An electric buzzer chimed as the door to the antique store opened. A man in his mid thirties entered the store, followed by his pre-teen son. Where the man was immediately drawn to several boxes of old vinyl's, Kyle was more interested in his phone. He slumped into a chair and played a few mindless games, growing more and more irritated until finally he snapped. He stuffed his phone into his pocket and stomped over to his dad, moaning "oh my gooood! We've been here for half an hour and you're still looking at those records!?"
Kyle's dad patted him on the shoulder and replied "You know I like to be thorough. I wouldn't want to miss something incredible because I rushed through. Why don't you have a look around, you might find something special".
"Uuggghhh! But there's like nothing here, it's all old junk."
"You don't know that until you've looked. Besides, I only have one more box to look through. I'll be 10 minutes, tops".
Kyle groaned again, and stumbled away from his dad, narrowly missing an ornate vase on the way. His dad always dragged him into these stores just to find old fogey music on ancient disks and he didn't see the point of it. They didn't even own a record player so he couldn't even play them, it was a waste of time. The worst part was that Kyle couldn't just do his own thing elsewhere while he waited, his dad made him stay like some little kid who needed coddling. Kyle hated it, he was 12 years old dammit! He was practically a teenager by this point, or would be in the next few months. All his friends were allowed to hang out at the mall or the beach by themselves but not him. It wasn't fair, all he wanted was some freedom to do what he liked. He griped to himself while glancing at the kitschy objects that lined the shelves with disinterest. He'd pick up an item or two to look at the price before putting them down, knowing his dad would never spend that much on him. He eventually walked down the final aisle lined with timepieces that all ticked out of sync with each other. He was as uninterested in the clocks around him as everything else but something caught his eye near the end of the aisle. He barely noticed it as it was hidden behind a tacky beer bottle shaped clock and a blindingly colourful neon clock. He reached his hand behind them and pulled out a small pocket watch attached to a chain. It was ancient looking, covered with so much rust that it was impossible to tell what it looked like underneath. There were plenty of buttons and dials around the outside rim. He cracked it open and let out a small gasp. It was unlike any clock he'd seen before. For one thing, it didn't have the hours around the outside of the clock face unless there was a moment in history that there were 100 hours in a day. And there were stylized symbols on the inside, separated into four clusters. Fiddling with the dials seemed to select an individual symbol out of each cluster, but nothing else seemed to work.
"It's a peculiar looking stopwatch isn't it" a voice said from behind, startling him. Kyle turned around to see a kind-looking old man wearing a grey, stuffy suit. He recognized him as the owner of the antique store.
"Stopwatch? That explains the numbers" Kyle muttered.
"Yes, one of the first created by Samuel Adams himself". The man took the watch and turned it over, pointing to barely legible initials. "Or so it's commonly thought. The watch itself appears to be decades, maybe even centuries, older than him. I theorize that he found it one day and tried to replicate it, without these unnecessary add-ons". He pointed at the switches and dials that intrigued Kyle.
"So what do they do, what do all the symbols mean?" Kyle asked.
The man frowned and replied "I'm afraid I don't know. It hasn't worked for as long as I've had it in my collection. I tried getting to work and well..." He shrugged his shoulders.
Kyle grumbled "I bet I could get it working, can't be that hard..." but the man heard him.
"You can't!" he cried. "It's such a valuable piece of history, you can't tamper with it! If you break it, who knows what'll... It's valued in the tens of thousands!".
The man had a mix of worry and terror on his face that made Kyle feel uncomfortable. "Okay, I'll leave it alone..." he sighed as he put the watch back behind the novelty clocks. The man relaxed, smiled and left. But Kyle wasn't satisfied. The man was hiding something from him and he wanted to know what. He pulled out his phone and searched "making an old stopwatch work" online. It didn't take long to find a how-to article showing just what to do. He grabbed the watch again and pulled up on the loop the chain was hanging from, twisting it around. After a few seconds, the watch started to vibrate in his hand and one of the hands of the watch slowly rotated until it stopped in-between the 10 and 15 intervals. It wouldn't move any further than that so Kyle stopped twisting the loop. Next came the ultimate test to see if it worked, pressing the button on top. However, there were two buttons. Kyle hovered a thumb over the buttons, shrugged, and pushed down the button on the left. Some sort of pulse seemed to emanate from the watch, spreading outwards in a wave. Kyle shivered, It felt like he'd been shocked with static electricity. Despite the feeling, none of the watch hands moved again. Kyle sighed and moved his thumb to the right hand button when he noticed something wrong. The constant ticking noise in the aisle was gone. All of the clocks around him had stopped working. Kyle wondered whether that pulse he felt was to do with it. Maybe it was an electromagnetic pulse that could knock out electronic devices. It would explain why the shop owner kept it unwound and hidden away. It was eerily silent in the shop. Kyle put the watch back and quickly walked away from it and back to his dad before the shop owner noticed he'd used it.
Kyle sighed once he got back to his dad who was still looking through the boxes of vinyl's. "You're still doing that? It's been more than 10 minutes now, I want to gooooo!" Kyle moaned. His dad didn't reply. "Come on, you said 10 minutes. I'm getting hungry". Still nothing. Kyle gave him a poke, then a light push. Kyle looked down at the box and noticed his dad wasn't looking through it. His arms were in the box, but he wasn't moving. "Dad?" he softly said, waving a hand in front of his face. No reaction. Kyle grew anxious and looked around the store. The few customers inside were as still as his dad was. Even the store owner was frozen in place restocking a shelf. Cautiously, Kyle walked to the door and looked outside. He gasped. Everything had stopped moving. It was like someone had replaced the window with a photograph. People were as still as statues, the fountain in front of the store had stopped running, he could even see a few birds and a plane in the sky, frozen in place. It finally dawned on Kyle what had happened with a crushing realisation. The stopwatch had stopped time! He hurried back to the aisle and grabbed the watch. He looked back and pressed the left button again. He felt that weird pulse come from the watch as everything around him restarted. The ticking clocks, the store music, his dad rifling through boxes, the shop owner stocking shelves. Kyle grinned wide and pressed it a few more times, barely containing his excitement as time stopped and started over and over. He stared at the timepiece in his hands with awe. He couldn't leave the store without the stopwatch, not after experiencing such power! But his excitement faltered as he remembered how much it cost. And he doubted the owner would part with the watch even if he could afford it. Kyle's spirits were crushed as he started to put the watch away for a final time when an idea struck him. He pressed the button once more, that now familiar pulse spreading outwards and freezing everything around him. Devilishly smirking, he strolled to the front of the store and opened the door. No buzzer chimed as he left. He strolled away from the store and towards the beach, very confident that nobody would stop him. The watch was his!