June 12th, 2045 8:12 PM Central Time in the 5th Midwestern District of the Soviet Commune of America. Temperature is mild at 19.4 degrees Celsius with a stiff breeze from the northwest. The forecast is crystal clear skies and the sun has just met the horizon. Just three miles south of a small farming settlement sits a wooden shack with no windows since windows were banned in the 5th Midwestern District ten years ago. Within this wooden shack lives Paul Rogers, his little brother Arthur, his orphan friend Ramsey, and his widowed mother. A small hatch opens on the roof at approximately 8:13:30 PM CT. Paul's homemade telescope peaks out of the hatch pointing towards the heavens.

Paul looks down at a note he found in his fathers old safe. The note read "June 12th at dusk, Pegasus will lose its tail." It didn't take a genius to figure out that whoever wrote the note was referring to constellations. Curiosity got the best of Paul, and despite the heavy consequences by the government for owning a telescope, he had to know why Pegasus might be missing its tail tonight.

Beneath the note was a constellation map that Paul used to find the constellation of Pegasus. The star came into view, or lack thereof. It was a bizarre sight. Paul initially was using his weakest lens to find the anomaly and at first glance, it looked as if there was a halo in the sky. As if a mini solar eclipse was happening with a singular star. Paul was dumbfounded. He slowly took out another lens to get a closer look and gingerly placed it into the eyepiece. Paul peered through the telescope and this time it appeared as if the halo was rotating in deep space. Paul's stomach dropped, he recalled an old book his father read to him about astronomy. The subject wasn't taught in public schools so his father always tried his best to find old textbooks on certain subjects from abandoned schools.

"Black Holes are impossibly dense celestial bodies with enough gravitational pull to swallow stars." Those words replayed in Paul's head over and over again as sweat beads rolled down his head. He recalled the textbook illustration which looked strikingly similar to whatever he was seeing through his telescope.

"The singularity at the center of the blackhole is believed to encrypt fourth dimension information, transcending human understanding. If we could only catch a glimpse of the singularity..." Paul's dad's words rang clear. Without hesitation, Paul grabbed the lens with the highest magnification. His hands were shaky as he carefully inserted the lens. He gazed into the black hole.

Paul quickly backed away from the telescope trembling. He forgot what he saw but it didn't matter because he never wanted to see it again. Time seemed to stop or move in an unusual manner within that half of a second. He tried his best to forget as he slowly put his telescope away and hid it underneath some blankets in the attic. Unable to process what just happened he got up and walked downstairs. While walking downstairs he noticed the clock hanging on the wall. It read 8:09. Odd, Paul thought, must be off or needs new batteries. Except every other clock within his house read the exact same time.

Paul came to the indisputable conclusion that he encountered the singularity of a black hole through the lens of his telescope and gained 4 minutes and 18 seconds back from the sands of time.

In an effort to get his mind off of what had just happened, Paul went down to his kitchen for food. He checked the rations calendar. The precinct grocer had only three more days to arrive at their house for next month's food supply. This was perfect. There had to be some leftover snacks in the cabinet. Paul opened the cupboard and found it completely empty aside from a small box of crackers. He could have sworn there were frosted rice cakes when he last checked. And on top of that, he remembered writing a note claiming the rice cakes. Before closing the cabinet, Paul knew the culprit.

"Ramsey! Where are my rice cakes?" Paul yelled. Ramsey entered the kitchen with a smug look on his face.

"They're nice and warm in my stomach, you got nothing to worry about Paul." Ramsey snarked back. Paul exhaled with a defeated expression and grabbed the box of crackers.

"Do I eat your shit? I put a whole note on the box... The grocer arrives in three days and you couldn't wait?" Paul responded as he dropped onto the old living room couch. Dust sprung up into the air.

"Survival of the most desperate Paul... in this case finders keepers." Ramsey said as he sat down next to Paul.

"Whatever dude, hand me the remote, The Nightly is about to start." Said Paul. Ramsey's face looked disgusted.

"Why even bother? You watch the same regurgitated show every night, it honestly bothers me. You really care what our honorable leaders are up to while we fight over rice cakes?" Ramsey responded.

"I just like watching the TV, it's not like I even pay attention..." Paul said back as the old TV came to life. Giant lettering flashed on the screen that read, "ATTENTION VIEWERS - your regular programming is beginning shortly. Any recording and distribution of this presentation will result in death by the Soviet Commune of America." A man in a suit popped onto the screen with the Soviet anthem playing in the background. His cold eyes stared straight from the screen with his hand raised to his brow in a salute. Both Ramsey and Paul stared back disinterested in the theatrics. Finally the music stopped and the man with the suit began speaking.

"Hello! My name is Friedrich Johanson, your host of The Nightly. Tonight is a busy one in the capital as statesmen and inquisitors are preparing for this year's Hegelian Summit. World leaders from Albania, Bulgaria, and Germany are expected to arrive next week and stay in the crown jewel of the capital; The Grand Hotel of St. Petersburg." The voice of Freidrich continued to drone on as Paul slowly stopped paying attention. He instead turned his attention to the box of crackers. As he ate his empty stomach convulsed in hunger. His primal nature got the better of him as he devoured the entire box. Ramsey looked at him in disgust.

"I hate this country... We look absolutely pitiful." He said as his gaze drifted to a boarded up window. "I wonder if it's cloudy outside or not... but good thing we can't see outside, otherwise we might wanna know what else is going on out there!" Ramsey yelled. Arthur came downstairs followed by their mother. She had the same disappointed and dull look on her face.

"Ramsey, please quiet down. I know we live in the country but who knows who could be walking by." She said as she retreated back upstairs. Paul hated seeing his mother these days. Her face was a punch to his gut. Since his dad passed away she has clearly not been the same, and he understood that. But with the death of their dad, it seemed as if their mom went with him. A walking, talking corpse.

Arthur opened up the cabinet for a snack. When he realized the cabinet was empty his face appeared crestfallen. Paul noticed there were some leftover crackers at the bottom. Without hesitation he threw the box at Arthur, despite the protests from his stomach. Arthur's face lit up until he noticed there were only three crackers at the bottom.

"Paul... you might as well finish it. This is just gonna make me more hungry. And Ramsey... you ate like 80% of our rationed snacks. Don't give me that look." Ramsey's smug expression quickly went away. Paul felt regret for not saving crackers for Arthur. How selfish of him he thought. Memories of him grabbing the box of crackers flashed in his mind. "I should've saved some for Arthur..." Paul thought. Feeling defeated he slouched down on the couch and closed his eyes.

Crack.

Crack.

Paul heard a small rumble in the distance. He opened his eyes and right in front of him was a spinning black hole. His whole body froze except for his eyes as he avoided peering into the singularity. "This is all just in your head, Paul," he told himself. "Where is everyone? Where is my house?" He said as he looked around. What surrounded him was an enveloping darkness, as if he were in the deep recesses of space. A force tugged at his eyes. It was as if gravity was pulling his retinas in the direction of the singularity. Paul fought but gave up.

A single white dot sat in the center of the impossibly large black hole. Instantly he fell deep into the center of the dot. The closer he got the smaller it appeared until it was hardly recognizable. He heard Arthur's voice as he fell deeper and deeper. First faint, but the voices grew louder.

"Paul... you might as well finish it. This is gonna make me more hungry." The same phrase repeated itself over and over again until it became unbearably loud. Paul regained control of his body and covered his ears. Finally the voices stopped. It was pin drop quiet. Paul felt a sense of peace overtake his body as the singularity disappeared from view.

"What is happening to me? Is this real or is it in my head? Dad said that if someone could catch a glimpse of the singularity they could understand the fourth dimension. But I thought that was a figure of speech. It's not like I stared at it for more than a moment... You need more time than that to understand its characteristics and nature. I just saw it for a second... a split second... How long is a second? How can one even measure time?" Paul thought.

Paul continued to think about what had been happening to him until he saw a small white dot materialize above him. It was as if the singularity was a repeating sequence that falls down the black hole infinitely.

Paul had no way of avoiding the approaching singularity as it grew larger and larger. He stared upwards, frozen in fear once again. Despite his impractical attempt to move away, the singularity overtook him and a bright light appeared whether his eyes were shut or open.

"Hello! My name is Friedrich Johanson, your host of The Nightly..." Paul opened his eyes and there he was. Sitting on the couch next to Ramsey with a box full of crackers next to him. Paul obviously was quite shaken but what he noticed most was his sense of time was completely uncalibrated. He remembered the moment of sitting next to Ramsey and watching The Nightly but he had no idea what exact time it was, what month, and how old he was.

"Is it April?" Said Paul, unaware why he went with that month. Ramsey looked at him dumbfounded.

"Are you ok? You're sweating a ton. Eat some crackers." Ramsey said with a concerned gaze. Paul opened the box and poured half of it into a bowl making sure to save the other half for Arthur. He felt as if he hadn't eaten in ages so naturally he devoured the crackers. Ramsey made a familiar look of disgust. It was rather surreal for Paul since he had literally seen the same look moments ago in a different timeline.

"I hate this country... We look absolutely pitiful." Word for word, Ramsey repeated what he said before Paul encountered the singularity. Paul's eyes widened in disbelief. He saw Ramsey look at the boarded up window. They both spoke in unison.

"I wonder if it's cloudy outside or not." Ramsey looked at Paul in bewilderment.

"Paul. There is something wrong with you." He said.

"I think you're right Ramsey, and it's not cloudy outside. Come with me." Paul said. He got up and waved Ramsey over to the stairs. Paul decided Ramsey needed to know what happened to him. Despite Paul's hesitation he trusted Ramsey the most for keeping everything a secret. Chills went down Paul's spine when he realized that he could easily get executed or worse, tortured, for seeing the singularity. The inquisitors have done worse for a less offense.

Paul and Ramsey finally reached the attic.

"Paul, what's happening?" Ramsey said in a voice tinged with worry. Paul ignored Ramsey as he tossed aside the blanket covering the telescope.

"You said you wondered whether or not it's cloudy outside... Well, find out for yourself Ramsey." Paul said as he set up the telescope. He threw the hatch open and pulled the note out from underneath a floorboard.

"Ahhhh... I forgot. It's June, June 12th." Paul remarked. "Read this Ramsey." Ramsey's eyes darted across the note as his eyes widened.

"Where did you get this?" He said.

"My dad has an old safe that he hides in the cellar, it's mostly old switchblades and family memorabilia, but this note has always confused me. Until I realized he was talking about constellations... I decided to do my best making a homemade telescope and actually cobbled one together." Paul said. Ramsey looked at him with curiosity blazing in his eyes.

"Paul... What did you see? Is Pegasus actually missing its tail? You realize how ridiculous that sounds?" Ramsey sneered.

"Look for yourself." Paul said in a matter of fact tone. Ramsey kneeled down and positioned the telescope over the constellation of Pegasus.

"It's gone." He said. "Where are your lenses?"

"Ramsey... I need to tell you about what I saw." Paul said nervously.

"Let me find out for myself." Ramsey responded.

"No... this is different. You need to understand—" Ramsey cut off Paul mid sentence as he found the lenses in the tray next to the telescope. He grabbed the highest magnification lens and popped it into the eye piece. Before Paul could say another word, Ramsey looked through. He spent around 40 seconds moving the telescope around looking for the missing star until he came to a halt.

"What is that.." Ramsey muttered underneath his breath. Paul nervously looked around, anticipating Ramsey to have the same negative reaction he had from seeing the singularity. It was nearly a whole five minutes of silence as Ramsey looked through the lens. He didn't move a muscle. He just stared quietly.

"We should go to bed, Paul." Ramsey said as he stood up. He didn't appear shocked or startled.

"Did you see it? Do you understand what that is, Ramsey!" Paul said in desperation.

"Yes... I get it. I saw it. It's a black hole right?" Ramsey said.

"How are you not shocked? Did it mess with your sense of time at all?" Paul remarked.

"No it didn't but I saw it, Paul. I saw the singularity and I'm assuming you did too. You understand what that means, right?" Ramsey said with wide open eyes. Paul was silent. "We just caught a glimpse of the fourth dimension. A reality that transcends common man. You understand that right?"

"Y- yes. I guess I'm not following." Paul said.

"Nevermind, I am going to bed Paul. We need to talk tomorrow after work." Ramsey said as he walked downstairs and closed the door behind him. Paul took another glimpse at his telescope and walked away. "What reality did I create when I looked through that lens," Paul thought as he went to bed himself.