11:56.
The second hand twitched, dragging the air with it like a scream beneath the skin of time.Elias stared at the glowing pocket watch, the reflection of the cracked glass casting fractured light across his trembling fingers.
The town was unrecognizable now.
What had once been Hollow's End — the quaint streets, the clock tower, the square lined with shuttered windows — was twisting like wet paper in the rain. Houses folded inward, chimneys bent into impossible shapes, and the ground itself pulsed faintly with the rhythm of a ticking heart.
Every sound seemed to whisper the same word:
"Remember."
Elias stumbled forward, clutching the pocket watch to his chest. His mind reeled — flashes of Lena's eyes, the rain, the screech of metal, the sound of her last breath.
He didn't want to see it again.He couldn't.
But the world didn't care what he wanted.
11:57.
The wind rose sharply, carrying with it the smell of smoke and gasoline. Elias stopped at the center of the street — the cobblestones had split apart, exposing a dark void below.He could hear faint echoes, voices calling out from beneath the surface — not words, just shapes of sorrow and anger.
He turned toward the clock tower.Its pendulum was visible now through the shattered glass, swinging with unnatural speed.Every swing brought with it a boom that rippled through the town like a heartbeat.
And there — at the top balcony — stood a silhouette.
Tall. Still. Watching him.
He couldn't make out the face, but he didn't need to.He knew who it was.
"Lena…" he whispered.
The figure didn't move.
Instead, he heard her voice in his mind — not echoing, not external, but inside, soft and cold:
"You always stop here."
He flinched. "What?"
"You never make it to the tower. You break before you remember. You always look away before it happens."
Elias shook his head violently. "Not this time."
He ran.
His boots splashed through puddles of distorted reflection — each one showing a different version of himself: some screaming, some kneeling beside a wrecked car, one even smiling blankly.
Each reflection whispered something as he passed.
"It wasn't your fault.""You could've braked.""You wanted to see what would happen.""You didn't want her to leave."
He clutched his head, gasping. "Shut up!"
But the voices grew louder, circling him like vultures. The closer he got to the clock tower, the louder they became — memories clawing at him, trying to pull him backward.
11:58.
The sky cracked.Not thunder — splintering.Black lightning tore across the clouds, revealing flashes of another place beneath: the same town, but burning; the same street, but flooded; the same Elias, standing in rain with blood on his hands.
The tower door loomed before him now, half-open, swaying.A faint light pulsed from within — a soft red glow that pulsed with the ticking of the watch in his hand.
He stepped inside.
The stairs spiraled upward, stretching far beyond what should be possible. Every few steps, he saw flashes — Lena laughing at the café; the newspaper headline about his last article; the night she said, "Promise me, if I go, you'll keep writing."
Then — the crash.
The screech.
The rain.
He froze halfway up.
Something moved above — not footsteps, but a dragging sound, as if someone were pulling their own shadow behind them.
He climbed faster, heart pounding. The walls bled with light — red, blue, gold, each color flickering like a dying memory. His hand brushed the stone and came away streaked with black ash.
He reached the landing just as the clock struck 11:59.
At the center of the tower room stood a familiar car — or rather, its ghost.Rain poured down from the ceiling as though the tower's roof were gone. Inside the car sat Lena, her face pale, her eyes glassy.
Elias fell to his knees. "No… no, please…"
The scene unfolded exactly as before — the headlights, the curve of the road, the impact — frozen just before the moment of collision.
Lena turned her head slowly toward him.
"You were supposed to stop me from leaving."
"I tried!" Elias cried. "You didn't see— I lost control—"
"You always say that."
The car engine roared to life, though it wasn't real — it was the memory reanimating itself. The sound vibrated through the tower walls.
Elias stood, shaking. "Then what do I do? Tell me how to fix this!"
Lena smiled faintly — a tragic, knowing smile.
"Stop trying to fix it. Remember it."
The tower clock began to toll.12:00.
The world shattered.
The car lunged forward — glass bursting, rain exploding into shards of light. The sound was deafening. Elias screamed as the memory swallowed him whole.
And suddenly — everything went quiet.
He was standing on the same street again, but the town was gone. Just open road, rain, and darkness.The pocket watch in his hand stopped ticking.
Its hands were at 12:01.
Lena was gone.
Only her voice lingered, faint and sorrowful:
"Now you remember. Don't forget me again."
Elias fell to his knees in the rain, sobbing. He looked up to the sky — and realized there was no sky. Only a reflection of himself staring down from above, as though he were the dream, and someone else had just woken up.
Then, the world faded to white.
To be continued…
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