Episode 2: The Things That Hunt the Seconds
1230 Words
The darkness didn’t move like anything Muna had ever seen before.
It wasn’t fast.
It wasn’t slow.
It was… inevitable.
Like it already knew where he would run before he even moved.
“Don’t look at it,” the man said sharply, pulling Muna back.
“But—”
“I said don’t look at it!”
Too late.
Muna had already seen enough.
Something was forming inside the darkness.
Not a full shape. Not yet.
But pieces of it… flickered into existence—long, stretched limbs that bent the wrong way… a face that kept changing… and eyes—
Too many eyes.
All staring at him.
Muna staggered back. “What is that?!”
The man’s voice dropped. “A Collector.”
Another clock shattered.
Glass exploded across the floor.
Ticking sounds twisted into something distorted… like time itself was being chewed.
“It’s feeding,” the man continued. “Every broken clock… every stolen second… it grows stronger.”
Muna’s chest tightened. “Why is it coming for me?!”
The man looked at him again—this time not with curiosity, but with certainty.
“Because,” he said, “you don’t just have time…”
He leaned closer.
“You leak it.”
“What does that even mean?!” Muna shouted.
But the answer didn’t come.
Because the Collector screamed.
It wasn’t a normal sound.
It wasn’t even something Muna could fully hear.
It was like pressure inside his skull… like his thoughts were being scratched apart.
He dropped to his knees, clutching his head.
“Make it stop!”
The man didn’t hesitate.
He reached into his coat…
…and pulled out a pocket watch.
It looked ordinary.
Old, silver, slightly scratched.
But the moment he flipped it open—
Everything froze.
The Collector stopped moving.
The broken glass hung mid-air.
Even the ticking… stopped.
Muna blinked.
“What… just happened?”
The man exhaled slowly. “I bought us a few seconds.”
“Seconds?” Muna said. “This feels like everything just stopped!”
The man shook his head. “No. It just slowed down… for everything except us.”
Muna stared at the watch.
“You can control time?”
The man snapped it shut.
“Not control,” he said. “Borrow.”
Another c***k echoed.
The Collector twitched.
The freeze was already breaking.
“We don’t have long,” the man said. “Follow me.”
He grabbed Muna again and started running.
They weaved through the endless forest of clocks.
Some spun wildly as they passed.
Others flickered, their light dimming like dying stars.
Behind them—
The Collector began to move again.
Faster this time.
Stronger.
Closer.
“Why is it getting faster?!” Muna yelled.
“Because of you!” the man replied.
“That doesn’t make sense!”
“Nothing about you makes sense!”
They turned a corner—
And suddenly stopped.
In front of them stood a single clock.
Different from the others.
Bigger.
Darker.
And silent.
“This is it,” the man said.
Muna frowned. “It’s not even ticking.”
“Exactly.”
The Collector’s scream echoed again.
Closer now.
“Hurry!” the man snapped. “Put your hand on it!”
“What?! Why?!”
“Because it’s your only way out!”
Muna hesitated.
Everything about this felt wrong.
But staying felt worse.
Behind him—
The darkness lunged.
Muna slammed his hand onto the clock.
And the world broke.
Not shattered.
Not destroyed.
Just… peeled away.
The room of clocks disappeared.
The darkness vanished.
The man was gone.
Muna gasped—
And found himself back in the school hallway.
The heat.
The noise.
The normalcy.
It all rushed back at once.
Students walked past like nothing had happened.
A teacher shouted in the distance.
A bell rang.
Muna stumbled back against the wall.
“What…?”
He looked down at his hands.
They were shaking.
“Was that… real?”
Tick.
The sound froze him.
Slowly…
He turned his head.
At the end of the hallway—
The door was gone.
But something else remained.
A c***k.
Thin.
Dark.
Barely visible.
But moving.
Muna’s breath caught.
“No… no, no…”
The c***k spread slightly across the wall…
Like something on the other side was pressing against it.
Then—
A whisper.
“Found… you…”
Muna ran.
He didn’t think.
Didn’t stop.
Didn’t look back.
Out of the hallway.
Down the stairs.
Across the compound.
He didn’t stop until he reached the school gate.
Panting.
Sweating.
Terrified.
“What is happening to me…” he whispered.
“You opened the wrong door.”
Muna froze.
He turned slowly.
The man was standing behind him again.
But something was different this time.
He looked… weaker.
Like he didn’t fully belong here.
“You—” Muna stepped back. “How did you—”
“I don’t have much time,” the man interrupted.
Muna let out a shaky laugh. “Yeah, I figured time is kind of your thing.”
The man didn’t smile.
“Listen carefully,” he said. “What you saw… what followed you…”
He paused.
“It won’t stop.”
Muna’s chest tightened. “What do you mean?”
“It means,” the man said, “you’ve been marked.”
Silence.
“Marked for what?”
The man’s eyes darkened.
“To be harvested.”
Muna’s stomach dropped.
“No. No, I didn’t agree to any of this!”
“You don’t need to agree,” the man replied. “You already crossed the boundary.”
“The c***k…” Muna said slowly.
The man nodded.
“It shouldn’t exist in your world. But now that it does…”
He looked around.
“They’ll keep coming through.”
Muna felt like the ground beneath him wasn’t real anymore.
“So what do I do?” he asked.
The man hesitated.
Then reached into his coat again.
This time, he didn’t pull out the watch.
He pulled out something else.
A chain.
With a small, glowing pendant.
Shaped like a broken clock.
“Take this,” he said.
Muna didn’t move.
“What is it?”
“A warning,” the man said.
“And a weapon.”
Muna swallowed.
“A weapon against those things?”
The man nodded once.
“But it won’t be enough,” he added quietly.
Muna finally took it.
The moment his fingers touched the pendant—
Tick.
The sound exploded in his head.
Louder than ever before.
And suddenly—
He saw something.
Not the hallway.
Not the school.
But people.
Dozens of them.
Walking.
Talking.
Living.
And above each of their heads—
A clock.
Some ticking fast.
Some slow.
One…
About to stop.
Muna gasped and yanked his hand back.
The vision vanished.
“What was that?!” he shouted.
The man looked at him with something close to pity.
“That,” he said, “is your real problem.”
Muna’s voice trembled.
“Why can I see that?”
The man stepped back.
“Because,” he said,
“You’re no longer living in time…”
A pause.
“You’re between it.”
And then—
He disappeared.
Just like that.
Gone.
Leaving Muna alone.
With a ticking world.
And something hunting him from the cracks.
to be continued…
- Writer
