Is time fair?
It's a question that keeps following me around, no matter how far I try to walk away from it.
Lately, it's been hitting me harder because of everything going on in my life.
My girlfriend, Narya, she's still mad at me over that stupid argument we had last week about me not showing up for our date.
I thought she'd get over it, but nope, she's giving me the cold shoulder. Then there's my family, my mom and dad back home, they're disappointed because I haven't called in months, always saying I'm too busy with work.
And my friends, like Jake and Sasha, we've drifted apart since college, I keep telling myself I'll reach out soon, but days turn into weeks.
Tonight, I walk alone under a cold midnight sky.
"My breath, I can see it," I murmur, watching the pale fog spill out from my lips like some kind of ghost.
Every store is closed up tight. Every house has gone dark for the night. The world feels like it's paused, yet I know deep down it isn't.
With each step I take, my heart beats again and again, like it's racing to catch up with something that never slows down for anyone.
Time.
It keeps moving forward. It never hesitates or looks back. And because it never stops, something unfortunate is always happening somewhere in the world.
Right now, while I'm out here walking,
someone has probably lost their parents in a sudden accident.
While I'm lost in my thoughts, somewhere a crime is being committed, maybe a robbery or worse. While I'm breathing in this cold air, someone else is taking their very last breath, alone in a hospital bed.
If time could just slow down, even a little bit, wouldn't things turn out different for everyone?
The man caught in a car accident might have had one more second to swerve out of the way. The girl cornered in a dark street might have found a chance to scream louder or escape through an alley.
The doctors in an emergency room might have had enough time to save a newborn baby's life before it was too late.
"Time is unfair," I whisper into the empty street. "I'm sure of it now."
No one answers back.
So I keep on walking, my shoes scraping against the pavement.
The fog thickens with every step I take, swallowing up the road behind me like it's erasing where I've been.
This same street that bursts with noise and people every morning now feels like it belongs to another world entirely.
Tomorrow it will be alive again, full of cars and chatter, pretending like nothing ever happened in the night.
That's another cruelty of time, isn't it.
Suffering arrives without any warning at all, Yet normal days repeat themselves so predictably that it almost feels like a mockery of our pain.
"It's biased," I say to myself, shaking my head.
Now the fog is everywhere, wrapping around me like a blanket.
But I don't stop walking.
Hands shoved deep in my pockets. Scarf wrapped tight around my neck to keep the chill out. Step after step, I push forward, even though I can barely see what's ahead through the mist.
And then,
I reach a dead end.
The road, it simply ends right there.
A massive wall stood in front of me, blocking everything.
It hadn't been there yesterday. I was certain of that fact.
Cold concrete stretched upward until it vanished into the fog, as if the night itself had decided to grow a spine and block my way completely. A single notice was nailed onto it, right at eye level.
[ONLY THOSE WHO KNOW TIME CAN BYPASS THIS WALL]
"Who did this?" I asked out loud, my voice bouncing back a bit.
I stared at it, half expecting someone to jump out from the shadows and yell that it was all a prank.
The wall looked old, not like it was newly built or rushed.
It felt permanent, like it had always existed and I had only just been allowed to see it for some reason.
How could something this huge appear overnight without anyone noticing?
"Well, who cares anyway. I'll just take a different route home."
I turned around, shrugging it off.
Another road stretched out.
I walked for a minute or so.
Then I stopped short.
The wall was there too, same as before.
Same height. Same endless stretch. Same suffocating presence. Same notice nailed up.
[ONLY THOSE WHO KNOW TIME CAN BYPASS IT]
"Huh?" I muttered, confused.
A strange chill ran down my back, making me shiver.
"Screw it," I said, trying to sound brave.
I turned again and chose another path, walking faster this time as if speed alone could prove this was all normal and not some weird hallucination.
Left turn. Straight road ahead. Ten steps forward.
The wall followed me somehow.
[ONLY THOSE WHO KNOW TIME CAN BYPASS IT]
I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself.
"Hah," the sound came out uneven and shaky.
"I'm getting tired now," I admitted to the empty air.
This wasn't possible at all. Roads don't rearrange themselves overnight. Walls don't chase people like this. Reality doesn't behave like a badly written dream from a movie.
Should I just go home and forget this?
I'd already finished my daily steps anyway, my phone said so.
Yeah. That sounded reasonable. Sensible. Human even.
So I turned back around.
Toward my home, where Narya might be waiting, or maybe not.
Hoping, for the first time that night, that time would behave normally again and let me rest. I decided to go home after all.
There were other paths I could see vaguely.
I could make them out through the fog.
Narrow alleys that twisted. Broken streets with cracks. Roads that looked wrong somehow. Dangerous maybe. As if they were warning me not to step there, like a bad omen.
I ignored them all.
I just wanted to go back to my place.
But when I reached my house, the wall was there too.
Right in front of my door, blocking it.
[ONLY THOSE WHO KNOW TIME CAN BYPASS IT]
My hand froze before touching the handle that no longer existed behind the wall.
So even home wasn't allowed anymore.
For a long moment, I just stood there, staring.
Then I turned away.
Back toward the dangerous road I had ignored.
"Fine," I muttered under my breath. "Let's see what you want from me."
I stepped forward into it.
The fog thickened instantly, swallowing everything behind me like a hungry beast.
Each step felt heavier than the last, like I was walking through something unseen and thick. The air itself resisted me, pushing back.
But I kept going anyway.
And then
The world changed around me.
I was standing in a city I had never seen before in my life.
Everything was slow.
So unnaturally slow, like a video in slow motion.
A man ran past me, carrying his elderly mother in his arms, shouting for help desperately. His movements dragged on, like time itself was pulling him back and holding him.
Each second stretched out painfully long, making it hard to watch.
He tried to reach a hospital across the street, his face twisted in effort.
He almost made it there.
But "almost" lasted way too long in this place.
She died in his arms before he could reach the door, her body going limp.
Not because help was far away.
Because time refused to move fast enough.
I felt my chest tighten up, like I couldn't breathe.
Further ahead, a woman ran from two men chasing her down.
She screamed for help, her voice echoing slow. A police station stood just ahead, lights on.
She ran.
And ran.
And kept running.
But in this slowed world, distance became impossible to cross quickly.
They caught her before she ever arrived at safety.
I couldn't move from my spot. Couldn't speak a word.
I could only watch it all unfold.
Then suddenly,
Time stopped. Completely frozen.
People didn't panic at all.
They didn't even notice the change.
A group of students sat in a classroom, laughing together. No one cared about deadlines anymore. Why would they? There was no "later" to worry about.
Criminals walked openly through the streets, bold. Without day or night cycling, there was no schedule, no fear of being caught at the "wrong time" anymore.
An injured man lay on the ground, looking calm almost.
He believed he would stay like this forever, unchanged.
Because nothing changed around him.
Nothing ended properly.
Without time, consequence disappeared into nothing.
Meaning disappeared too.
Life became something stuck in place.
Something unfinished and looping.
Something unbearable to think about.
Ignoring it all as best I could, I walked on.
"I don't know how long," I mumbled to myself.
There was no way to measure it without clocks or sun.
But eventually, after what felt like ages,
I found my home in this strange city.
Relief washed over me like a wave.
I stepped inside the door.
And froze in shock.
I was already there, inside.
"What?" I whispered.
I watched myself walk around the house, doing things I couldn't predict at all. Every action felt random and detached. Like a person without any direction or purpose.
Then suddenly,
He died right there.
And stood back up again, like nothing happened.
Alive once more.
Again. And again. And again, over and over.
No progression forward. No real end.
Just repetition without meaning.
A life without time cannot move forward at all.
It can only repeat the same things endlessly.
He turned around slowly.
Looked directly at me, eyes blank.
Walked closer step by step.
No emotion on his face.
He raised a knife and stabbed me in the chest without hesitation.
"Goodbye," he said flatly.
Darkness covered everything around me.
I woke up suddenly.
In a forest somewhere.
Cold air blowing. Moving wind through trees. The sound of leaves rustling.
Time was flowing again, normal speed.
My heart pounded hard in my chest.
I stood up, shaking all over, and walked back toward the road I remembered.
The wall was gone now.
As if it had never existed in the first place.
Cars passed by on the street. People talked and walked.
Somewhere, someone laughed out loud.
Somewhere else, someone cried softly.
And for the first time ever,
I understood it all.
Time is not cruel. It is not unfair like I thought.
It is balance in the world.
Because things end eventually, they matter to us.
Because moments pass by quickly, they have real weight and value.
A broken balance does not save people from pain.
It destroys everything that makes life worth living.
I walked forward again.
This time, with the flow of time, not against it.
Then I was reminded of them all.
My girlfriend Narya, still angry with me over our fight.
My family, mom and dad, still disappointed in how I've been distant.
My friends, Jake and Sasha, the ones I slowly drifted away from, thinking there would always be another day to talk, another chance to fix things up.
Time kept moving forward relentlessly.
It didn't wait for me to be ready or perfect.
It didn't pause for my lame excuses.
And maybe, it never will no matter what.
Instead of complaining about it all the time,
Maybe we're supposed to embrace it fully.
Because time is what makes people important in our lives.
Because moments don't last forever, they matter so much.
I let out a slow breath, feeling lighter.
"Maybe I should apologize to her, no," I shook my head, correcting myself, "not just her. Everyone I care about."
Not tomorrow or next week.
Not someday when it's convenient.
Now, right this moment.
Because this moment here,
Will never come again.