Lightning_speed -

Kaelen leaned his head back and closed his eyes. To the world, the disaster had lasted twelve seconds. To him, he had lived an entire afternoon in the blink of an eye. He stayed still, waiting for the rest of the world to finally catch up.

The government called it Accelerated Perception. Kaelen called it lightning speed. lightning_speed

His lungs burned. Every breath felt like inhaling fire because his body was processing oxygen faster than the air could settle. His vision began to blur at the edges, a sign that his "speed-well" was running dry. Kaelen leaned his head back and closed his eyes

To Kaelen, the world didn’t just move slowly; it was practically frozen. When he "tapped in," the air turned to a thick, viscous syrup. Raindrops hung in the sky like jagged diamonds, motionless and sharp. A conversation became a low, agonizing groan of vowels stretched over several minutes. He lived his life in the spaces between seconds. He stayed still, waiting for the rest of

With one final, agonizing burst, he secured the line. He dived behind a fountain just as his perception snapped back to real-time.