A Tale Of Timestop

Austin paced gloomily through the deserted campus on a dark Saturday evening. He avoided the puddles of light cast by the streetlamps, preferring the darkness for his sulking. Old leaves crunched beneath his boots as he wove his way past bare trees and the frozen stream that wound its way through the center of the college.

He hid his fists deep in his jacket pockets. Why was he so bad at talking with people? He could never seem to do it right. He'd thought that things would change once he got to college, but he was a sophomore now and things were exactly like they had been in high school. He was a loner. No. That was a cheap cop-out. He couldn't make friends.

He couldn't understand how people did it. They made it look so easy. Just walk up to someone and start talking. But when he did it... When he did that no one liked it. They would think he was weird. Or creepy. Or a pervert. He sighed and kept walking, stewing in self-pity.

Was he going to die alone? How could he ever get a girlfriend if he didn't know how to talk to people? He had just turned 20 years old and he was still a virgin. Most guys lost their virginity in high school right? And he was a virgin at 20. He slammed his fists against his hips in frustrated balled-up anger.

He needed experience. He needed a breakthrough. He needed... What? He needed to clear his head. Walking helped with that. Down the riverbank he went, following the curves of the frozen river as it meandered ever downstream.

He wasn't sure how long he had been walking when he started to shiver. He stopped and looked around, coming off autopilot. He was in the forest south of campus. His breath fogged in the air as he looked around. Tall leafless maples surrounded him. An owl called down at him from a high branch. There was no sign of civilization. He must have gone at least a mile past the edge of campus. Goosebumps ran up his arms and his breath fogged. Suddenly he was regretting the light jacket.

Just before walking back upstream something glittered in the moonlight, catching his eye. Curious, he walked over to it. It was small and nestled in a pile of leaves near a tree trunk. Austin walked over and knelt, brushing the leaves aside. He pulled a small silver cigar case out of the dirt. He wiped it clean and held it up to examine in the moonlight. It was engraved in elaborate leaf patterns and on the front, there was a carved scene of a hunting dog chasing two pheasants. Austin flipped it over in his hands. How had something like this ended up out here? He used his shirt to clean off as much of the dirt as he could.

After examining the case for several minutes, Austin found a small button on the underside. He pressed it, and the case popped open with a metallic clink. There weren't any cigars inside. Instead, a thin silver rod popped up. It extended a few inches above the cap of the case. There was a ring-like golden dial on the neck of the rod and a small golden button on the top. The ring had an arrow on it which lined up with a series of numbers engraved around the circumference of the rod. 0, 1, 10, 100, and 1,000. The arrow was currently pointing to 10.

What the hell was this thing? The rod was stuck firmly in the case and would not come out. Austin shrugged, and pressed the golden button. There was a bright flash, and suddenly... suddenly things changed. When he'd pressed the button, he had been standing. Now he was suddenly kneeling in front of the tree again. His hand was outstretched, just about to grab the cigar case, which was somehow buried in the dirt again. Austen blinked. What the fuck just happened?

He hesitated, then pulled the cigar case out of the dirt again. He cleaned it once more and popped it open again. It looked just like it had before. He hesitated, then turned the gold ring from 10 to 1. There was a clicking sound as it rotated, but nothing else happened. He pressed the button.

There was a bright flash. He was suddenly holding the cigar case in his shirt again, wiping it off. "What the fuuuck..." he whispered out loud. He cleaned off the case for the 3rd time and pocketed it. He began walking back upstream towards his school.

That was... That was very weird. Did he have hypothermia or something? Was he daydreaming? He shook his head and pulled the case out of his pocket again. He turned it over in his hands as he walked, then opened it once more. 0, 1, 10, 100, and 1,000... Could it be... Was this... Was this thing sending him back in time when he pressed the button? He stopped walking. The ring was still set to 10. He turned it back to 1. He then looked around himself, taking in his surroundings. When he felt like he had a good idea where he was, he pressed the button.

There was a bright flash. He was walking up the river. He looked around. He wasn't where he was before he pressed the button. After a quick jog back up the river he found the place where he had been. "Holy shit..." he murmured.

Was he going crazy? He decided to entertain the possibility that he wasn't. "Ok..." he said to himself. "So... If I'm not crazy... 1 sends me back a minute... 10 is ten minutes... So 100 is what? Like an hour and a half? And 1,000... That's like... At least 10 hours... Then what the hell does 0 do?" He continued walking back towards campus as he mulled it over in his mind.

"Well... Only one way to find out..." He pulled the case out again and turned the dial to 0. He hesitated only a moment, then held his breath and pressed the button. Unlike before, the button remained depressed this time. And there was no flash of light. In fact... It looked like nothing had happened at all. Austen looked around curiously. Nothing. He shrugged, put the cigar case away, and kept walking.

It was a few minutes of walking before he got suspicious. He stopped and looked around. Something was off. He couldn't quite place it... He strained his senses, trying to see or hear anything out of place. But everything looked normal, and he didn't hear anything. Wait. He didn't hear... anything... No insects, no owls hooting... Nothing... It was dead silent. Then he saw it.

"What the fuck..." he said, his voice tinged with concern as he looked ahead at the bird. There was an owl. About 100 feet in front of him. It was suspended in flight and hovering without moving a muscle about 6 feet above the ground. Austen's heart beat faster as his eyes stayed glued to the suspended owl. It was like he was standing in a picture. It wasn't just the owl. Nothing was moving. There was no wind. No crickets. No flies buzzing. No leaves falling or swaying in the breeze. Nothing. He scrambled through his pockets and pulled the box back out. He flipped it open. The button was still depressed. His heart was beating fast. Somehow, the time-skipping hadn't freaked him out. He was tiered, and his mind could almost pass it off as daydreaming. Like driving to work and not remembering how you got there. This though. There was no rationalizing this.

He let out a slow breath to steady his hands and his breathing. Then he pressed the button again. It went back to its original position and the owl started flying again. Everything went back to normal. Austen kept his eye on the owl and pressed the button again. It froze again. "It's..." he said in disbelief. "It stops time!" He released the button once more and time resumed. He ran his fingers through his hair. "What the fuck is this thing?!"

He considered tossing it away or burying it. What if it was drugged or something and it was just driving him insane? But he didn't. The tantalizing possibility of it being real made him keep it. His mind raced as he walked back towards campus. When he saw the faint lights ahead through the trees he stopped again and pulled the device back out. Curiosity overpowered cautiousness. He flipped it open. The arrow was still set to 0. He depressed the button stopping time, then kept walking.

Austen looked around in amazement as he walked back onto campus. Moths hung suspended in mid-air in silent clouds around the lights. Most things looked the same. The occasional animal or insect was the only hint that it wasn't just a silent windless night. He worked his way back towards the dorms. Then he saw a person. Two of them. Two women. They were frozen mid-step on the path in front of him. He walked closer.

"Hello?" he called as he approached. There was no answer. He stepped up so he was only a few feet away from them. It was a big campus. He'd never seen these two girls before. He looked over them. They were looking at each other while they walked. One was smiling a wry smile and the other looked like she was frozen in the middle of laughing. "Hello!?" he said louder. No response. He waved his hand in front of their faces. No response.

His heart beat faster. He reached out and tapped the smiling girl on the shoulder, wincing as he did so. No response. He bit a finger. What the fuck was he doing? He jogged away from the pair and hid behind a tree. He was sweating. He could hear his heart pounding. With shaky hands he pulled out the device and pressed the button.

Sound leapt back to his ears. Crickets. Wind. The laughter of the girl on the path. He peered at them from behind his tree. They kept walking. There was no indication the pair had seen him or felt his tapping.

He stopped time again and the pair froze once more. He needed to experiment. He walked up behind the pair and jabbed the laughing one hard in the ribs. No response. He ran back to his tree. He restarted time. The pair kept walking and laughing. She hadn't felt the jab.

He exhaled a shaky breath. His mind was racing. This was unreal. Things like this didn't happen. He paused time again and breathed deeply to calm himself. He continued walking back towards the dorms with time paused. He was almost there when another person caught his eye.

There was a woman jogging. She was beautiful. She was short with blonde hair tied back in a ponytail that was suspended mind-swoosh. She had earbuds in and was holding her phone as she jogged. Despite the chilly night air, she was wearing leggings and a sports bra. Austen walked close to her. He looked her up and down. He'd never had the chance to stop and stare at such a beautiful woman before. Sure, he'd seen pretty girls. But pretty girls never wanted anything to do with him. If time were going, he'd have seen this girl for a few seconds as she jogged past. Now, he was able to take the time to observe her as much as he wanted. He drunk in her beauty. He walked around her in a slow circle, looking at ever curve of her fit young body.

Before he knew what he was doing he reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. His heart pounded. He rubbed her shoulder a bit; up and down. He'd never touched a girl. Not really. Not more than a quick hug. He brushed his hand up and down over the soft skin of her upper arm as he continued gazing at her. Her eyes were a bright blue. He was close enough that he could see the makeup on her face. There wasn't much, but it was there. Her lips glistened in the lamplight.

Austen's pants bulged with his raging boner. His hand drifted up her arm, then across her collarbone... then down... He brushed the tips of his fingers over the top of her cleavage. It was so soft. He felt his cock twitch as it released a big glob of pre into his underwear. She was so beautiful. She felt so good. He was so horny. He grabbed her breast and massaged it. Fireworks went off in his head. It was so soft and malleable, even though the fabric of her sports bra. He moaned at the sensation.

Then he froze and stepped back; fear and apprehension jumping into his head. Shit. What was he doing?! What if she realized when he unpaused time?! He could... he could just wind it back a few minutes... but... but what if it didn't work? What if it stopped working? He ran away from the jogger and hid behind a hedge, then held his breath and unpaused time. The jogger continued jogging; seemingly none the wiser to his short groping session. Holy fuck. He'd gotten away with it! A warm feeling washed over him as a strong sense of power coursed through his mind.

What would happen if... With time still paused, Austen held up the device and spun the dial from 0 to 1. As he did so, the button popped back up but time did not resume. He pressed the button. There was a flash, but he stayed exactly where he was. The world however jumped back a minute. The jogger went was suddenly several hundred feet back up the lane. And time was still paused. "Ok..." Austen said, a plan slowly forming in his mind. He unpaused time and watched for a minute as the jogger jogged past him. Just as she passed him he paused time again.

He walked over to her. He grabbed her arm by the wrist and bent it behind her back. He pulled her other arm around her chest. Tilted her head to the side. All around messed up her stance. He then returned behind his bush and pressed the button. Flash. She was up the road again. Unpause. She continued jogging and jogged well past him this time. Pause.

It worked. He could do whatever he wanted while time was paused. Then, when he was done, he could just back time up a minute before unpausing it; undoing whatever he had done while time was paused. Yes. This was amazing.

With time still paused he came out from behind his bush and approached the frozen jogger. "Hello there beautiful!" he said as he circled the woman. "I bet you'd never talk to me. A girl like you wouldn't want to have anything to do with a guy like me." He stopped in front of her and smirked. "Can't ignore me now, can you?"

He straightened her arms down to her side and then picked her up by the waist. It felt... weird... just doing this in the middle of the sidewalk. He carried her off the path, behind a building, and into some bushes. He laid her on the ground and straightened her limbs into a laying position. The sense of power was overwhelming. He lifted her arms up then pulled her sports bra off over her head. He ogled her beautiful breasts. They were much bigger than he expected. The sports bra made them look smaller. They were beautiful. Plump and round. Her nipples were hard. From the cold, probably.

It only took him a few seconds to go from looking to touching. He grabbed a breast in each hand and massaged them around. He could feel her hard nipples pressing into his palm. "Oh fuck... you feel so good..." he moaned. His cock was rock hard, pressing tightly against his jeans.

With one hand still groping a breast he clumsily used the other to unbutton his pants. As soon as he grabbed his dick and freed it from his underwear, he lost control. The sensation was too much. He moaned as he shot his cum across the jogger's breasts. It fell on her skin in thick ropes that stretched from her bellybutton to her jawline.

As his orgasm crested and subsided logic returned to his mind and he stared down at what he had done. He'd dragged a girl into the bushes, ripped her top off, groped her, and sprayed cum across her tits. "Ohh fuuck..." he whispered. If this didn't work... if the cigar box didn't work this time he... he didn't know what he'd do.

He quickly fumbled through his pants and pulled out the care. Shaky hands flipped the case open and pressed the button. The girl and her top vanished. His cum remained behind, suspended in midair in the still frozen time. He was alone behind the bushes. Well. That's something he hadn't thought about. Still, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was lucky this time he supposed. His cum was just behind some bushes. That was fine he guessed.

He stood up and walked back around the building. The jogger was back up the road again. Her top was on. She was in the middle of jogging. He hid once more behind his tree. Unpause. He watched as the girl kept jogging; none the wiser to the events that had just transpired. Austen let out a deep sigh of relief.

He let time continue and headed back to his dorm. He needed to think about all this. It was... Amazing. He'd never felt this way before. He felt excited. Powerful. Exhilarated. He smiled as he swiped his card and entered his dorm.

Once back in his room he laid on hos bed and let out a contented sigh. He turned the cigar box over in his hands absently. He'd never touched a girl like that before. Sure, he practically creamed himself when a girl hugged him and he could feel her breasts press against his chest, but he'd never been allowed to intentionally touch a girl. It had been amazing. Maybe... Maybe now he'd have more confidence to talk with someone for real? Now that he had more experience? Yeah! Maybe that would work. He smiled, then went to bed with a sense of hope he hadn't felt since starting college.

~the next day~

Austen sat alone at a table in the cafeteria. He absently poked at his food while he looked around. Why did girls always travel in packs? Maybe he could talk to one girl alone, but how would he even approach four or five of them? They'd just think he was a creep...

He picked up his tray and walked around. There was one large seating area with dozens of tables where most people ate, plus several smaller eating rooms with 5-6 tables each. Austen went from room to room, trying to find a girl alone who he could approach and talk to.

Finally he found what he was looking for. It was a smaller room in the rear of the cafeteria. There were no windows in this room. Only four tables. Two of those tables were occupied. At one sat a guy with a large set of headphones on bent over a laptop. At the other was a beautiful woman. She had long red-brown hair that was tied in an elaborate braid. She was wearing a white and pink flowered blouse that displayed an ample amount of her large bosom. Austen's brief excitement about finding a girl alone was replaced by crippling nervousness as he took I how beautiful she was. He pulled out the device and prepped it for 1 minute re-wind.

As normally as he could he walked over to the girl. She was holing her phone in one hand and absently snacking on some fries with the other. Austen walked up and stood next to her. "Uhh... Hi!" he said.

The woman looked up at him. Already Austen saw a look of annoyance wash over her face. How had he fucked this up already?

"What?" she said with a deeply annoyed tone.

"Uh... I was... could I... sit and have lunch with you?" Austen managed to stammer out.

The girl looked around. "There's plenty of free tables..."

"Y-yeah, but I wanted to... talk to you..."

The woman raised her eyebrow as gestured at her phone. "I'm busy..." She gave him a disgusted look as she turned away from him.

Austen pressed the button. Flash. He was back at the door and stepped around the corner out of sight. His heart was racing. He'd done it. He'd talked to a girl. It hadn't gone well, but he'd done it. And now he'd undone it. So... There was no embarrassment! He smiled. As far as little-miss-redhead was concerned they'd never spoke. He smiled. Holy shit! This was just like quicksaving in a video game! We could try again! He could get all the practice he wanted!

A sense of confidence welled up in him and he strode into the room and back over to the woman. As soon as he opened his mouth though, his confidence evaporated, and he just let out a squeaky "h-hi there!" The woman looked up at him with even more revulsion than the first time.

Press. Flash. Ok. He took a deep breath. 3rd time's the charm. But it wasn't. Nor was the 4th, 5th, or 6th times. In no attempt did Austen get more than 3 words out before the woman looked at him with either annoyance or disgust.

Once back out of line of sight for the 7th time he paused time. Fuck! Why was this so hard! Why was he so intimidated by her?! He looked around the corner. She was frozen there, a fry halfway to her mouth. He strode over to her and yelled at her frozen face "why don't you like me you stupid cunt!" He was so frustrated. He slapped her. Her head jerked to the side and remained frozen in the new position.