THE SECONDS BETWEEN US

Chapter 1 The Moment Time Stood Still

The ceiling fan in the office spun lazily, its rhythmic drone a constant, grating irritation. Isha stared at a computer screen filled with meaningless rows of numbers, but her attention was fixed on the woman standing fifteen feet away. Sunita was slamming a folder onto Ji-hoon’s desk. Her face was flushed, the veins in her neck bulging, and her voice shattered the quiet of the late afternoon.

"This is garbage, Ji-hoon! I asked for next month’s project data, not some half-baked weather forecast!" Sunita screamed. She hurled the documents onto the floor. Ji-hoon simply lowered his head, not daring to offer a word of protest, while their colleagues pretended to be deeply absorbed in their own screens.

Isha let out a long, weary sigh. She was well-acquainted with Sunita’s temper. The woman was ambition personified, a perfectionist who demanded nothing less than excellence. Isha was a perfectionist too, but in a different way. She was an expert at making herself invisible. She always ensured she was the least noticeable person in the room, a face in the back row, a shadow in the crowd. It was the only way she knew how to survive.

Sunita grabbed her bag, roughly swept her black hair back over her shoulder, and marched out of the room with heavy, forceful strides. She didn't spare a glance for anyone, Isha included. Isha waited exactly ten seconds before standing up to follow her. It was time to head home.

The air in the underground parking garage felt damp and chilly. Dim neon lights flickered overhead. Isha maintained a distance of thirty feet behind Sunita. From somewhere in the distance, she heard the roar of an engine. It was the sound of a black sedan accelerating far too quickly for a confined parking area.

Isha paused. She felt a sudden, sharp intuition that something was wrong. There was a strange vibration in the air. For most people, time moved in a straight, predictable line, but Isha could feel its pulse. And right now, that pulse was slowing down in an unnatural way.

The black sedan swung around a concrete pillar, the driver clearly having lost control. The tires screeched violently against the concrete floor, filling the air with the acrid stench of burning rubber. Sunita continued walking at a relaxed pace, her bag slung over her shoulder, completely unaware of the death trap hurtling toward her. The car didn't slow down at all.

"Sunita!" Isha shouted, but her voice was instantly swallowed by the roar of the engine.

In that split second, Isha made a choice. She closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. She reached out and manipulated the very fabric of space and time around her. Instantly, the world stopped.

The screech of the tires vanished. Dust motes floating in the air froze in place, suspended like tiny diamonds under the neon lights. The black sedan was caught mid-drift, a mere six feet from Sunita’s back, the angle of the front wheels was terrifyingly clear in the sudden, oppressive silence. Sunita herself was frozen mid-stride, her right foot hovering in the air, her eyes fixed forward with a look of bored indifference etched onto her face.

The world had become a still life painting. Isha was the only living entity left to move within it. Her heart hammered against her ribs, pumping adrenaline that felt like it might burst through her chest. She sprinted through the frozen landscape, her shoes clicking soundlessly on a floor that no longer offered friction.

She reached Sunita’s side. The woman looked remarkably beautiful in this eternal silence. The scent of her perfume, a mix of jasmine and something sharper, drifted into Isha’s senses. Isha studied her face. Her skin was smooth, her pores motionless, and her breath was trapped in lungs that had ceased to pump.

Isha grabbed Sunita’s arm. Her skin felt warm, a small anomaly in a world that had turned cold and frozen. With every ounce of strength she possessed, Isha yanked Sunita out of the sedan’s path. She needed to get her to safety and return to her original position before time resumed. However, as she pulled, Sunita’s body tilted slightly, and her blank gaze suddenly shifted.

Sunita’s eyes, which should have been incapable of seeing anything, moved. Her pupils dilated, locking onto Isha’s face. Isha gasped. She shouldn't be visible. She was supposed to be a ghost, a part of the background that no one could perceive in this state.

"You ...." Sunita whispered, her voice sounding like the scrape of metal against metal in the vacuum of frozen time.

Isha froze. Her heart felt as though it had stopped beating. Sunita saw her. Not only was she seeing her, but the woman was conscious in a pocket of time that should have been Isha’s alone. Isha released her grip on Sunita’s arm, leaped backward as far as she could, and allowed her energy to stabilize.

The world buckled and snapped back into motion.

The screech of tires exploded back into the air, deafening and raw. The black sedan slammed into the concrete pillar exactly where Sunita had been standing a second ago, triggering an explosion of sparks and pulverized concrete. Thick smoke instantly filled the garage.

Sunita was thrown to the floor, coughing violently as the dust swirled around her. The car was a total wreck, crumpled against the pillar. Isha stood behind a different pillar, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably. She had made a catastrophic mistake. She had used her power in front of a target who was now a living witness to her abilities.

Sunita struggled to her feet, her knees scraped and her uniform coated in grime. She didn't look at the mangled car. She didn't look at the driver slumped over the steering wheel of the smoking sedan. Her gaze was fixed on a single point. She was looking directly at where Isha was hiding.

"Isha?" her voice trembled, yet it was filled with a terrifying certainty. "I know it was you. I saw you."

Isha remained silent, shielding her face in the shadows of the pillar. She could sense something else approaching. Something far darker and more dangerous was watching them from the lightless corners of the garage. Her energy sensors picked up a low-frequency wave that didn't come from any human technology. The Organization. They already knew.

Sunita stood up with great effort. Ignoring the pain in her body, she stepped toward the pillar where Isha was concealed. "Don't you dare run, Isha. I saw you moving while the world stood still. Explain to me exactly what just happened, or I will scream for help right now."

Isha closed her eyes, cursing her impulsive decision. She couldn't let Sunita say another word. However, before Isha could move to silence her or lead her away, a cold, clinical voice that belonged to neither of them echoed from the garage entrance.

"Anomalous energy detected. Target located. Proceed with execution."

Isha spun around. Three men dressed in black with tactical masks were already standing there, wielding weapons that pulsed with an unstable, electric blue light. They weren't police. They were hunters, and they wouldn't leave any witnesses alive, especially not someone with Isha’s gifts.

Sunita stared at the weapons in horror, then looked back at Isha, whose eyes were now glowing with a faint, silver light.

"Isha, what on earth is that?" Sunita asked, her voice cracking with fear.

Isha stepped forward, positioning herself in front of Sunita. She had no other choice. Her secret was out, and now she had to decide whether to let Sunita die at the hands of the hunters or drag her into a vortex of chaos that would destroy both of their lives forever.

"Stay behind me," Isha whispered in a low, cold voice that Sunita had never heard before.

One of the men in black raised his weapon and pulled the trigger. A bolt of blue light shot toward them at a speed impossible for any human to dodge. Isha didn't flinch.

He thrust his hand forward, and the world around them ground to a near-halt. The blue light froze just inches from his face, hissing like an angry viper.

"Who are you?" Isha asked the men, his voice echoing through the nearly motionless space.

Sunita stared at Isha’s back, realizing that the man she had always dismissed as a useless subordinate was actually something far more terrifying. The world she knew had ended in that very instant. As Isha stepped forward to tear through the air with his power, a bullet from another direction tore through the darkness, aimed straight for Sunita’s heart.