[ WP ] You were the first to try time manipulation , but some mistake happened and the world around you has paused entirely . Only you were unaffected . It has been 1000+ sleeps and you are descending into madness .

I used to daydream about it when I was a kid. I would be in class, or at lunch, or at recess and then ZAP - time would stop. Everyone would be frozen in place, just like that. Everyone except me. Then I could finally play with the skip it that Becca let all the other girls use. Or I could take Tommy's stupid trapper keeper that he loved. Then maybe he'd feel as bad as I did when he laughed at me for getting braces. `` Braces and glasses? What a freak!'' I probably would n't have done any of those things, I would have been too afraid to get caught. Instead I likely would have just read my books, ignoring the frozen middle school tormentors the same way I did the live ones. 
 
 I outgrew the fantasy as I got older. Sure, I still daydreamed in high school, but it was more along the lines of imagining an encounter with Sean, Jason, Matt, or whichever guy I was currently secretly ( and hopelessly ) crushing on. In those daydreams I would come up with witty lines that I could smoothly deliver and they would think I was cool and sophisticated. In college the fantasy returned but it was more of a wish that I could pause the boring literature lecture and just take a nap. Frequent nights out partying always led to the battle against falling asleep during class. Still, there it was, the desire for time to stop. 
 
 1000 ticks. 1000 sleeps. There is no day or night anymore. The first time, day zero if you will, I thought I was dreaming. It was an odd sensation, thinking that I was in dream while still experiencing it, but it would n't be the first time. I have always had vivid dreams. I woke that morning and the entire world had frozen. As time wore on ( or did n't ) the feeling of a dream started to wear off and panic set in. I'm not sure how long I stayed awake on day zero. Long enough to see it for the first time. Just a glimpse. Right out of the corner of my eye. A slight movement and then gone. I figured I imagined it. That's when I finally let myself rest. Just went back to my bedroom and went to sleep, hoping to wake from the nightmare. 
 
 When I woke to find everything in the same exact state I decided I needed to track time somehow. I found my journal and I stared at the page for a long time, trying to figure out what to write. But nothing came. Instead I just wrote a little tick. One tick for one sleep. 
 
 I'm at a thousand ticks now. A thousand sleeps. Those ticks are n't the one that frighten me though, it's the other ticks. There are over a thousand of those. Many more. It's happening more and more frequently. 
 
 Day zero had been a day of panic. In my kitchen, my coffee pot was frozen at 7:08am. Everything seemed to be stuck where it was. When I flipped the switch the lights would n't turn off if they were on or on if they were off. That did n't matter much because it was always sunny. My cellphone would n't turn on and my car would n't start. I could move items but everything seemed to function in the same state they had been in. The apartment maintenance crew were frozen in the office. Mike was sitting at his desk with his cup of coffee up to his lips. It was still hot. I screamed at him for a time. Frustrated, I knocked the coffee to the ground but he did n't move. His hand was still in front of his face, as if the cup was there. I touched his cheek, it felt normal. I pushed him. He toppled off the chair to ground and stayed there. His body remained in the seated position, his hand still in front of his face. I raced back to my apartment and stayed there until I saw it. Until sleep one. After sleep one I found Mike in that same position on the ground, the spilled coffee next him still hot. That was when I decided to leave. 
 
 I'm fortunate that it happened in the daylight on a relatively warm day. I've been walking now for 1000 sleeps. The food situation is the hardest. My camp stove works but I ca n't carry too much fuel because of the weight and stores that sell the canisters are n't on the maps. I could just walk between towns and eat the food there, but I hate seeing all of them in the cars on the road with the engines still running. I prefer to stick to the trail. The lack of noise and the frozen wildlife is still eerie but it feels closer to normal there. 
 
 I'm headed to Florida, to find my family. It's a horrible idea, because I do n't want to see them like this. I've given up hope that I will walk out of it. I do n't even know if I'll make it though. The time between sleeps keeps getting shorter and I keep seeing it more often. At least 1743 times so far - I just counted the ticks. I started recording it when I decided it was n't just sleep deprivation. I ca n't look directly at it. Every time I see it I have to stop walking. It's like it takes all my energy away. Now I only make it a couple of miles between sleeps. 
 
 I have a lot of time to think and I frequently fixate on my childhood fantasy. It gives me a new kind of hope. I asked myself what the chances are that I would have this long term fantasy about time freezing and then, when it inexplicably does occur, I happen to be the only one who is free of it. It seems highly improbable. More likely, I tell myself, this is all in my head. A manifestation of my childhood fantasy. Maybe it is just a very elaborate dream. Or maybe I am in a coma. I kind of hope that's the case, because the third option is that I've completely lost my mind. 
 
 I just saw it. While I was writing this I just saw it again. It was closer this time. I still try to look at it. I ca n't help it, if I do n't it seems to approach and I do n't want it near me. I do n't know what it is but I do know that I DO NOT want it near me. I keep trying to let it get into my field of vision without directly looking at it. I want to know what I'm dealing with. But somehow it seems to stay right on the edge, where I can kind of see a dark movement but ca n't figure out what it is. Yet it still gets closer, creeping in, right at the edge of where I could see it. So I panic and look and then it's gone. 
 
 That third option really does scare me - that this is all in my head because I went crazy. If that's the case then at the very least I hope I'm catatonic. I envision myself as a raving lunatic in a psychiatric hospital, my family at a loss for what happened to me. The thought makes me shudder. Still, I hope one of those options is real, I really do. Because the alternative is that this really happened, that I'm really stuck here. And I'm not alone.
