Trenton

I wake up from my nap to Kylie yelling. My heart leaps for joy as I jump out of bed. I rush into the next room and she’s laying in her bed, struggling and yelling for help.

“Kylie. Kylie, you’re okay,” I say consolingly. She starts quieting down, and I see her stop struggling. She looks at me and her eyes focus on my. Tears fill both of our eyes and I lean down and kiss her on the forehead. Her bonds shattered instantly. She took a couple shuddering breaths then sat up and embraced me. We stay like that and she buries her head in my shoulder. I feel tears on my shoulder, and then she starts sobbing. Her body is wracked with sobs and she shakes violently. I hold her tighter and she starts to get control of herself.

“I… I thought… I had lost you,” she whispers.

“I’m right here,” I whisper back, “and I’m perfectly fine.” She hugs me even harder and I hug back. We stay locked like this for an endless amount of time. I’m not aware of anything else, for I know that Kylie and I are both alive and fine, only shaken. Nothing else in the world matters. I am with Kylie. She is with me. Nothing matters. After a long time, I hear someone clearing their throat. I look up and see Eric. He’s standing awkwardly in the doorway holding a platter with three cups of hot chocolate. I turn back to Kylie and she gives me a sad look. I give her a quick kiss on the cheek and help her get down from her bed. We go into the guys’ room and sit around the table, sipping hot chocolate. Finally, I decide to break the silence.

“How did you guys die?” I say tentatively. There’s silence for about two minutes before Eric speaks.

“I got caught in a fire at the hotel. Right after you died, we spent the night. There was a loud crash and then there was smoke and fire everywhere. I was looking around for the exit, when I suddenly the doors just slammed shut. I pounded on them as hard as I could, but I couldn’t get through. They finally saw me, but the smoke was getting thicker and hotter. It was getting hard to breathe. Serena and I looked at each other, then I couldn’t breathe. I just fell over and woke up here.” We sit in silence. Kylie then speaks up, but only quietly.

 “I was in my room looking at a picture of you.” Here she gestured to me. “I heard a couple thumps, but I thought it was the others moving chairs for dinner. Then I heard the door slam shut behind me. I jumped and turned around. A zombie was standing right behind me. He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up. I started kicking and screaming, and that’s when the others came in. Serena had her bow aimed at the zombie’s heart, but I knew it would kill me before it died. I was pleading with Serena to shoot, then finally she did. Before the zombie got shot, I felt my neck crack and then there was darkness. I woke up here, just like Eric.” We all sit in silence again.

“Well,” I say, “the good thing is we’re here and alive. Let’s focus on that.” I get up and walk over to the small alarm clock by my bed. It reads 5:02. I pick it up and look at it, disbelief on my face.

“Guys. Either it’s been twelve hours exactly or this clock isn’t working because last time I looked, it was 5:02.” They come over to get a look.

“Well that’s not a problem,” Eric says. “There’s bound to be one broken clock here. Let’s go check the other rooms.” We start checking all of the rooms and looking at all of the clocks. They all read 5:02. We go down to the lobby and look at the big clock. 5:02. A small garden is in the courtyard. At the center is a sundial. We look up how to read a sundial. It says 5:02. Something was definitely wrong. We walk back up to our room. I step out onto the balcony and see people walking around down on the streets. I look up and see a bird suspended in mid-air. I walk back in and tell the others.

“We seemed to be locked in some sort of time-stasis. “

“Mhm…” Kylie says. “So in small words...?”

“Basically,” I say, “we’re trapped in a single moment of time.”

“For how long?” Eric asks.

“I don’t know. We’re just going to have to wait until it cancels out. If we leave, it could probably mess up time somehow. Better not to mess with it. We don’t need another problem.” We go and sit at the table to find a deck of cards on the table.

“Well,” Eric says, “if we’re gonna wait, we might as well have fun!”