With every slowed-down beat, the streetlights didn't just flicker; they stretched. Elias closed his eyes, and he wasn't in the car anymore. He was back in that summer three years ago. The smell of sun-warmed pine and the sound of laughter that shouldn't have been there anymore. It was a memory, but through the lens of the music, it was thick, syrupy, and inescapable. The Weight of the Reverb

He could see the individual droplets of salt water suspended in the air. He could see the way the light caught the gold in her eyes. The song pulled the moment apart like taffy, exposing every tiny detail he had forgotten. The Static Reality

As the bass surged, the world outside his windshield started to warp. The First Ripple