Chapter Text
Imagine what it’s like to live your life both on overdrive and in slow motion at the same time.
For the first 19 years of my life, that was mine.
This is my story.
Many years ago. 9pm. Sunday.
It was late - and Virgil had spent the past twenty minutes with his head against the window, watching the train tracks whizz past through the hazy darkness. Sleep never could come to him on public transport. The constant moving and jostling would never allow him such a luxury. It didn’t help that it’d been over 8 hours since the audition, and he still hadn’t heard anything about it. He just wanted to be back in his warm bed and soft pillows - not the scratchy, horrible hotel sheets he’d been sleeping on for the last day and a half.
See, it was times like this when he wished he worked differently.
Virgil sighed softly, watching his breath fog up the window and dissipating almost as quickly as it hit the glass. The only comforting thing was the sprawling cityscape beneath him. Dozens of golden streetlights lined the roads - a mass of multicoloured neon signs provided some semblance of repose.
It was harder to see in the dark, but as he followed the lights with his eyes, he caught a glimpse of the park he would frequent with his parents as a kid. The surrounding street lamps lit up what was left of it, at least. It was one of the unfortunate casualties - before the government began issuing blockers to individuals with a more dangerous or powerful variety of ability.
It’d been twelve years. Couldn’t they have at least tried to fix it back up?
His gaze turned to the tracks ahead - they curved to the left, so he could see them almost perfectly. His brows furrowed as he noticed something move onto the tracks ahead - an animal perhaps? No. An animal would’ve heard or seen the train by now- this was...
His mouth went dry as he pressed his cheek closer to the window, trying to discern what he was seeing. The train edged closer, and the small speck turned into a figure - a person, stood in fixed anticipation. A hundred possibilities rushed through his mind: what could he do? Could he stop the train? He chewed on his lip anxiously, watching as the train grew steadily closer to the figure on the tracks.
Without even thinking, he jumped into action. Standing from his position abruptly enough to turn a few gazes towards him - he called out “H-Hey- stop the train! There’s someone…”
Upon the realisation that people either couldn’t hear or just weren’t listening, he sped over to the door, moving frantically for the emergency stop button - pressing it several times before realising. No, there’s not enough time . Unless…
He turned his gaze to his wrist - pulling up his hoodie to expose his own blocker. It was metal, almost like a handcuff, and garishly bulky. Just pulling it off wouldn’t be enough. But the train was edging closer to that person on the tracks. He chewed at his bottom lip - his fight or flight reflexes were really kicking in. There was no more time, he had to -
With all the strength he could garner, he wedged his fingers into a small gap between his wrist and the blocker, and started to pull, wincing as the cold metal on one side dug deeper into his skin while he tried to pry it off. One final tug caused it to fly off of his wrist - but before it could even hit the floor, Virgil snapped his fingers, the metal bracer was stuck, hovering barely a few inches above the ground. It was like he’d taken a TV remote and just pressed pause.
Some would say Virgil was lucky. An ability like that? People would tell him - Kid, you’re going places. Mostly, he would just say it was more trouble than it was worth. When people heard ‘time powers’ they immediately thought ‘wow! So you could stop time forever if you wanted!’ which wasn’t… entirely true . Even without the ugly metal blocker, there was a definitive limit to his powers. He was fairly certain that stopping time forever went beyond that threshold.
Despite this - Virgil would often find solace in moments like this. This one, however? This was… Certainly not one of them.
Without thinking, he grabbed an umbrella from a nearby chair, gathered all the strength he could possibly muster, and smashed right through the door of the train, into the cool night air.
Virgil took a deep breath, dropping the now broken umbrella on the ground and jogging over to the front of the train - and sure enough, there he was. A boy, around his age by the looks of it, stood firmly, stubbornly, expectantly rooted in the middle of the tracks.
Virgil had read so many books where this scene might be described as beautiful or picturesque or serene, but the guttural feeling of horror he felt made the feeling in his stomach less ‘butterflies’ and more... nausea . He wondered how anyone could think that's what this kind of thing looked like.
He was frozen. Almost as still as the frozen time around him - and he was stuck staring at the man in front of him. Tall, nice clothes, short curly hair, hands deep in his pockets - his jaw was clenched and he was poised expectantly. Waiting. Looking head on at the train as if trying to stare it down.
He could feel the seconds begin to slip past his fingers.
And the moment he began to wonder ‘ why? ’, time came rushing back. There was a split second, where the boy on the tracks turned his gaze towards him, and if Virgil didn’t know any better, he would’ve said that a hint of recognition had flashed across his eyes. Virgil stood momentarily in shock, and before the train could even finish passing, he was gone. Suddenly, he was in bed with his laptop playing the tail end of a Disney movie - just as he had been exactly 24 hours ago.
Instead, however, he paused the movie and fell back onto his pillow, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. His whole body felt like it was practically on fire. The sheer amount of energy ripped from his very core left him shaky and breathless.
He was unsure… what the purpose of turning back time even was. It felt impossible. Hell, it was impossible. What made him think he could go out and find a stranger, with no leads, in less than 24 hours?
Virgil chewed nervously on his bottom lip. His eyes flit over to the clock - 9pm. Right. A nagging feeling in his chest told him to give up. Just ignore it. Leave him be. What business does he have saving a life?
But he knew he could never be the person to let someone else die, when he may have had a chance.
He lifted his hands to his face, rubbing at his eyes, as if willing himself to think of something, anything he could do. So many ideas running through his head - so much that he could barely keep track of them all. It was like his mind was in overdrive.
He couldn’t get the image out of his head. He just looked so… sure of himself. Like he was ready. Like he knew what would happen - and Virgil thought about the look in his eyes for a while. It was like he recognised him.
And then it clicked.
“...Holy shit.” he muttered under his breath. He’d seen those same blue eyes before - they’d met ever so briefly just earlier that day. They’d both been auditioning for a low-budget production at the local theatre. He was-
“...Roman.”