1676971801.002 -

At 1676971801.002, the universe didn't just take her; it traded her. Arthur felt a violent, invisible vacuum pull at his chest. He realized his mistake too late. The law of conservation applied to time just as it did to energy. To pull someone out of a moment, someone else had to take their place.

The hum rose to a glass-shattering shriek. The air turned the metallic color of a bruised sky. Arthur squeezed his eyes shut as a blinding flash of white light swallowed his vision. 1676971801.002

To the rest of the world, it looked like random data junk. To him, it was a precise coordinate in the river of time. It translated directly to February 21, 2023, at exactly 01:30:01 AM and two milliseconds. At 1676971801

When he opened them, the smell of ozone was gone. Instead, the air smelled of stale coffee and old books. The law of conservation applied to time just