I haven't been myself in over 10 years. Instead, I've been the moldable plaything of Tyme, my master. He's been controlling me ever since the day I broke up with him, and he has me on an iron chain that he has no intentions of releasing me from any time soon. I'm his, and there's no denying it. There's no fighting it. There isn't even a way to ignore it. It's a fact of life.
I guess I should explain how this all came to be.
It was 11 years ago. It was my one year anniversary with a guy named Timothy Harlem. He was a nice guy, as guys went, and i loved him as much as I possibly could, but after I decided I was gay, I had no way for us to really stay together. Plus, I had already started dating a girl, who had shown me much more than Tim had ever given me. And I was planning on breaking up with him that day.
Things never go as you plan them, huh?
We were in his small, one bedroom apartment, each with a "gift" for each other. At least, he had a gift for me. I had a wrapped piece of paper that read, "I'm breaking up with you." If I had to say it, I'd never get it done with.
"Happy anniversary, Harley." Tim said, giving me my gift. It was a small, brown-paper bag, with an inscription in a foreign language, and a clear plastic sheet displaying the contents of the bag. It was a tiny hourglass. More accurately, it would be a minute-glass, but whatever. It was capped with gold ends and filled with what looked to be powdered silver. I had no idea what it was for, or how much it cost, but it must be worth something.
"Wow, it's beautiful!" I said, opening the baggie and removing the hourglass. It was attached to a fine golden chain by a strong magnet, which meant i could flip the hourglass over and have it run while on the chain. "What's it for?"
"Oh, it's a magic hourglass!" Tim said, wrapping the chain around my neck. "It'll give the user power over reality when it's running."
This was another reason I was about to break up with Tim: his naïveté. He always believed even the stupidest things. He once tried to take out a second loan on his house to buy moon property. This newest buy would make breaking up with her easier.
"Well, guess you deserve your gift." I said, passing him the envelope.
"Don't you want to test out the hourglass first?" Tim asked.
"No, we'll see about that later." I replied.
Tim opened the envelope, to find a greeting card. On the outside, it said "There's a Great Guy!" With a pair of binoculars on the cover. Tim giggled lightly, but stopped once he read the inside. The normal message of "Happy Anniversary" was crossed out, and a little note saying "I'm breaking up with you. Sorry." Was in it's place.
Tim's face registered shock for a brief moment, but relaxed and went cold soon after. As if I needed more reason to break up with him, he never displayed proper emotions. Always his hard, stoic face when he was anything than happy.
After a solid 3 minutes of hard expressions, a small tear beaded at his eyes. "I want the hourglass back." He said, not to my surprise. I unhooked the chain from around my neck, and gave it back to him.
"I'm just gonna go." I said as delicately as possible. Tim nodded solemnly, and I left to get my pre-packed bags.
Little did I know that this was the biggest mistake of my life.