What would happen if you had the ability to manipulate time?

6:00 AM

Mom: “Davis get up, let’s go”

Me: “mumphhm (Not yet being able to articulate words), C-coming”

I went to bed at 1:30 because I stayed up all night on discord… 4.5 hours of sleep. Ugh, I wish I went to bed at 10:00. 10:00. 10:00

A sudden urge, an itch, a twitch, appears in my thumb and middle finger. I instinctively snap. *poof* I find myself sitting in my desk chair, staring at my laptop.

What the hell… am I dreaming again

I do a quick reality check, flicking myself in the cheek once or twice. Then I check the time on my computer. It reads 22:00.

22 hours, that’s 10:00. Did I just time travel? Ok well, it won’t hurt to try again. 6:24. 6:24. 6:24.

I snap again and find myself standing in my kitchen, after just coming home from fencing practice.

I can’t believe it, it worked! I can travel backwards. What about forwards? Ok, let’s go. Tomorrow morning, right where I started.

I snap again, this time nothing happens. The time mechanic only works one way.

Ok, I guess I can only go backwards. I can’t tell anyone, but I can sure have some fun with this. Last Saturday. *Snap*. Now I won’t have to deal with school while I do this operation.

I spend the day playing video games and slacking off. At the end of the day, I rewind it from the beginning and play again… and again… and again.

Ok, I’ve had my fun. It’s time to work on the important stuff.

I start the day from the beginning. This time I practice piano and read my books instead of slacking off. I do it again… and again… and again. A month passes of the same day. I stay determined. Another month passes, two months, four months, a year. I have gone through nine books of sheet music.

It’s time to start something new. Maybe I should learn how to cook.

I restart the day and read exclusively from cookbooks and online tutorials. I buy fresh ingredients and learn a few new recipes every day. A month passes, two months, four months, a year. I have gone through a stack of cookbooks.

Something new. I should learn how to draw and paint.

I buy paints and canvases. I watch online tutorials and study techniques. I learn brush strokes and shading. A month passes, two months, four months, a year. I can replicate the Mona Lisa from memory.

I have all of these skills, what is the point. I have isolated myself from society, stuck in my own world. I go through the same conversations with my parents every day, they’re the only people I talk to.

No. Don’t give up. If I don’t do this my power will be taken for granted. I need to utilize this ability to its full potential.

I repeat the cycle and learn martial arts, marksmanship, mastery over almost every known weapon, medical training, psychology, math, science, writing, business, manufacturing, sports, thousands of instruments, every imaginable field of expertise. I am a master of everything and it only took me a few hundred lifetimes. I have lived for centuries, all over the course of one day.

It has been lonely, hollow, and joyless. I am a machine, no longer human. I am better than everyone in everything. Life is purposeless. Time has consumed me.