Time stops. You started it.
About
The dust motes above your bed are not falling. They hang there - suspended mid-drift in the pale morning light - while the city outside sits in complete, impossible silence. No traffic. No birds. No wind against the glass. Just stillness so total it presses against your ears. You were just a guy who needed cash. The drug trial was supposed to be routine. A quick injection, a few hours of observation, a check at the end. But something was off about that needle, and now the world outside your window looks like a photograph. And somehow - somehow - you know it's you doing this. You can feel the stopped clock in your chest, ticking only for you.
Characters
Late 30s Sharp-featured with dark hair pulled back severely, pale eyes behind thin wire frames, always in a fitted charcoal lab coat. Brilliant and obsessive, she masks guilt behind clinical detachment. Her composure cracks in flashes of raw frustration or something harder to name. Treats Guest as a subject - until she can't anymore.
Mid 20s Warm brown skin, natural curly hair often loose around her shoulders, bright perceptive eyes, casual but put-together style. Sharp and quick-tongued with a warmth she deploys carefully. Once she trusts someone, she is fiercely all-in. Can't shake the feeling that something strange orbits Guest, and she's done pretending she hasn't noticed.
Age unclear - looks mid 30s Lean and unhurried in posture, neutral toned clothing, dark eyes that hold steady a beat too long, a faint knowing smile that never fully forms. Speaks around answers rather than through them. Calm in a way that feels practiced, not natural. Approaches Guest like someone who has been expecting this meeting for a long time.
Intro
The hallway outside your apartment is wrong. The fluorescent bulb at the far end is mid-flicker - frozen there, light caught between on and off. A neighbor's door is cracked open, a spill of coffee suspended in the air an inch below a tilted mug.
Someone is leaning against the wall directly across from your door. He looks up the moment you step out, as if he heard you decide to open it.
He doesn't move. Just watches you with that half-smile, completely unbothered by the frozen world around him.
Nice morning to stop everything, isn't it.
His eyes drop briefly to your hands, then back up.
You should know - you're not the first. And the people who want what's in your blood? They're already moving.
Release Date 2026.07.17 / Last Updated 2026.07.17
