The Doctor's Secret Spells

The day the clock stopped

It was the day after the exams, and the air in the room felt heavy with anticipation. This was the day their results were meant to come out. Emily lay down on her bed, her fingers tracing the patterns on her duvet as she looked at the ceiling with nothing but hope that she might have passed.

The silence of the house pressed against her ears. She knew she still wouldn’t know her fate until the end of the day. The morning light was dim, filtered through her curtains, and she slowly, almost dozed off back into sleep.

That was when the shadows shifted.

She suddenly saw a figure on her ceiling. It wasn't just a blur; it was a man whose eyes looked straight into her as if he was right in front of her. The depth in his gaze was terrifying, and for a few seconds, it almost felt real. she panicked, not knowing if she was dreaming or not

Ring!

The loud sound of her ringtone shattered the moment. She suddenly snapped out of it, her eyes wide as the figure vanished into thin air. She looked at her phone, which she had plugged in the day before, the screen glowing bright in the dim room.

“Heyyyy Em, are you excited for the results coming out today?!!!” Georgia’s voice shrieked on the other side of the phone, vibrating with a caffeine-fueled energy.

“Yea... yea, I guess,” Emily said, her voice small and filled with a bit of uncertainty.

“Boo hoo!” Georgia said over the phone. “Cheer up! Uhh... you know what? I’m coming to your house in a few minutes.”

“No, no, why? No need to do that,” Emily replied, but she was talking to a dial tone.

Line ends.

“Uhhh, she always does things like this. I’m actually tired of her…” Emily whispered to the empty room. She fell back onto her bed, her eyes wandering back to the ceiling where she thought she had seen someone. The spot was empty now, just white paint and shadows.

“Strange things have been happening these past few days, since the exam,” she muttered to herself. Her skin felt prickly, like static electricity was crawling over her arms. “Maybe the tension really did a number on me.”

She stood up, her legs feeling slightly heavy, and headed downstairs. The house was quiet, but there was a new scent in the air—something like old paper and dried herbs.

“Mom!!” Emily called out.

“Yes, darling?”

Emily stepped into the parlor. She found her mom holding a strange book that looked like it had been sitting in the dirt for years. It was thick, bound in dark, weathered leather that looked almost like skin. It was the kind of thing you see either in a scary movie or on Halloween.

“It’s not Halloween, Mom, is it? Haha,” she laughed, though the sound felt forced in the strange atmosphere of the room.

Lilian laughed, a dry sound, and replied, “No, it’s something from my past I was just looking through. Nothing serious.”

“Also, Mom... something really weird has been happening these past few days,” Emily said, her voice dropping.

Upon hearing this, her mom paused what she was doing. The smile on her face faded really fast. The warmth left her eyes as she turned to Emily. “What do you mean, weird?” she asked, her voice suddenly sharp.

“Whoa, calm down,” Emily said, shocked by her mother's fast switch-up. The air in the room felt like it was thickening, making it hard to breathe. “I’ve never seen you get so serious unless it’s when it comes to you trying to marry me off to one of your rich friends.”

“Emily, what do you mean by weird?” Lilian repeated, a look of pure worry—almost a trace of fear—flashing across her face.

“Well…. I’ve been….”

The doorbell rang, cutting through the tension like a knife.

“Oh, Georgia is here! Okay, Mom, I will explain what I mean when I get back. Georgia and I want to... uhh... go see a friend.”

Emily quickly rushed to the door, opening it and slamming it shut behind her, desperate to escape her mother's piercing gaze. She almost bumped into Georgia on the porch.

“Heyyy, calm down, tiger! You almost hit me,” Georgia said, grinning as she adjusted her bag.

“I had to get out of there before she started talking about rich men again!” Emily replied, giving her friend a sarcastic look.

“Soooo, where to?” Emily asked as they started walking down the driveway.

“The park or the library, you pick,” Georgia said.

As they reached the edge of the road, Georgia got a glimpse of a stray cat walking past. It was a small, mangy thing with bright eyes. “Oh!”

Georgia rushed out to pick it up just as a car came speeding around the corner, the engine roaring. It was moving too fast to stop.

Emily stood on the curb, her world turning into a horrified blur. She entered a horrified state, her hands reaching out as if she could pull Georgia back through the air.

And then, it happened.

Emily noticed that everything suddenly stopped moving.

The roar of the engine died into a haunting silence. The car froze, its tires hovering just inches from Georgia’s leg. The birds that had been fluttering above hung like statues in the sky. The leaves that were falling from the trees stayed suspended in mid-air, frozen in the light.

The whole world was a photograph. Everything had stopped. Except her.