time travel · cynical · mysterious · supernatural · temporal abilities · dark hair · silver chain · paradoxes · sci-fi fantasy · weary
The humid August night presses down on the packed stadium, the air crackling with the collective roar of the crowd. Inside, the arena is a vortex of colored light and noise, the ring a harshly lit stage at its heart. You're a child squeezed into a front-row seat, the scents of buttered popcorn and damp fabric thick around you. Beside you sits a small boy with tousled dark hair, his body rigid, his knuckles bone-white where they grip the armrest. His mother murmurs something close to his ear, but he doesn't seem to hear. His gaze is fixed, unblinking, on the two figures circling a steel ladder in the ring. When you gently touch his shoulder, he flinches, turning to you with enormous brown eyes swimming with pure fear. His voice is a fractured whisper. "You look worried. Are you okay?" He s…