It can take a long time to find you're immortal.

It can.

I heard this from someone in my childhood. Some dark shadow I spoke to in passing.

I didn't understand at the time. Being a young boy I simply thought this shadowy person was being symbolic. Giving me some bit of advice that I wouldn't understand until later.

I still don't understand.

I'm going to need to ask you to suspend your idea of reality for a few minutes.

I keep track of days with an obsessiveness that is likely unhealthy. I knew I was immortal when, after turning twenty five, my appearance remained the same. For years I thought it was normal until my friends began to wrinkle and grey.

"How do you manage it?" They would ask. "You've not aged a day!"

I would shrug with a smile and say, "Just luck I suppose. I don't think it will last long."

But it did last. It continued.

My friends grew older and older. Bones aching, surgeries, chronic illnesses, slowly breaking down. I remained the same. I didn't realize what it meant until I was sitting with my best friend in the park. He was mostly bald now, and had several grandchildren.

"You know, Janus," he'd said. "You haven't changed at all."

I had sighed, laughed a bit, and leaned back. "Tell me something I don't know."

He had turned to look at me, put a hand on my shoulder, and grinned. "No. Hear me out. Then you can figure out if you think I'm a crazy man."

I'd raised an eyebrow at him, told him I already thought he was a crazy man. He'd laughed, and explained that he thought I was immortal.

I'd brushed it off at the time as a joke between guys who had known each other for eighty years. Then I had an accident.

I was driving home late at night. I'd been the last to leave my friend's grave. I felt hollow and distracted. Really I shouldn't have climbed into that driver's seat, but I had.

As I'm sure you've already guessed, I went off the road. My car rolled several times, my airbag didn't go off, and I hit a tree. I don't remember much about it other than darkness and pain. I do specifically remember something buried deep in my chest and through my heart.

Obviously I survived. I survived being stabbed through the heart. Doctors called it a miracle. I had recovered in only a couple of weeks.

I called it horrifying. It confirmed what my friend had told me not so long ago. I was immortal.

The realization shook me. I grew withdrawn. I pushed people away, realizing I would live far longer than them. I could barely look at myself. I turned all the mirrors around.

-

"And now here I am."

Janus ran one long fingered hand through his short brown hair. His mismatched silver and gold eyes flicked to the date time display in the corner of the room.

3:46
April 2, 2130

Silence fell for several moments. The shimmering blue hologram sitting beside Janus' chair tilted her head and made a couple notes on her clipboard. "Let me just clarify, Mr. Culsans. You believe you're immortal?"

"I was born in nineteen ninety-three. At this point, how can I not be immortal?" He didn't mention the things he had discovered he could do.

The woman in the hologram shifted. She opened her mouth and Janus felt the tug of a weighty choice about something. She was going to say something that would have a very drastic impact on where time would take them next.

Janus snapped his fingers. The date time display froze, the sounds of traffic outside vanished instantly, and several birds froze in flight. He leaned forward, staring at the woman. His eyes glinted, seeming deeper and more intense than before. "Think carefully before you speak," he said calmly.

The woman looked around in alarm. "What just happened?"

"You know the myth of Janus, don't you?" Janus drummed his fingers on one knee.

The woman shook her head, eyes wide.

Janus let out a long breath. "Well then... he's the Greek god of beginning, doorways, gates, endings, choices, and transitions. He's both your best friend and worst enemy. Good and evil. Light and dark. I'm certainly no god, but I can tell when someone has a great decision and..." he pointed at the hologram. "You do. I'm giving you extra time to consider and if you change your mind after, so long as it's before you finish speaking to me, I can take you back."

The woman was speechless. She stared at him in shock as he leaned back casually. Eventually, she got her voice back. "You... you stopped time?"

"Yes."

"If I walk out of my office, nothing will be moving?"

"I certainly hope not. That's never ended well. Unless it's a cat."

"A cat?"

"That is what I said... isn't it?"

Silence.

"You nearly decided yet? I'm not impatient mind you, but it does take energy to hold the entire universe still in time."

The woman closed her eyes for a moment. She didn't say anything, but Janus felt the decision. Time continued as it had before.

Janus leaned back. He gazed at the hologram as she tapped her clipboard.

She leaned forward with a small smile. "Tell me more."

Janus relaxed. One person on his side. His first almost friend in years.