Chapter 11 – Ripples Through Time
232 Words
The following week unfolded like a dream—soft at the edges, blurred at its heart.
Ariana moved through Selene’s life with cautious curiosity. She learned how to dust fragile porcelain, greet customers with warmth, and count the quiet minutes between each sale.
Yet sometimes, as she bent to polish a clock or rearrange silver trinkets, she’d hear echoes.
Not sounds—memories.
A child’s laughter.
A man whispering her name.
A clock ticking backward.
She ignored it, at first. But the visions became bolder.
One afternoon, a customer came in—a tall man with gentle eyes, asking about an old compass. As Ariana reached to hand it to him, the world flickered.
The shop darkened, and for a heartbeat, she saw him standing in the same spot… older, with gray at his temples, holding her hand as if she were someone he loved deeply.
Then it was gone.
The man blinked at her, unaware of anything strange. Ariana forced a smile, but her pulse was racing.
Had she just seen the future?
That night, she dreamt of her twin again—Selene, pacing through the mansion’s moonlit halls, whispering her name. The dream dissolved into water, but one phrase echoed before she woke:
“The clocks are lying.”
She jolted awake before dawn, her hand gripping the old compass she’d sold earlier.
Except—she hadn’t brought it home.
- Writer
