1676971801.002 -

He was standing in his old apartment. It was dark, save for the blue glow of a laptop screen in the corner. There she was. Elena was sitting on the floor, typing away at her thesis, completely unaware of the temporal anomaly forming behind her.

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. 1676971801.002

Arthur tried to speak, but his voice was a silent vibration. He looked at the digital clock on the desk. 01:30:00 AM. He was standing in his old apartment

Elena blinked, the confusion on her face suddenly replaced by the sight of her familiar garage. She was safe. She was in 2026. Elena was sitting on the floor, typing away

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.

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.