The stairs were narrow and slick with moisture, descending in a spiral so tight that Elias had to keep one hand on the wall to stay steady.Each step echoed like a heartbeat — heavy, rhythmic, almost deliberate.
He didn't know what he expected to find down there. A mechanism? Another memory? Or maybe the part of himself that kept slipping through his fingers every time the clock struck 11:55.
The deeper he went, the colder it became. The air was thick with the scent of rust and something else — something older, like burned paper and rain-soaked wood.
At last, he reached the bottom.
The passage opened into a circular chamber carved from stone. Water dripped from the ceiling into a shallow pool at the center, reflecting the flicker of his lantern. The walls were covered in symbols — dozens of them — drawn in charcoal and blood, repeating over and over:
"Five minutes before truth."
Elias's voice trembled. "Who… who wrote these?"
The reflection in the water shifted.
It wasn't his.
For a moment, he saw Lena — or something that looked like her — standing behind him, her eyes wide and glistening with tears. She was whispering something, but the sound came through distorted, as if muffled by glass.
He turned sharply — nothing. Only the dripping water and his own ragged breathing.
He looked back at the pool.
Now, the surface rippled, and a faint ticking rose from below. Not from a clock this time — from beneath the water.
Cautiously, he reached in. His fingers brushed something cold and metallic. He grasped it and pulled — a pocket watch, half-buried in the mud, its face cracked and its hands frozen at 11:55.
For a moment, all sound stopped. The ticking, the dripping — even his breathing.
Then, from the dark corners of the chamber, came that voice again.
"You were supposed to stop it."
Elias backed away. "Stop what?"
The voice was soft now, almost pleading.
"The moment. The choice. You let it happen."
Images began to flash — the road again, the rain, the headlights blinding him.Lena's voice screaming his name.The world slowing down.The sound of something breaking.
He dropped the pocket watch. It hit the ground with a hollow metallic clink — and the entire chamber began to shudder.
Water rippled outward from the center, forming a perfect circle. The symbols on the walls began to glow faintly, pulsing like veins.
And then — a figure stepped out from the reflection.
It was Lena.Or rather, something that remembered being her.
Her skin was pale, her hair clinging to her face as if she'd just stepped out of the rain. But her eyes — they were glassy, mechanical, faintly ticking inside like clock gears.
"Elias…" she whispered. "Do you know what time it is?"
He could barely speak. "Lena, I— you're—"
She tilted her head, smiling faintly. "You said you'd stop the clock. Before it happened. Before I…"
Her voice cracked, glitching on the last word.
Elias stepped forward, his heart breaking. "I tried. I swear I tried to reach you."
Her expression twisted — sadness and fury all at once. "You didn't. You let it repeat. Again and again."
"I don't understand!" Elias shouted. "What do you mean 'again'?"
She raised her hand — and the pocket watch flew back into it. The gears inside spun violently, though the hands didn't move.
"Every night at 11:55, you wake up here. You climb the tower. You remember pieces. You promise to stop it. And then you forget again."
Elias's blood ran cold.
She stepped closer, whispering now, inches from his face.
"You built this town to bury me, Elias. Every building, every street, every clock… all pieces of your guilt."
Her eyes flickered with light, showing scenes — the forest road, the broken car, his hands covered in blood, her motionless body in the rain.
"You called it Hollow's End. Because you knew nothing would fill it."
Elias fell to his knees, shaking. "Please… please, I didn't mean to—"
"Then stop it."
The words rang through the chamber, shaking the water, cracking the stone.
"Go back. Stop the moment. End the loop before the clock strikes twelve."
"How?"
She looked down at the pocket watch in her hand, then pressed it into his palm. "By remembering what you've been running from."
The chamber began to collapse — walls shaking, water rising.
"Go!" she screamed. "Before you forget again!"
Elias turned and ran up the stairs, clutching the watch. Each step blurred, reality bending around him — flashes of the car, the rain, Lena's face, and the clock tower's pendulum swinging in sync with his heartbeat.
He burst out into the open air, gasping as thunder cracked above the square. The town was empty, the streets twisted, buildings bending inward like the whole world was folding onto itself.
He looked down at the watch in his hand — the crack in its glass glowing faintly red.
The hands began to move for the first time.11:56.
Elias stared, realization dawning on him.This time, it wasn't going to reset.
He had four minutes left.
To be continued…
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