While Others Sleep

The assault came without warning. Time had once again halted its incessant march leaving everything … everyone completely suspended. Tom Parson knew better than to struggle. No amount of effort would allow his limbs to move or his head to turn. Honestly, he felt lucky that his sight and mind remained active. He let his eyes wander across the room and stop on the blank faces staring listlessly. Then searched each one in an attempt to discover any sign that someone else here was experiencing the same emotion: the frantic feeling of desperation that came from being held against one’s will. But as usual, not a glimmer of recognition showed across the visages. He really was alone.

When he looked for the silver lining to these situations, only one came to mind: the silence. It was the singular solace he held onto while in the grasp of the Sleep. Usually, the clock on the wall across from his cubicle issued forth an incessant ticking. Every tick … Tick … TICK … landed on his nerves with mocking persistence. Each one pointing out the seconds lost while he sat idly by in this place until finally his mind was awash with nothing but the white noise of passing time. It was maddening. “At least I don’t have to listen to that damn clock,” he thought.

With a visceral snap, the world around him exploded into motion. The sound was deafening after the true quiet of the Sleep. Tom winced in pain at its jarring edge. These first moments back were always the hardest. It was as if his body and very mind had to bend itself back to the reality surrounding him. After a few moments, he had finally acclimated, and the world seemed its usual self. A quick glance around told him that no one else missed a step. Each continued on with their day as if nothing happened. A sigh escaped his lips as he searched the faces now streaming past, hoping for a sign. Any hint of someone else coming to terms with the world around starting its rotation anew but no one had seemed to notice.

His mind slid to the same philosophical place it had been as of late. “Am I alone in the knowledge of what is happening? And if I am, does that mean it isn’t happening or is only happening in MY head? If the latter is true, am I losing my mind?” It was here that Tom always stopped himself. “No! Never pull at the thread of your own sanity.” For no other reason than to quiet his mind, he started working again. Moments slipped by as he slowly tapped on his keyboard but before long, his mind began to wander again.

The time (which was a relative term) that everyone else was asleep (or himself awake, depending on your philosophical leaning) was increasing in duration. The first few occurrences seemed only to last a matter of seconds. Though as an aside to himself, he started to question time’s duration … can you legitimately determine an amount of time has passed when time itself isn’t actually passing?

Recently though, the timespan that the others were Asleep seemed to last longer. “Which to be honest,” he thought to himself, “isn’t a necessarily a good thing. Gives too much time”—if you could even call it that, he further theorized—“to think.” His mind continued to circle this path until he realized that someone was standing in front of him.