heels as I reached the escalators, and as I looked back again, I saw one mid-air about to tackle me all the way down. I froze time. That was the only way I could avoid it. I raced a few steps down in the precious moments of stasis that bought me, and then ducked under the thing as it soared over me and tumbled down the rest of the way. I scanned for the widest path through the new mob of abominations I had just created. 
 On my way, I jumped down as hard as I could on the one that tried to tackle me. It coughed black blood up one of my legs. It never cried out or reacted in any other way to the pain. Instead, it almost managed to grab my leg. 
 
 I had to freeze time again just past the bottom of the escalators and once more at the mall entrance before I made it to the parking lot. Every time I froze it, it seemed to affect ever larger groups of people around me. It was an unsustainable strategy: at some point, I would n't be able to get away from the things I created in the time it bought me. I could n't keep running; I had to hide. 
 Thankfully, the parking lot was sparsely populated enough that I managed to round a corner and duck into a maintenance room to hide, catch my breath, and hope that they did n't have any way to find me beyond the usual human senses. To my immense relief, they ran right past me. There must have been at least a hundred. 
 
 ( Continued in comments. )
