1 x ∞

Your eyes are still wet when the rift closes behind you. You left them there. Safe. Alive. That's what matters.

You wipe your face and look around.

Tall buildings. Glass and concrete stretching into grey sky. Roads lined with cars, sleeker than the ones you remember from other dimensions. People everywhere, moving fast, heads down, staring at glowing rectangles in their hands.

Your clothes stand out. People glance as they pass. A woman pulls her child closer.

You start walking, trying to figure out where the next rift will open. The Endless is already stirring inside you, restless. It never lets you stay still for long.

Then everything stops.

People freeze mid-step. Cars hang motionless. A bird is suspended in the air, wings spread. Even the sound cuts out. Silence pressing against your ears.

You've seen a lot of strange things. This is new.

Someone's walking through the frozen crowd. Brown fur, white belly visible where his sweater has ridden up over a soft middle. Long snout, pointed ears that swivel as he walks. Tail swaying behind him. Brown coat hanging open, pockets bulging.

He stops next to a frozen businessman, tilts his head, reaches into the man's jacket pocket.

"Oh, hello there." He pulls out a wallet, counts the bills. "Thirty quid. Not bad!" He pockets it and pats the man's shoulder. "Cheers, mate."

He moves to a woman with a handbag. His clawed fingers work the clasp open.

"Let's see... phone, too new, can't sell it. AH!" He pulls out a small silver compact mirror, examines it. "Perfect condition. Fifteen for this easy."

Your boot scuffs the pavement.

His ear twitches.

He turns slowly. His eyes land on you.

His mouth falls open. The compact mirror slips from his fingers and hits the ground.

"No." Then louder. "No, no no..." He walks toward you, weaving between frozen people. "You're not... you can't be..."

He stops three feet away.

"BLINK!"

You blink.

"MOVE YOUR HAND!"

You lift your hand.

His breathing gets faster. "SAY SOMETHING. ANYTHING!"

Nothing comes out. Your throat is still tight.

He makes a sound between a laugh and a sob. "YOU'RE AWAKE! YOU'RE ACTUALLY BLOODY AWAKE!"

He lunges forward and grabs your arms. His hands are shaking. "HOW LONG HAVE I GOT? HOW LONG BEFORE YOU FREEZE UP? THIRTY SECONDS? A MINUTE?"

You pull back.

His grip loosens immediately. "Sorry! Sorry, I'm..." He runs a hand over his face. "Do you know how long it's been since someone's looked at me and actually seen me?"

He's still holding your arms. Gently. His fingers trembling.

"Please. Tell me you're real."

The world lurches.

Sound crashes back. The bird falls and catches itself. People start moving. A car honks.

And inside you, the Endless goes quiet.

You freeze.

It's never been quiet before. Not once.

The man's eyes go wide. "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" He looks around at the moving crowd, then back at you. "I DIDN'T LET GO! I'M NOT HOLDING IT ANYMORE BUT I DIDN'T LET GO!"

His tail has wrapped around your leg without you noticing. You can feel it trembling.

"It stopped," he whispers. Then louder, "IT JUST STOPPED." He stares at you. "WHAT ARE YOU?!"

You shake your head.

He's breathing hard, eyes searching your face. "This has never happened before. NEVER." He stops himself, jaw clenching. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

You shake your head again.

People are staring. A man in a suit gives you both a wide berth.

"You really don't know, do you?"

You nod.

He stares for a long moment.

Then he starts laughing.

Loud and bright and completely inappropriate for a busy street corner. He pulls you into a hug, his round belly pressing against you, his tail squeezing your leg.

"OH, THIS IS BRILLIANT! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY MAD!" He pulls back, grinning so wide his fangs show. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUT YOU JUST DID SOMETHING IMPOSSIBLE!"

"WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!"

You tell him, barely audible under his enthusiasm.

"I'M YORI!" He grabs your hand, claws careful against your skin. "AND WE NEED TO GO SOMEWHERE PRIVATE BECAUSE WHATEVER JUST HAPPENED, WE NEED TO FIGURE IT OUT!"

He tugs you toward a side street.

"DO YOU EAT?! YOU MUST EAT!" He's pulling you down an alley. "I KNOW A PLACE! FISH AND CHIPS! ARE WE IN LONDON?!"

You manage a small nod.

"BRILLIANT!" He stops suddenly and you nearly crash into him. "DO YOU HAVE MONEY?!"

You pat your pockets. Empty.

"RIGHT! WELL!" He pats his bulging coat. "I'VE GOT THIRTY QUID NOW! WE'RE PRACTICALLY RICH!"

The Endless stays quiet inside you. Still. Peaceful.

Yori is still holding your hand, his tail around your leg, grinning with an energy that seems inexhaustible.

"COME ON THEN! LET'S GET SOME FOOD AND FIGURE OUT WHY YOU'RE THE FIRST PERSON IN DECADES WHO HASN'T BEEN FROZEN WHEN I..." He stops himself. "WELL! LOTS TO TALK ABOUT!"

He keeps moving, pulling you through narrow streets. His grip on your hand never loosens.

You follow.

For the first time in longer than you can remember, you're not being dragged away.

---

You've lost track of how many days it's been.

Yori hasn't let go of you for more than a few seconds since that first day.

His hand is wrapped around your wrist as he drags you down a street lined with shops.

"I reckon you haven't had a proper day out in ages! So today, we're doing it right!"

He stops in front of a shop with glass windows displaying mannequins in expensive clothes.

"Proper fancy, this is! Watch this!"

The world goes silent.

Everyone freezes. Yori's grip tightens slightly, making sure you're still awake.

"Come on then!" He pulls you to the entrance, shoulders the locked door until something clicks. "Still got it!"

Inside, racks organized by color. A frozen employee mid-typing.

Yori releases your wrist and takes your hand instead. "Anything you want! Sky's the limit when nobody's watching!"

He's already pulling you toward a display of hats, snatching a bright yellow bucket hat and jamming it on his head, barely fitting over his ears.

He strikes a pose. "Very fashionable, I reckon!"

You shake your head.

His ears droop. He tosses it aside, grabs a fedora, tilts it low over his eyes, and leans against a rack. "Mysterious, yeah?"

You shake your head, but you're smiling.

"Harsh critic!" He tries on a baseball cap, a beret too small for his head, something with feathers that belongs at a wedding.

He catches himself in the mirror wearing the feathered monstrosity and starts laughing so hard he has to lean against a display. "Oh that's terrible! Look at me!"

You laugh.

Yori's head snaps toward you. His tail freezes mid-wag. He stares at you.

"You just laughed! I made you laugh!" He sounds genuinely delighted. "New goal! Make you laugh at least ten times today!"

He eventually settles on a plain cream sweater that fits, his brown coat layered over it. Then he turns to you.

"Your turn! Can't have you looking like you don't belong here! We're blending in!"

You pick out a few things.

Yori examines each choice, snout scrunched. "Hmm. Yes, that works! But try this one instead. The color brings out your..." He gestures vaguely at your face. "...your whole face situation! In a good way! That came out wrong!"

When you're both dressed, Yori pauses at the door. He runs back to the register, grabs a handful of bills, counts them, puts half back.

"Fair trade, yeah?" He takes your hand. "Ready?"

The world lurches back into motion.

---

Two days later, Yori takes you to a park on the edge of the city.

Early evening. The sun turning everything orange and gold.

Yori hasn't stopped time. He's walking beside you, hand holding yours, tail swaying gently.

"This is nice, yeah? Peaceful. Don't get much peaceful."

He stops suddenly at a flower bed. Roses, white mixed with red.

"Wait here!"

He jogs over, looks around, plucks a white rose.

He jogs back, grinning, and holds it out. "For you!"

You take it carefully. The stem is slightly damp.

It should be dying. Already. The petals should be browning, curling inward. The stem should be blackening. You've held flowers before and they never lasted more than a few seconds before crumbling to ash.

This one is still white.

You turn it slowly.

"Oi. You alright? You're staring at it."

You look up.

"Do you not like roses? I can get a different..." His ears flatten slightly. "It's just a flower! A nice flower! For a nice person!"

You shake your head quickly. You do like it.

"Then why're you looking at it like that?"

You don't know how to explain. You hold the rose closer.

Yori shrugs. "Well, as long as you like it!" He takes your free hand. "There's a pond over there! With ducks!"

You follow, still holding the rose.

Behind you, the grass where you both stood is still green.

---

The restaurant Yori picks is small, tucked away. Checkered tablecloths and a chalkboard menu.

He walks in, hand in yours, and sits at a table by the window.

When the food arrives, he pushes plates toward you. "Try this! It's got cheese! Everything's better with cheese!"

He talks between bites, telling you about the time he nearly burned down a building because he forgot to turn off a stove before unfreezing time.

"Smoke everywhere! Alarms going off! Had to leg it!"

Your boot rests against the table leg. The wood isn't splintering. Isn't rotting.

When the bill comes, Yori's ears flatten. "Right! Bathroom!"

He grabs your hand.

The world goes silent.

"OUT THE BACK!" He pulls you through the frozen restaurant, past the kitchen, into an alley.

Time starts again a block away.

He's laughing, bent over. "Did you see the... oh that was perfect!"

You're smiling despite yourself.

He straightens and takes your hand. "Come on! I know a place we can stay tonight!"

---

That night, in a motel room with two lumpy beds and a TV that doesn't work, Yori lies on his bed and talks.

The first time he stopped time. How he thought he'd broken the entire world.

"I was stuck for three days! Couldn't figure out how to start it again!"

The people he's met over the years. The ones who aged while he didn't. The ones he had to leave behind.

His voice gets quieter when he talks about those.

"It's different with you though. You get it. The whole not belonging anywhere thing."

He rolls onto his side. "I'm glad I found you."

You don't say anything.

"Do you think it'll last? This... whatever's happening with us?"

You shrug.

"Yeah. Me neither. But it's working now. So that's something."

His tail flicks against the bedspread.

"We'll figure it out. Together."

He keeps talking, voice gradually softening, until it fades into breathing.

You lie in the other bed. The rose sits on the nightstand.

Still alive.

You reach out and touch one of the petals.

It doesn't crumble.

The Endless is quiet. That's normal now, when Yori is close.

But the Void. The Void should still be there. Should still be consuming everything you touch.

It's not.

You look at the rose. The wooden nightstand beneath it. The carpet under your feet.

All of it whole.

You close your eyes and listen to Yori's breathing.

---

It's cold tonight. The kind of cold that makes your breath visible.

Yori has been quiet most of the day. Thoughtful. Holding your hand tighter than usual.

He's leading you up a fire escape on the side of a tall building. He stops time twice on the way up, once to get past a locked door, once to move past a security camera.

"ALMOST THERE!"

The roof is flat concrete, some ventilation units, a low wall around the edge. The city spreads out below.

Yori stops time again, disappears into the stairwell, and emerges dragging a park bench across the concrete, tongue sticking out with the effort.

"Little... help... maybe?!"

You grab the other end. You move it near the edge with a clear view of the sky.

Yori lets time start. He sits down heavily, pats the empty space beside him.

You sit.

He's staring out at the city, ears swiveling toward distant sounds.

"Do you know what day it is?"

You shake your head.

"New Year's Eve!" He pulls out a smartphone from his coat. "23:47. Thirteen minutes!"

He sets the phone between you.

23:48.

His leg is bouncing.

"I missed my mum's funeral," he says suddenly.

You look at him.

He's still staring out at the city. "One day I was there, holding her hand, and she was sick but she was still there. And I blinked and suddenly I was standing in an empty flat. Eviction notice on the door. Dated three years later."

His tail has gone still.

"I went to the church. The vicar had to look it up in the records."

His voice catches. He stops. Clears his throat.

"She'd been in the ground for two years."

23:50.

Below, the crowds are getting louder. Someone sets off a firework. It pops in the distance. Yori flinches.

"There was this bloke I knew. Eddie. Worked at a pub. Best friend, maybe. Only friend."

You watch his face.

"We'd talk for hours. About football. About stupid things." His ears droop. "I slipped. When I came back, the pub had new owners. They said he'd died. Heart attack. Five years ago."

His claws dig into the wood.

"I never got to say goodbye. Never got to tell him those talks meant something."

23:52.

His hand is shaking on the bench.

"It's always the same. I'll meet someone. Think maybe this time I'll get to stay. And then time takes me. Pulls me forward. And when I come back they're older. Or gone."

He covers his face with one hand.

23:53.

"There was this kid I used to see around. Toddler. He'd wave at me from his pram. Big smile."

His voice is flat.

"I'd wave back. I slipped. Came back. He was fourteen. Didn't recognize me. I missed him growing up."

23:54.

"And he didn't even know I existed."

His hand moves across the bench. Stays near yours. Close.

"That's the worst part. Knowing that to everyone else, I barely existed at all. Nobody to miss."

His shoulders are trembling.

"I stopped trying after a while. Stopped learning names. What's the point when you know how it ends?"

23:56.

"I missed the millennium. Missed every Christmas. I'd see decorations going up and think, maybe this year. And then I'd slip and suddenly it's February and everyone's moved on."

A gust of wind hits the rooftop. His ears flatten.

"I've been alone for decades. Watching everyone else live. And I'm just stuck. Never really part of it."

23:58.

The countdown is audible now. People shouting numbers.

Yori's hand covers yours. His claws curl around your palm carefully.

"But then I found you. And you didn't freeze. You didn't disappear. You stayed."

He squeezes your hand.

"For the first time in decades, someone stayed."

23:59.

"TEN!"

"I don't know why this works. Why we work."

"NINE!"

"But you're here."

"EIGHT!"

"And I'm not slipping."

"SEVEN!"

His tail wraps around your leg.

"SIX!"

"I've missed so much. So many things I can't get back."

"FIVE!"

"But I don't want to miss this."

"FOUR!"

"I don't want to miss you."

"THREE!"

He takes a shaky breath.

"TWO!"

"So for my New Year's resolution..." He's crying, not hiding it. "I want to spend another year with you."

"ONE!"

"I'm tired of being alone."

The first firework shoots up.

"Please stay."

The sky explodes with color. Red and gold and blue and green. The sound follows a second later, deep booms you feel in your chest.

Yori is still holding your hand.