Wound Thrice Round

(Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and, as such, does not reflect any actual events. Character resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All characters portrayed engaging in any sexual acts are over the age of eighteen. If depictions of any form of non- or semi-consensual sex offends or bothers you in any way, perhaps consider that the phrase "Reader Discretion Advised" may apply to you. The author does not condone any of his demented fantasies being played out in reality unless all parties involved are of legal age, sound mind and fully agreeable to the scenario beforehand. Please, remember it's just a story and try to not take it too seriously. Relax and enjoy the ride!)

Chapter One: The Offer

"No, no. I mean it. Really. I'm being perfectly serious, young man. I can stop and start time whenever I want. I have a special watch."

I humored the old man's proud, gap-toothed grin with a cheerful expression that in no way said I was skeptical of his claim. "That's pretty amazing," I enthused. "Must be great fun. Think of all the stuff you could get away with!" 'Poor old bastard,' I thought as I surreptitiously reached for my phone. 'Looks like Greyhaven Estates has lost a patient again.'

"Oh, yes, I've done many crazy things over the years," he nodded vigorously and motioned a conspiratorial prod at me with his elbow, "quite a few of them very illegal. I've made myself rich, drove some fast cars down my own, private highways, got revenge on some enemies, quietly helped some friends, went places I was never meant to be, seen things I was never meant to see. Had my way with quite a few ladies. Ones well above my pay grade, too, I can tell you."

"And they never knew you got a peek under their skirts, either, eh," I waggled my eyebrows at him lewdly as I slowly pecked the nursing home's name into the search bar. "Plenty of women I wouldn't mind seeing more of. Maybe sneak into the locker room at the pool once or twice?" 'I should really keep their number on speed dial. This is the second time this month I've had to call them to retrieve someone that's wandered across the street. I don't get paid enough to deal with this shit.'

"These days, though," he shrugged his boney shoulders as his expression fell. "Well, I don't really use it so much anymore. It's too quiet when you stop time." He shook his head sorrowfully, "Too quiet and too lonely. And..."

I tapped an entry on the page and scrolled down looking for the 'contact us' link to get their phone number. "And? And what? Are there time cops chasing you or something?"

"Time cops?" He burst into brash, cackling laughter, unnerving and loud. "Good lord, son, that's quite an imagination. No, there are no time cops or bug-eyed monsters or whatever else you might be thinking of. When you pause things, it's just you...all alone. No one to stop whatever mischief you want to get up to. Nothing to punish you but your own conscience, if you're careful. At least, not as far as I know."

"Awesome! Well, thanks for sharing your little secret with me. You have fun with that. I hate to have to shoo you out, but, I am at work and there is stuff I need to do. You should probably be getting back home, now, sir." I glanced down at my phone to search the short list for the security office. I didn't think this old man could be dangerous, but I didn't want to take any chances.

"Oh, I will, I will. I'll be leaving in just a moment. But first..." the man's voice trailed off into silence as he looked at me strangely and slid a hand into his pants pocket. I braced myself, thinking he was about to pull out a gun, but he simply winked out of existence.

I blinked numbly at the empty spot where he had been standing, my finger paused, hovering over my phone mid-tap. He had disappeared completely. Like the air had just swallowed him whole. I leaned far over the counter and looked around, thinking maybe he had managed to duck down to the floor or behind a shelf while my attention was diverted with my phone. But, no, he was gone. The store was empty. I called out nervously, "I-is this some sort of prank? Are you a street magician or something, like that David Blang guy? I swear, I better get paid if your video goes viral."

"No, this isn't a prank, sonny."

"Fuckingchrist!" I jerked away from the quiet voice at my elbow and crashed sideways into a display stand, scattering cartons of cigarettes and stacks of porno magazines across the floor. My heart hammered in my chest as I tried to crawl backward away from him into the dead-end corner under the hot dog and nacho bar, "p-please, mister, t-take whatever you want. Hit 'no sale' to open the register, my login number's four-eight-nine-two. There must be a couple hundred bucks in there. Take it...take it all. Don't hurt me, man, I just work here."

He held out one thin, wrinkled hand, "relax, my boy, I'm not going to hurt you and I don't want your money. I promise, I mean you no harm. I'm sorry I scared you like that, but I knew you didn't believe me, so I had to prove it to you before you finished that call to Greyhaven. I'm not a patient there, you know. I don't have dementia or anything."

"How did you do that? What the fuck do you want?" I ignored his offer to help me up and gingerly got my feet under me, half climbing the counter and wishing the alarm button wasn't on the other side of him. "Why are you fucking with me, man? If this is some sort of joke, I don't think it's very funny."

"It's no joke. You see, I want to give you my watch." He smiled at me and pulled a large, antique lump of brass out of his pocket, then carefully set it down on the counter between us. It was about as big around as a baseball but flattened on two sides into a thick disc and its patinaed condition made it look like it had fallen out of a steampunk novel. "I've had fun with it for many, many years, but I think I'm done with it now. Now...," he sighed heavily, then turned his head and gazed wistfully out of the windows, "now, I just want to live out whatever is left of my life, here, with everyone else...in Real Time."

"I'm not buying your goddamned watch, dude," I scoffed at him. "Go scam someone else and leave me alone. I've got a mess to clean up. Forget telling me how you did that, just go away now and I won't call the cops."

"No, no, no. You're not listening. I don't want to sell it to you. I told you, I've made myself rich. I have all the money I could ever want and I don't have any kids or real close friends. So, I'm giving it to you...," he gave the watch a gentle nudge across the counter closer towards me, "...free."

"Bullshit! Why would you do that? No one just gives shit away to strangers for free. Not even some dumb, old, broke-ass pocket watch." I sneered at it suspiciously, "Its probably stolen or radioactive or has some app that'll steal my bank info over wi-fi. Just take it and get the fuck out of here already!"

"I can understand your caution, young man. Really, I can. Especially in this day and age. I know it's a tough thing to believe. I didn't believe it either when the watch was given to me, but I promise you it's true. This watch right here can stop time and leave you free to do whatever you want until you choose to start time moving again. That's how I jumped from over there to over here in the blink of an eye like that. I paused time and walked around the side of the counter. Passed through that little gate over there just like you do every day when you start your shift. Only it took me literally no time at all to cover the distance, thanks to this watch. It is a remarkable device with an amazing power and I am giving it to you. Free of charge, no strings attached."

"Pfft," I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, right. A watch that can stop time and you're giving it away to some random clerk in a convenience store? You've had your fun and now you're done with it, just like that? No strings attached? Fuck off, old man."

His smile never wavered, "look, if you're willing to give me just a tiny drop of faith, just a brief moment of your life to give me the chance to prove it to you. Right here, right now. I'll show you exactly how it works. You give it a try real quick. I promise you will instantly know whether I'm lying or not. You may decide if you want to keep it after you've tried it out. How does that sound? You're not just some random clerk in a convenience store. I saw you at the coffee shop the other day reading

A Brief History of Time

. Seemed like fate was giving me a nudge in your direction." He gave a little non-committal shrug and reached for the watch, "If you really don't want it, though, I'm certain I can find someone who does. I'm not going to keep offering, especially if you're going to keep insulting me."

I grabbed his skeletal wrist, "wait." He seemed sincere and his disappearance a few moments ago was pretty convincing. I peered into his eyes, hunting for some sign of deception or guile, "you're actually serious, aren't you? You're really telling me this watch can stop time? Like some kind of magical artifact or something? You're not just fucking with me?"

He shook his head gravely, "no, son. I'm not messing with you. It really can stop time. See the little knob on the top? Wind it counter-clockwise...that's to the left, of course...wind it just until it clicks. Time will stop. Give it a turn back to the right until it clicks into place again and time will start moving normally. It won't wind any further in either direction, so as far as I can tell it can't move you forward or backward in time or anything, only make time stand still or start up again. If you push it in, the front will pop open and there is a clock face inside. It's got a lot of hands and dials and displays, though. I really don't know what most of it all means, but the largest and most readable one is obviously Real Time...it's the one that stops moving when you click the knob to the left."

I looked from him, down to the watch and back up at him again, "like, really for real? And you'll let me try it out? Like, right fucking now?"

"For real," he nodded, "right now."

I swallowed hard, staring down at the heavy chunk of metal. 'The things I could do with that ability. But what was the catch? A powerful thing like that...there has to be a catch. There's always a catch. Still, what have I got to lose by trying it out? Worst-case? Worst-case, I suppose, is I look stupid on the internet when it doesn't do a damn thing and he says "gotcha!". I doubt it's going to hurt me. If it was going to blow up or spray anthrax, it would hurt this guy, too...and this tiny store seems like a strange target for a suicide bomber.' I picked it up and turned it over in my hands, inspecting the delicate, intricate figures etched deep into its well-worn surface. It was much lighter than it appeared, having a warm, pleasant weight in my grip and it seemed to pulse faintly like a quick heartbeat from the mechanisms whirring inside. 'But what if...? What if it works? What if it really does stop time? Man...the things I could do...'

"Well? As strange as it sounds coming from a man with a time-stopping device, I haven't got all day. There are other things I want to be doing later. Are you going to try it out or what?"

The bells over the door jangled as a woman stepped into the store. She smiled absently in our direction and turned down an aisle between two shelves searching for something to purchase.

"Quick," the old man hissed, his eyes twinkling mischievously, "before anyone else comes in. Give it a shot. Go on. Go and check her out!"

I looked in the direction the woman had gone and thought, 'Check her out? What...like, go look under her clothes or something? Could it really work? Man, I feel kinda dumb, but I gotta admit, I wanna give it a try. What have I got to lose? I wouldn't mind getting to see a lady naked today. You know what? Fuck it! Why the hell not?' I shrugged and twisted the top like a bottle cap.

----

Everything stopped. And not just like held still in that way that mimes do where you can see them wobble a bit and tell they're still breathing, but really stopped. The old man was right, it was very quiet. No traffic sounds or bustle of pedestrians. The constant, low, electric hum of all the machinery and equipment around me was silent. I couldn't even hear the wind move or bugs buzz. My own anxious breathing seemed unnaturally loud with nothing to compete for the attention of my ears.

The old man stood there, still as a statue, the lewd, encouraging expression frozen on his face. No movement at all. No little rise and fall of his chest from his breath. No little ripples across his clothing from the breeze. No little unconscious body adjustments to stay upright. Nothing. It was kind of creepy, like looking at a fresh corpse or a wax dummy.

I waved my hand in front of his face. No response. I poked him on his shoulder. It was like pressing on a warm stone wrapped in a dense sponge. There was a weird sensation to it, though, like I was wearing a very thin glove...like I wasn't quite making actual contact with the material of his shirt and the cloth itself didn't react to my prod at all. 'How am I going to see that woman naked if I can't move her clothes?'

I looked around, realizing this had to be real. The old man may have been able to fake it, to stand there, unmoving, unblinking, breathing carefully, and he might even have gotten that woman to be an accomplice to help him with the ruse, to give me an easy incentive to try the device. But the traffic outside? The people walking by? And how could he make sound stop like this? Time was truly standing still.

An evil grin spread across my lips as I set the watch on the counter and I rubbed my hands together like a plotting villain. I still needed to figure out what I could realistically get away with, but the sinister ideas were coming in rapid-fire succession. 'The old man said he'd had his way with women and made himself rich, so I must be able to move and effect things while time is stopped,' I considered. 'But, how?'

I gently kicked at one of the packs of cigarettes on the floor, but it was like it was a part of the building. I stooped and tried to pry it up with my fingers, but it wouldn't budge...at first. After a moment of straining with white-knuckled intensity, the feeling of not being able to make real contact with the pack faded and I fell on my butt as it came away from the tiles like I had pulled it from a jar of cold honey.

I blinked at the pack in my hands, stunned I had moved it. I carefully and deliberately opened the pack, taking care to go slow and waiting until I could feel real contact had been made with the object, then I eased a cigarette out and placed it between my lips. 'I guess I just need to not rush things. Good to know. I wonder if I can light it?' I pulled a disposable lighter out of the rack on the counter and gave it a few experimental flicks, but it resisted my pushing and the wheel wouldn't spin very far so I couldn't make it produce sparks. After a little while, it seemed the resistance lessened, and I could work it properly, but the sparks were small and weak and the fluid inside wasn't catching fire like I expected. 'Hmmm, so there are definitely some limitations to what I can do. I'll have to pay attention for stuff like that. I wonder how he drove cars?'

I set the cigarette and lighter on the counter, remembering what had made me decide to try the watch in the first place, then moved past the old man to open the little gate behind him. 'Let's go take a peek at this girl,' I thought with a wicked grin.

I found her, slightly bent forward in one aisle, inspecting packages of candy displayed on a rack. She was wearing a simple, blue-and-white striped, tube-style dress that hung to her ankles with strappy little sandals on her feet and she looked like a normal, brunette, thirty-something white mom out running errands with a pink, glittery, wallet-style phone case in one hand and her hair tied back in a loose ponytail at her neck. I grabbed her skirt and slowly eased it up past her hips, exposing her long, lean legs and pert, pale bottom.

'No panties!' My appreciative whistle sounded extremely loud in the unnatural silence and I dropped her skirt guilty as I furtively glanced from side to side over my shoulders, feeling like I had been caught in my voyeuristic act. The fabric dropped languidly into place against her and rapidly came to rest in a strange, billowy shape against her lower half, frozen in time once again. I looked at it for a moment, then pulled a candy bar off the shelf and tossed it towards the floor beside me. It traveled a short distance, but once it left my fingers, it quickly came to a stop in midair, caught in a temporal grip waiting for me to start time again before it could finish its fall. 'Interesting. Will she feel her skirt shift when I start time up again? If I grope her, will she feel like she's been touched somehow? Damn, and how would sex with a woman like this work? Will it pass by for her like a glitch in the matrix, or will it just hit her all at once? I guess this is what the old man meant about being careful with what you do. It seems some evidence of my interference will be left behind when I move things like that. Also, good to know.'

I picked her skirt up again and slid the dress up her body until it was wadded right under her arms, exposing most of her softness to my view. She was wearing a plain, white satin bra over her perky little B-cups and had a light golden tan with the pale outline of her bikini bottoms spread across her ass and hips. I stepped up behind her and pressed my pelvis against her butt, then ran a hand down along her stomach to find out if she was shaved or not. She was and the lack of prickly stubble said she had done it recently. The smooth skin under my fingers split down the middle to let me massage her little clit.

My cock was getting rock hard and I let the woman go to unbuckle my belt. 'Let's see how this works, then,' I thought stepping out of my pants. It was like rubbing against an old, plastic mannequin at first, rigid and resistant, but it seemed all it took was my touch and a bit of patience to make something thaw from its locked-up state. Soon, it was like humping a large doll, with soft and rubbery flesh outside, but a firm, solid layer underneath. Any part of her I held on to for a few moments became pliant and nearly normal in my hand. Her pussy was softening up as my stiff dong rubbed back and forth against her slit. 'I wonder what would happen if I touched her head? Would her brain thaw enough to notice what was happening? What would that do to her mind to be between times like that? Man, I need to be really careful with what I do.'

It was very strange, but very exciting, taking advantage of this woman who would never know I had done anything to her, in what seemed to be broad daylight, with people passing by right outside the wide open windows. The head of my dick was very sensitive from the effort of pressing into her time-tightened hole and I felt like I was already about to cum. I was suddenly worried about leaving behind physical evidence of my activities and wondered if I should stop when the woman's body softened up more and I slipped into her virgin-like cunt with a long, slow push. "Oh...my...god," I breathed as I began to gently rock my hips. "Its been way too long since I've gotten laid and a girl like this would never give me the time of day normally. But here I am fucking her in the middle of the store and there's nothing she can do about it! We'll never even know each other's names! This is fucking crazy!"

I slowed my movements, grinding against her and wanting to hold back from cumming to savor the moment as long as possible, but it was no use. I could feel the familiar tension in my crotch that said my load was about to blow. I bit my lip and frantically looked around for a place to shoot it, but that would just leave a messy splatter on something for this woman to find. There was no time to think of anything better, so I just gripped her hips tightly, shoved as deeply into her pussy as my cock would go and blasted my jizz into her. The intense sensations rocketing up my spine with each knee-weakening, body-wracking pulse made my eyes roll back in my head with pleasure. It felt so amazing to cum inside a girl again after all this time, I just kept thrusting and throbbing until every drop was pumped out of me.