There are moments in everyone’s life when time seems to stand still.  These are the moments where something so significant happens that time seems to literally stop and the world around you seems to pause, unmoving.  Everything else takes a backseat as you can only focus on that one event before you; it is suddenly all that seems to matter.  Everything else goes out the window as you surrender yourself to the sheer emotion of the moment.

A kiss.  A touch.  A whispered declaration of love.  These are the moments that take your breath away.  These are the things that make you close your eyes in an attempt to memorize every movement, every word, everything about what is happening that very second so that you can remember it later, over and over again.

Then there are the less fortunate moments where something happens and time suddenly stops as you are brought to your knees.   Time halts, and the world ceases to turn on its axis.  The world as you know it ceases to exist, and you are frozen in that one moment in time.

Slowly, the world begins to move around you again.  Time marches on once more, as it always does.  And you come crashing down as you realize that your life will never be the same again.

You slowly push forward, alive but not really living.  You don’t understand how everyone around you can seem to go on and continue with their lives when yours feels as if it’s over.  You can’t figure out why the rest of the world seems to resume moving when it still feels as if you’re trapped in time.  The past has an intense hold on you, and won’t let go, leaving you spellbound as the memories play themselves out in your head on repeat.

You’re lost; frozen in that one moment when your life was forever altered, knowing you’ll never be whole again.  Your heart has been broken, and there’s not enough time in the world to put the pieces back together, or enough glue in the world to hold the fragments of your shattered heart to make it complete again.

Everyone says it will get better.  They all lie.  It never does.

This was how Alice felt the moment she lost Dana.  In the second that Dana took her last breath, Alice felt the world come to a shuddering halt around her as she blacked out everything else.  She heard nothing but the pounding of her own heart.  Felt nothing but her heart breaking.  Saw nothing except the look on Dana’s face as her eyelids slowly shut for the last time.

The world began to move again, yet Alice remained frozen in that moment.