CHAPTER 2 - 3:17
1737 Words
Elias did not take her hand.
He couldn't.
His body seemed to have forgotten how to move.
The woman stood beneath the streetlight, her red coat darkened by the rain. Water ran from her hair and down the side of her face, but she didn't seem to notice.
She simply watched him.
"Who are you?"
The woman looked at him for several seconds.
Then she said, "You already know."
"I don't."
"You will."
Elias stepped backward.
"That's not an answer."
"No."
She looked toward the apartment building.
"It's a warning."
Elias glanced behind him.
The building was completely dark.
Every window.
Every hallway.
Even the streetlights had gone out.
The entire neighborhood seemed to have disappeared into darkness.
Only the woman remained visible.
"You said my name," Elias said.
"Yes."
"You said I remembered."
"Yes."
"You said you knew me."
"I do."
"How?"
She looked almost sad.
"Because I was there."
"Where?"
The woman hesitated.
"At the beginning."
Elias stared at her.
"Beginning of what?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she reached into her coat.
Elias immediately stepped back.
"Don't."
She stopped.
Slowly, she withdrew her hand.
There was no weapon.
Only a small brass key.
She held it between two fingers.
Elias recognized it immediately.
It was old.
Very old.
The head of the key was shaped like a clock.
"Where did you get that?"
"My father."
"Who is your father?"
She looked at him.
"Your grandfather."
Elias felt the world tilt.
"No."
"His name was Samuel Vale."
Elias said nothing.
"Isn't that right?"
"Yes."
"He was my father."
Elias stared at her face.
Something inside him shifted.
A memory.
A tiny fragment.
A little girl sitting at a kitchen table.
Dark hair.
A red ribbon.
His grandfather standing behind her.
Elias blinked.
The memory disappeared.
"That's impossible," he whispered.
The woman stepped closer.
"You were twelve."
"What?"
"When he disappeared."
Elias's chest tightened.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I was there."
"You keep saying that."
"Because you keep forgetting."
A sound echoed through the street.
A low metallic groan.
The woman looked upward.
Elias followed her gaze.
Nothing.
Then he heard it again.
Deep beneath the pavement.
Something moving.
Something enormous.
The woman grabbed his wrist.
"We have to go."
Elias pulled away.
"Where?"
"Before 3:17."
"It's already—"
He stopped.
His phone screen showed the time.
3:16.
Elias stared.
Impossible.
He checked again.
3:16.
He looked toward the old clock in his apartment window.
Its hands pointed toward 3:16.
"But it was 3:17."
The woman nodded.
"It always is."
"What does that mean?"
"At 3:17, the city opens."
"What city?"
She looked directly into his eyes.
"The one you saw."
A tremor passed beneath their feet.
The street cracked.
Elias jumped backward.
The woman grabbed him again.
"Run."
They ran.
Elias didn't know where they were going.
He simply followed her.
They turned down a narrow side street.
Then another.
The city seemed unfamiliar despite the fact that Elias had lived there for years.
Buildings leaned over the streets.
Fire escapes crossed overhead.
Rainwater poured through gutters.
Behind them came the sound of metal scraping against stone.
Elias looked back.
Nothing.
"Don't look!"
The woman shouted.
He turned forward.
"Why?"
"Because it learns faces."
"What learns faces?"
She didn't answer.
They reached an old brick building.
The woman stopped.
She pulled the brass key from her pocket.
There was a narrow door in the wall.
Elias had walked past that building hundreds of times.
He had never noticed the door.
She inserted the key.
The lock turned.
The door opened.
Beyond it was a staircase.
It descended into darkness.
Elias stared.
"No."
"Yes."
"Absolutely not."
She looked at him.
"You have twenty-three hours."
"Until what?"
"Until tomorrow."
"What happens tomorrow?"
She stepped onto the stairs.
"You die."
Elias remained where he was.
The woman looked back.
"You don't have to believe me."
"I don't."
"But you came anyway."
"I didn't come anywhere. You dragged me here."
She smiled faintly.
"That's what you said last time."
Elias froze.
"What?"
The woman turned away.
"Come on."
He followed.
The door closed behind them.
The sound of the city disappeared.
There was only darkness.
And the sound of their footsteps.
They descended.
One flight.
Two.
Three.
The staircase seemed impossibly long.
Elias counted.
Thirty steps.
Forty.
Fifty.
Then sixty.
"How deep does this go?"
"Far enough."
"That's not helpful."
"You're going to discover something about me."
"What?"
She stopped.
Elias nearly walked into her.
She turned.
"My name is Mara."
Elias stared.
The name struck him like a blow.
Mara.
He knew it.
Somewhere.
Deep inside him.
A memory surfaced.
A child's voice.
Don't leave me, Mara.
Then another.
I'll come back.
Then a scream.
Elias grabbed the railing.
"What did you do?"
Mara's expression changed.
"Nothing."
"I remembered something."
"I know."
"You were there."
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"Not yet."
"Not yet?"
Mara continued downward.
"Some memories have to happen before you can remember them."
Elias followed.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It will."
The staircase ended.
They stood before a massive steel door.
There was no handle.
No keypad.
Only a circular indentation in the center.
Mara reached into her pocket.
She removed the photograph.
The first photograph.
The city.
The clock.
Elias.
She placed the photograph against the indentation.
The door opened.
Beyond it was a railway platform.
Elias stared.
A train waited in the darkness.
It was unlike any train he'd ever seen.
Long.
Black.
Completely silent.
No windows.
No lights.
On its side was a single symbol.
A circle surrounding three lines.
Mara stepped aboard.
Elias hesitated.
"Where does it go?"
She looked back.
"To the place you've been trying to find your entire life."
"I've never tried to find it."
"You've spent your entire life looking for it."
"How?"
"Through your work."
Elias froze.
His work.
He was an archivist.
He spent his days examining forgotten documents, historical records, photographs, letters and manuscripts.
He had always been obsessed with missing histories.
Things that had vanished.
People whose names had been erased.
Events that nobody remembered.
He had never understood why.
Until now.
"You knew what I did."
Mara nodded.
"Of course."
"How long have you been watching me?"
"Since you were born."
Elias stepped onto the train.
"Why?"
Mara looked away.
"Because your grandfather asked me to."
The doors closed.
The train began moving.
There was no acceleration.
No sound.
One moment they were standing still.
The next, the platform disappeared.
Elias looked through the darkness.
Then the train entered a tunnel.
Images appeared on the walls.
Not advertisements.
Memories.
Elias saw himself as a child.
Running through a garden.
His grandfather chasing him.
A woman laughing.
Then another image.
Elias at twelve.
Standing beside his grandfather.
Then—
A different memory.
A girl.
Mara.
They were both children.
Elias was holding her hand.
He couldn't hear what they were saying.
Then the image changed.
His grandfather stood before them.
He was holding a photograph.
The city.
The clocks.
The black water.
Then he said something.
The sound came through the train.
"Elias, you must never remember tomorrow."
The image vanished.
Elias turned toward Mara.
"You were there."
"Yes."
"You knew my grandfather."
"Yes."
"You knew me."
"Yes."
"Why don't I remember you?"
Mara looked at him.
"Because I asked him to make you forget."
Elias's anger disappeared.
"Why?"
"Because if you remembered me, they would have found you."
"Who?"
Mara looked toward the tunnel.
"They're already here."
The train suddenly stopped.
Elias was thrown forward.
The lights inside the carriage went out.
Mara grabbed his arm.
"Don't move."
"What happened?"
She whispered:
"3:17."
Elias looked at his phone.
The screen was frozen.
3:17.
Then came a sound outside the train.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
Someone was walking along the roof.
Elias looked upward.
Mara grabbed his face and forced him to look at her.
"Whatever happens, don't look outside."
The footsteps stopped.
Silence.
Then three knocks came from the train roof.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Elias's blood went cold.
The same three knocks he'd heard in his apartment.
Mara closed her eyes.
"It's here."
"What is?"
She whispered:
"The thing that remembers everyone."
A shadow moved across the ceiling.
Elias heard breathing.
Then a voice spoke from outside the train.
His own voice.
"Elias."
He froze.
The voice came again.
"Elias, open the door."
Mara shook her head violently.
"No."
The voice laughed.
Then it said something that made Elias's blood turn cold.
Something only his grandfather had ever called him.
"Little clock."
Elias stared at Mara.
"How does it know that?"
Mara whispered:
"Because it was there when your grandfather named you."
The train began moving again.
The footsteps remained on the roof.
Then the voice screamed.
The sound was so loud that Elias covered his ears.
The train accelerated.
The darkness outside became a blur.
Mara held his hand.
For the first time, Elias noticed something.
Her hand was trembling.
"You said you weren't afraid."
"I never said that."
"What are you afraid of?"
She looked at him.
"You."
Elias frowned.
"Me?"
Mara nodded.
"Because I know what happens when you remember everything."
The train entered another tunnel.
The darkness lasted several seconds.
Then suddenly—
Light.
Elias looked through the window.
His breath stopped.
Outside was the city.
The impossible city from the photograph.
Towers rose from black water.
Clocks hung between buildings.
Thousands of lights burned beneath the surface.
Bridges stretched across the darkness.
And above everything stood a massive tower.
Its clock face was enormous.
The hands were frozen.
3:17.
Mara stood beside him.
"Welcome home."
Elias stared at the city.
He didn't feel fear anymore.
He felt recognition.
Because somewhere deep inside him, beneath years of forgotten memories, a voice whispered:
I've been here before.
The train crossed a bridge.
Below them, something moved beneath the black water.
Something enormous.
Elias leaned closer to the window.
Two pale eyes opened beneath the surface.
Mara pulled him away.
"Don't look."
"What was that?"
"The reason the city was built."
The train entered the city.
And as the doors opened, thousands of people standing on the platform turned simultaneously toward Elias.
Every one of them knew his name.
And every one of them whispered the same thing.
"He's back."
Elias stepped onto the platform.
Above him, the enormous clock began to move.
For the first time in one hundred years, its hands left 3:17.
They moved forward.
Toward tomorrow.
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