Chapter 2 - Freeze
901 Words
The screaming started all at once.
Not scared screaming — panic screaming.
The kind that hits fast and hard, the kind that makes your insides feel like shattered glass.
Luke’s voice cracked.
Justine’s breath hitched in sharp, frantic hiccups.
Delaney clung to Georgina’s leg, trembling so hard her tiny fingers dug into Georgina’s jeans.
“They were right there, Georgina!” Luke shouted.
“Where did they go?” Justine cried, tears already streaking her cheeks.
“Mommy gone!” Delaney whimpered, voice small and breaking.
They crowded her from every direction—voices overlapping, fears spiraling, questions stacking like explosions Georgina couldn’t dodge.
Her own breath started to speed up.
Her heart hammered against her ribs.
Her mind felt like it was drowning in noise.
“Okay—HEY—STOP!” she yelled.
But they didn’t.
Luke’s panic only got louder.
Justine’s sobbing sharper.
Delaney was moments away from a full meltdown.
Georgina felt it happening—
the helplessness
the fear
the world tilting sideways.
She couldn’t think.
She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t lose it, not when her siblings needed her to be the strong one, the calm one, the steady one.
“I can’t—guys, please—” she stuttered.
Then something inside her snapped into place with terrifying clarity.
Without thinking, she threw her arms around all three siblings and pulled them into a crushing, messy, desperate bear hug. Luke half-folded over her shoulder, Justine mashed between them, Delaney practically suctioned to her hip.
“Everyone just—just freeze!” Georgina shouted.
She meant stop talking.
She meant give me one second to think.
She meant please let the world slow down before I break too.
But the moment the word left her lips, something shifted.
The air stilled.
Sound vanished.
The house fell into an unnatural, suffocating silence.
Her siblings didn’t freeze—because her arms were wrapped around them.
Luke sniffed.
Justine hiccupped.
Delaney whimpered.
They were warm, alive, still moving.
But everything else…
stopped.
The fridge hum — gone.
The ticking clock — frozen at 7:48 AM.
The wind outside — silent.
“Why does it feel weird?” Justine whispered, rubbing her arms.
Luke swallowed hard. “G… something’s wrong.”
Georgina pulled away from them slowly, her stomach twisting painfully. Their parents’ keys still lay on the counter. Her mom’s purse. Her dad’s phone.
All untouched.
All left behind.
As if they had evaporated.
“People don’t disappear,” Luke said softly. “Not like this.”
“No,” Georgina whispered. “They don’t.”
Her eyes drifted to the front door.
Maybe someone saw something.
Maybe a neighbor heard something.
Maybe reality hadn’t just… folded.
She stepped toward the door, her siblings trailing close, too scared to let go of her.
“Stay behind me,” she murmured, voice unsteady but strong enough to hold them together.
She turned the knob, pulled the door open—
And the world hit her like a brick wall.
Mateo Luis stood frozen on the porch.
His fist was raised, knuckles inches from the door as if he had been mid-knock. One breath away. One second away.
Except he wasn’t breathing.
Wasn’t blinking.
Wasn’t moving at all.
His brown curls hung suspended mid-bounce.
His expression caught between impatience and concern.
“Matayo?” Delaney whispered, confused.
Georgina stepped onto the porch, breath catching in her throat.
Across the street, everything had gone impossibly still.
A dog was frozen mid-jump, reaching for a ball stuck in midair.
A jogger paused mid-stride.
Two birds hovered in the sky like they’d been stapled there.
Car tires didn’t roll.
No leaves rustled.
No wind blew.
The world wasn’t quiet.
It was paused.
Luke’s voice shook. “G… did you do this?”
“I— I don’t know,” she whispered, but deep inside, she already knew the truth.
The moment she hugged them.
The moment they touched her.
They were shielded.
Everyone else—
the whole neighborhood—
the whole world—
froze.
Just not them.
Georgina stared at her hands, trembling.
A few minutes ago she’d been fighting with her hair and thinking about college essays.
Now she was staring at a world she had… stopped.
Her breath hitched.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered. Her voice cracked. “I can’t—”
Her eyes lifted to Mateo’s still face. Even frozen, he looked like comfort. Ordinary comfort in a world that had stopped being ordinary.
He calmed her nerves without even trying.
He always had.
Before she could stop herself, Georgina reached out and touched his hand.
Her fingertips brushed his skin—
And the world jolted.
Mateo sucked in a deep, sudden breath like someone had snapped him awake. His fist completed the knock he’d started minutes ago.
“Georgina?” he said, blinking rapidly. “Why are you staring at me like that? I’ve been waiting—”
He stopped.
Looked at her shaking hands.
Looked at Luke, Justine, Delaney huddled behind her.
Looked at her pale face and wide eyes.
“What happened?” he asked softly.
Georgina opened her mouth.
Nothing came.
She glanced at the motionless birds above him, the frozen dog across the street, the still trees, the paused world behind her, and her own hand that had just… unpaused a person.
Her voice barely made it out.
“I… what the f—”
- Writer
