The Choice
The clock began ticking again.
Louder.
Faster.
The room started shaking.
A voice echoed through the tower:
"One must stay. One may leave."
Maya looked at Liam, her eyes full of fear. "My brother is still in there. I know it."
Liam remembered the notebook. The warning. His father's sacrifice.
He took a deep breath.
"I'll stay," he said.
Maya shook her head. "You can't!"
"I have to," Liam replied. "End it."
9:17
The clock struck.
Everything froze.
Liam felt the world slow, stretch, and finally stop.
Then—darkness.
Epilogue
The clock tower in Meadowbrook was demolished months later.
The ticking never returned.
Maya's brother came home. Confused, but alive.
One night, Maya received a notebook at her door.
Inside was one line, written in familiar handwriting:
"Time is moving again."
Far away, in a moment between seconds, Liam smiled.
The End.