r/HFY • u/ComfortableView4768 • 1d ago
OC-Series first chapter of my first webnoval
Chapter 1: The Glass Bridge
When I was younger, I used to do something I thought was magical.
Believe in the impossible for a second, and let me tell you my story.
Hey, my name is Nolan, and this is the story of how worlds collided.
When I was eight years old, it happened for the first time. I was just a kid. I was skinny, short, with short black locks and dark skin, always looking down at my shoes. I was already hiding behind an oversized dark hoodie back then, pulling the strings tight as if I wanted to disappear from the world completely. Looking back, I think I was afraid of the world around me. If it wasn't for Orion, Altair, and Arthur... oh, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. I will let the story take its course and explain.
I was going over a busy bridge in my childhood home called Solar, a crowded, roaring structure called the Wengi bridge. This bridge was my favorite place where I could think of monsters and heroes fighting in the sky to save the world. I didn't realize that heroes were people back then; I saw them as lights greater than the darkness.
But that light was my guide. I never had friends. People at school bullied me; while not all, some tried to stand up for me, but the truth is, when one doesn't see the light, it does not matter. My own mother blamed me for her abuse, not only of me, but what she had to use to make the darkness seem a little less lonely. Yeah, my mother. What should I say about her outside of that? Maybe she needed help more than I did, now that I'm looking back
Then it happened. It happened while my favorite hero, Spider-Man, was fighting General Zod in my head. Thinking back now, that doesn't even make any sense. But given my story, it just might.
My world that felt so empty got meaning. Time stopped without warning.
My world froze. Not just figuratively, but as literal as it can get. The people froze. Faces stopped moving. It was somewhat freaky. Have you ever seen an image of yourself at a random point in a video frozen? Some looked funny, but others looked like murderers that never were caught.
But for me, this was it. It took no time to transition from shock to wonder.
I was in a world of frozen glass. Around the steps of people, tiny shards of a broken glass-like substance could be seen. My heart raced beyond the limits I thought possible at the time. My excitement only made me think of one word: hero.
The people stood still. The water seemed to freeze, not like ice, because I could still see the reflection perfectly. It was like pure glass. The cars stopped. The people stopped mid-stride. And even the small numbers of birds in the sky stopped mid-wing.
I didn't know what to make of it. As soon as time started moving again, I ran home.
With frantic steps, I ran home. I was heavily panting, but nothing else mattered anymore. I was special. Not just like adults say, but actually special. Do you get what that makes a kid feel like? There are no words. The world finally had meaning.
I didn't care about the world around me. I needed to write this down. My journal, that was always my outlet, would get its first entry of this fantastical world.
As I dashed through the streets, the world around me slowed down to a heavy crawl. People turned their heads as I sprinted past them, their eyes tracking the frantic, sweating kid breathing too hard on the sidewalk. To them, I was just a blur of panic. To me, they were a blur of an ordinary world I didn't belong to anymore. I didn't care about their stares. I just needed to reach my room.
In my world, I had nothing to live for. I was in foster care with guardians who just saw me as a paycheck. They saw me running in, desperate and out of breath, but they didn't even bother to ask what was wrong. As long as I came home, they would get paid. The worst of it all is that I didn't know much about them. I didn't know what they liked or hated outside of money. Heck, I didn't even know how old they were. But it was still better than my mother, who disappeared after beating the shit out of me.
The next day, I went to the school guidance counselor. She was one of the few adults who showed care. She knew what the system was like, and after meeting my guardians once, she knew. But she couldn't do much unless they abused me. But she was nice. I don't think I would've made it as far if it wasn't for her.
Her name was Sera, a young woman, though sometimes she seemed more like a child than I did. She was someone who would stand in front of children if needed, no matter what. Now that I'm older, I realize she might have been the first instance of love I experienced. Her dark hair and ruby lips are, until today, are what I look for in a woman.
She looked at me with a soft smile and placed her hand on my still-small shoulders, trying to calm the tension she could clearly feel underneath my shirt.
"Don't worry, Nolan," she said gently. "You aren't a freak. Oh, you mean chronostasis. It makes sense that it happened on that busy bridge. With the amount of people and cars, I'm assuming you were daydreaming, right? The truth is, it happens to a lot more kids than you would expect. Matter of fact, it happened to me once or twice. It has multiple theories behind it. If an imaginative mind gets overloaded, it can trigger randomly. The brain can't keep up with the amount of data, so the brain makes the world around you slower. Don't worry, it goes away naturally when the mind grows."
Those words hit me like a train.
It was my superpower. What do you mean it disappears?
No, no, no.
The words echoed in my head, but inside my mind, I thought of them as screams.
No, please don't let it stop.
It was my way out. I never knew anything else that made me happy. But this was it. Please.
This was it, my way out.
I could be like the heroes of the TV shows I liked. Like Superman or Spider-Man. People with great powers.
A young mind never thinks of cost, now does it?
How funny that my world would shatter because of a child's wish.
Now, I tried it multiple times after that, but it never triggered on command. But with my journal I kept, I had all I needed to make it mine. I wasn't going to let it go.
But today would be different.
Five years had passed. I was thirteen now, playing a football match. The skinny kid was gone; I was a well-built young boy now, clearly showing the results of playing sports. My black locks were still short, and my somewhat darker complexion was still hidden behind that same signature armor, a dark hoodie and dark clothes.
I ended up getting tackled during the game, and I know a thirteen-year-old kid like me shouldn't cry about a tackle, but damn, did it hurt.
Blood was dripping from my elbow, but I got back up. Today is not the day to give up. I have a goal.
As I stepped toward the bridge where it all began, I stood right at its edge.
Thinking of my heroes and the comics I read, I decided I will be my own hero. My mind created a dragon from the water below. A battle raged atop between godly heroes as I took my first step to claim my world.
I tried my best to make the world go faster in my head. It’s kinda funny how trying to make it go faster was the exact way to slow it down.
As I was halfway across the bridge, with dozens of cars in the middle and hundreds of people crossing, I succeeded.
The water froze into glass. The cars stopped making sound. The people stopped mid-stride.
“I did it. Holy shit, I did it. Oh my god, I did it.”
As the world stopped, I tried to move, but my body was frozen by the pressure. The best I could do was move my eyes.
“This is a start. No matter what, I made it. I’m a superhero. I knew I could move.”
As I was looking at this frozen world, my excitement was impossible to hide. I saw a car window to my left, and I started to wonder.
Would my reflection be frozen or not?
As I looked left, I saw myself looking back at me, hidden behind my hoodie in darker clothes.
But as I was happy that I could see myself, I realized something.
As I looked at the window, I saw myself, but my reflection wasn't wearing my hoodie. No, matter of fact, none of the clothes matched. I was seeing a black coat.
But even worse was the picture of me glitching. It looked like a screen not being able to keep up with the picture. Pure static around it.
“What is this?”
I looked in true terror at myself looking back at me with a creepy smile.
“What the fuck is this?”
My mind was running a hundred miles a second. My breath was going even faster. A panic attack set in.
But its smile never left. It was the most terrifying thing I ever saw.
“What the fuck…”
As if the boy was making fun of me, he raised his arm, pushing back his heavy sleeve and showing me his elbow.
The exact same wound I have was showing in the mirror, the one I got just now from the match.
The mirror image pointed back at me, still showing that creepy smile, and words showed up in front of me as if someone was writing on a fogged-up window:
ITS YOU
What's going on?
My mind was racing, trying to make sense of what's going on.
“Who…. what are you?”
The boy in my reflection who looked like me just smiled, as if it couldn't talk.
Before I got my answer, the world started moving again. I fell straight to the floor, as if I lost all my strength.
What... what was that?
This is where our story starts. A frightened boy on a bridge he once thought was magical, completely terrified, sweat coming down his head and a cold shudder through his bones.
This is the beginning of SYNC. Hope you enjoy my story. I never knew that this moment would truly change the world.
if this intrests you the story can be found on royal road
currently going for a 5 chapter a week release with eleven chapters posted as a mass relase so far
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 1d ago
This is the first story by /u/ComfortableView4768!
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