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When I saw the ceiling of my room, a heavy feeling of regret seized me completely.

- I'd overreacted, and she was still gone! Shit!

My hand mechanically struck the wall, but there was no sound or pain.

- Damn walls! This room wants to drive me crazy!

Out of anger, I started hitting the mattress with my hand.

- This whole thing pisses me off! And these damn shadows, why the hell did it turn out this way?!

I got up from the bed and started kicking the wall with my feet - trying to vent my anger.

- I hated it!

My legs kicked the wall until I was tired, and then I was sprawled out on the floor.

- Damn, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I lay on the floor for a while, thinking long and hard about what had happened. I also remembered my past.

- If you think about it, I had always been comfortable when I was alone, but on difficult days I always wanted someone to talk to. Apparently this is the time, and to lose someone in a place like this... It seems to be exactly what I'm freaking out about right now..., It would seem, why am I even so worried about the loss of someone I don't know? I'd known her for about 20 minutes...

I stared at the chandelier aimlessly.

- I always thought I could take life alone very easily, but if you think about it, when I feel bad, I'm always looking for companionship and the like. I'm probably really in a bad place... In the army I often called my relatives when I was given time on the phone, I talked to them very often... My mother and father though divorced when I was young, but both were financially well off to support us. And I had a lot of free time, no one forbade me to do anything, neither my father nor my mother.

I got up from the floor and sat on the bed.

- I wish I knew how my mother was doing now, and she called me, she was worried, now I would really like to talk to her... I had a very dry conversation the last time... Would there be an opportunity to talk to her again? How lousy I feel now, when there is no one to talk to. Even Dima... Dima... It's been three years since the day he was in the accident, and he still hasn't recovered. And how will he be rehabilitated, and will he be turned off? I don't think I'll ever know.

I hunched over and looked out the window.

- And how could such different people even get along? We'd been friends since the fifth grade. I don't think there was any way I could have influenced him, he was very outgoing and he always had company, which didn't do him any good this time, and I can't really judge him.

My gaze lowered.

- Best friend... I don't think we would have had much in common, we would have gone our separate ways just like the others-"our own way. Who stayed in my life, anyway? I could never talk to my colleagues, all my acquaintances were lost in time and life... At the most I could talk to my sister, but she had her own life, and I could not show my father weakness, and I wanted him to be proud of me. There's only mother left...

I lay back on the bed.

- It's hard to make good acquaintances. I am 22 now, and during this time I have already studied to be a chef and joined the army... But many of my classmates are still studying at "high schools", someone on contract, somewhere else, and in the city where I live, no colleges, no "high schools", one PTU for the whole city, even a girl of my age is simply not available...

My gaze turned to the pen dangling from the thread.

- I looked very masculine, there was even hope...double hurt...

My eyes closed.

- And then I was alone... Again, alone with the shadow that was in the reflection of the damn shard.

I rolled over on my side.

- Man, if I hadn't met the girl, it wouldn't have hurt so much. So much on my mind right now. Scattered in my hands like a broken pencil of this room.

I continued to lie on the bed.

- Would there be another person in this place? In fact, would there be anywhere else, wouldn't a monster devour me and digest me forever in its stomach...

I wrapped myself in a blanket and tried to sleep.

- Sleep usually gives me a break from everything, and here, it could be my biggest nightmare. "In my sleep" ... good thing she could wake up from it, and I couldn't escape.

Disturbing thoughts came and went, questions and any appreciation gone, until the shards showed, in which that shadow flashed and my normal reflection returned.

- Gone, huh? Everything here disappears...

I turned my head toward the empty city and returned to my reflection. I picked up the shard, and gazed into it. The usual reflection, just like in life.

- Still, here I look like I do in life... Why were these shadows here at all? Maybe I was so tired that they got away from me? I hope so...

After examining the shard, I took off my backpack and opened it - No inscriptions were left.

- The fleeing had tamped down the sugar... Now only the city itself reminds me of what happened here...

I scooped sugar with my hand to drown out my feelings, but it would not go down my throat.

- It is impossible to enjoy it in this place... I should leave this city and return to the forest. I will do so, I hope to stumble upon another location, I would like to take something as a memory... But there is nothing. Broken glass? No, it would only leave regrets...

There was no one around, a dead and silent city.

- A city of shadows... Now they're gone too... Maybe they've got her? I hate to think the worst, I hope she's okay...

I closed my backpack and hung it on my shoulders, then continued wandering through the streets where the shadows used to be, all the way to the supermarket, which turned out to be empty.

- It was even deader than I thought, all the buildings empty, just boxes. Only the shadows made this town look lively... It was like visiting a computer game that was only in development.... A very empty city...

The store didn't even have any storefronts - a vacant white room.

- The previous house was much more fulfilling than this store. Why did this place become like this? Could this be the true look of a ghost town?

The sky maintained its grayness.

- The weather is appropriate... Gloomy gray clouds that shelter the sun in their sadness... The mood is clearly mine and this empty city....

As I walked further towards the center, I found that the city was small, with fog spreading out in the distance.

- It seemed like it would soon engulf the place. It was as if everyone had left here, taking their things. In fact, everything... Still, there's really nothing here, even too much nothing... We need to keep going.

The town looked more like a village.

- It's about 300 by 300 meters, an awfully small town... It's pretty cramped. Still, I got scared of the shadows too quickly and didn't have time to look around then. It's not as big as I thought it would be.

I sat down on a bench and bumped my backpack against the backrest.

- Okay, I'd better get to the woods, or I'd be in the fog, and there'd obviously be some meeting with the boss and running in and out of my room. Yeah, the woods are more reliable, I'll sit on the path and think about the important details... I totally forgot about the time... it has shifted, and it seems to have shifted quite significantly. I'll have to wake up and see.

The fog is slowly beginning to envelop the city.

- So, to relax a little and want hard to go back. I want to go back to the room - I want to go back to the room badly!

Nothing was happening. But patience was enough, and I kept trying for a while.

- Dogs don't help anymore, you have to tune out somehow. I think it's time to practice!

As soon as I thought of the time, my eyes opened already in the room.

- What, that's it? Did I wake up from a certain thought? I didn't understand how I did it. Am I definitely in my room?

There was a view from the window of the sky without earth.

23:61:05 20.06.2020

I walked over to the table. There were the same drawings on the paper and everything retained the look that had last been imprinted in my memory.

- This seemed to be my room, but I'd have to check for sure...

As I bent the corner of a piece of paper and smacked myself on the arm, two seconds later I saw the pain instantly go away and the sheet straighten out.

- There was no doubt, this was definitely my room. So I was really awake. How did I do that? Last time, I was literally in despair, wanting to go back. Why is it working now? Man, I didn't figure out exactly what it was that I came back from, but I definitely have to grope for it!

23:61:05 20.06.2020

- Now on the fifth second... This clock is working... And the time has moved normally, maybe the less pain I get before I go to bed, the more... but no, I don't think so, it's something else... But what is it... What exactly is the mystery here?

I sat down at the table and picked up a pencil.

- What have we got, anyway? The course of time was after awakening, that is, it went somewhere during sleep, and judging by this pendulum...

My gaze shifted to the pen on the string and back to the paper and pencil.

- Judging from the pendulum, the time is relative to the real time..., and I decided it would be safer not to knock it down in my sleep, because it just goes on very long in reality... But... then how did it get that far? If a second takes three hours or more, why has it moved forward four seconds now?

My fingers began to run over the irregularities of the clock.

- Was I what? Have I been asleep for 12 hours? No, it can't be, it's so complicated...

I left the clock on the table and started rocking on the chair myself, pushing back and balancing with my foot.

- Maybe they work differently at all? Or is time speeding up exponentially? Then in a few minutes they'll do wonders, but wait... I've been sitting here for a long time and I was apathetic, and they seemed to be in the same position... How do they work? Maybe they're jumping around at all? Or something else? What principles do they hold on to?

I looked at the clock again.

- On three whales... Pfft... Yeah, it's kind of funny. Who came up with these whales holding up the world, anyway? They rather keep me from the world... Absurd as it may seem, but I seem to be getting used to it...

Having stopped rocking in my chair, I took a pencil to twist it in one hand, and with the other hand propped my head up.

- I am aware that only after sleep have there been shifts in time, namely two:

1. Goat house - 1 second.

2. City of Shadows - 4 seconds.

I jabbed the pencil into the sheet twice and continued to twirl it in my fingers.

- The times were different, completely different, and yet, before I entered the city - there was no change on the clock.

The pencil stopped.

- That doesn't clarify anything! How do you adjust them without buttons!? Throw out the watch along with the manual please! Why did I pick it up in the first place? It doesn't know what it's doing to my room, or to me in general...

I leaned back in my chair and sighed.

- It's so complicated... How can I ever really understand what's going on here? And there's nowhere to go... there's no way out: I have to do something and figure something out... This watch is definitely the cause of all this, and if I figure it out, I can obviously influence what's going on...

My head fell back and my gaze rested on the white ceiling...

- The same ceiling... It looks like I'm going to get sick of it sooner or later, and it's the most invulnerable, just like the walls... Maybe it's the room that makes them work this way? Something seems to me that it is... And now I have to think about how to live in it. The issues of physical needs are somehow solved here, but the psychological ones... There's a problem with that.

I got up from the chair and sat down on the bed.

- I still have to figure something out; I guess time moved during sleep for a reason.

As I settled on the bed, I began to prepare for sleep. Relaxation came quickly enough, and sleep began its course.

I found myself on the bench again with my backpack on my back. Ahead of me was the center of town, and beyond that was the fog.

- We need to get out of this place...

I got up from the bench and went out of the city. Ahead of me was the same pine forest.

- It seemed to be more familiar.

Upon entering the forest, that house was no longer there. The same pine trunks were still around, only the air felt a little different. The clouds were casting their grayness over this forest as well.

- It seemed that the weather here was mystical too, but at least there were no fogs...

Behind the pines in the distance the sea was seen and something else...

- What was that? Is that the beach? Can we go back to that beach?

Behind the beach there was a mountain.

- What? A mountain? It's a different place... but it looks different... we have to get closer!

A view opened up of some mountains covered in dark pine trees.

- This is Montenegro! I remember these mountains! I used to vacation here when I was a kid!

I stepped out of the forest onto the beach, which was strewn with rocks. I could see the mountains in front, and on the right side was the spa town.

- This was the town! But ... what was its name ... I forget ...

As I passed by the walls of the buildings, I looked around the windows for shadows, but the reflections remained the same. Meanwhile. The clouds began to part.

- It didn't seem to be a city of shadows, and I could see furniture, mini-palms, and other things inside the buildings.

The buildings were low white houses with very small rooms.

- I don't think I could find the very cabin where we spent the night. I don't remember much, but they are all the same, cramped and comfortable only on the outside. Most of the rooms are for tourists and all are single rooms.

Walking along the street, I saw several people. And among them was suddenly my mother.

"Mom?! Is she here?!"

I immediately ran to them. My mother was trying to take a picture of the scenery. A blond woman, looking younger than her years. Could have been confused more with her sister. Dressed in light white pants and a blue plaid shirt.

- Mom, it's me!

The woman turned around.

- Oh, Vitya!

- Are you really my mother? Is it true?!

- What do you mean? Of course you are my son, what silly questions.

Holding back tears, I hugged my mother, whom I might never see again.

- Vitya, come on, what happened?

I could not say anything for a while.

- Everything will be all right, Vitya - I'm here. Why are you sad?

I remembered what had happened, and with a little shiver in my voice I began to speak.

- I'm sorry that I called so little, and that I hung up so quickly. For the idle conversation, I'm sorry.

- It pleases me that you are so concerned about me.

- How did you end up here?

- How did I get here? What a strange question. I'm on vacation. Have you decided to take a vacation with me?

After a short pause, a little frustrated, I muttered:

- I'm sleeping right now... it's a dream.

- A dream? But does it look like a dream?

- It's hard to explain..., and I don't know, maybe you'll disappear like that girl, but I want you to know that I'm very grateful that you've supported me all this time and that you've been very patient with me.

- You're my son, how could I not be? But why are you so sad? What's wrong?

- I don't know... I don't know, I just picked up a strange watch, and then it went out of time and acted weird. I stayed in the room forever...I don't know exactly what happened, but my dreams are very clear and all too real. That little house with the goat and that city of shadows, those reflections.

My mother put her arm around me.

- Don't worry, everything will be all right... Let's go buy something delicious, and what's that backpack on your back?

- Oh... well, I found it on the way, and a bag of sugar in it.

- Sugar? In a backpack like that? You're funny. What do you need it for?

"If I tell her I don't have any other food, she's going to freak out."

- They asked me to move it, so I helped.

- And I see you carry your umbrella everywhere, you don't part with it.

- And how else, my favorite umbrella!

- It's good that you liked it, and it has a few years. We bought it for you back in 10th grade. Let's take a walk, I know a beautiful place. Take a picture, okay? I have a camera here, too, which takes pictures right away. It's not much film, but I know what you can do.

I walked down the street with different thoughts:

"Not sad... and that's what she said then, that I looked sad... Could this be the dream? What does it mean? Is that clock sending me back in time and everything was foregone? No, these clocks can't work and influence that much, or... can they?"

- Vitya, here, there's a nice view of the sea, take a picture of me here!

- Yes, now...

I took the camera in my hands and started to pick the angle.

"My dream can't be long enough to take even the time before finding the hours, it was all clear there... or am I dreaming all the time, seeing such clear dreams and forgetting them? Am I just unwilling to acknowledge reality? Or have I lost my mind?"

I clicked the camera and a picture came out. It showed my mother in front of the sea and the mountains.

- Look, you know how to take pictures, it's a beautiful picture.

- Yes, it turned out well.

- Hold the picture for now, now let me take your picture.

I stepped back to the hedge, behind which there was a view of the sea and the mountains. There was a click from the camera.

- Vitya, you blinked, one more time.

Making another click with the camera, another photo came out.

- And this one came out! Take a look at it.

- Yeah, pretty good.

- I'm glad...

My mother disappeared along with my picture... I was left alone near the fence and took the picture out of my pocket

- I knew...