The air felt heavier as they left the woman's house, the weight of her story clinging to their thoughts. Tigo couldn't shake the eerie image of her late husband reappearing—and then disappearing as if reality had blinked. Something unnatural was happening, and time was at the heart of it.
"We need answers," Liam muttered, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. His usual confident demeanor had been replaced by something more guarded.
"We need to be smart," Shine added, her gaze sharp as she glanced between Tigo and Ethan. "If this really connects to the watch, then someone's already ahead of us."
Tigo nodded, deep in thought. The group made their way toward the next location Ethan had mentioned: a small park on the outskirts of town where reports of strange figures had surfaced. People claimed they'd seen loved ones, friends—faces from their pasts walking among the living, only to vanish in the blink of an eye.
"You ever wonder if these people… I mean, what if they're not hallucinating?" Liam said after a long silence. "What if they're actual echoes of time—fragments breaking through?"
"That would mean someone isn't just messing with the watch," Ethan said, his voice low. "They're tearing holes in reality."
Tigo's chest tightened at the thought. This wasn't just about them anymore; if reality itself was unraveling, the entire town was in danger.
The park came into view, bathed in the faint glow of streetlights, with fog creeping along the ground like a living thing. A lone swing creaked in the wind, the sound unsettlingly rhythmic.
"This is the spot," Ethan said, scanning the area. "The last report was from here—two nights ago."
They spread out cautiously, the silence stretching uncomfortably thin. Every rustle of leaves and distant sound made Tigo's nerves hum, but he forced himself to stay focused.
Shine wandered toward the old merry-go-round, her breath visible in the chill night air. "What if we can't stop this? What if fixing it means breaking something else?"
"Then we deal with that when we get to it," Tigo replied, trying to keep his voice steady. He couldn't admit that the same thought haunted him—what if they were making things worse just by trying to understand them?
Liam stopped suddenly, staring at something under the dim light. "Hey. Over there."
Tigo followed his gaze to a shape sitting on one of the park benches: a man hunched over, unmoving. His clothes were old-fashioned, the kind you'd expect to see in black-and-white photographs.
Shine's breath hitched. "Who—who is that?"
Ethan took a step forward. "Careful."
Tigo squinted, heart pounding. Something about the figure looked familiar, like a face he should recognize but couldn't quite place. As they approached, the man's head slowly lifted, revealing a pale face with hollow eyes that gleamed with something unnatural.
The man smiled—a sad, knowing expression. "You're too late," he whispered.
Tigo's throat dried up. "What do you mean?"
Before the man could respond, his form flickered, as though someone had hit a rewind button on reality. One moment he was there; the next, he dissolved into thin air, leaving nothing behind but the memory of his presence.
"Did that really just happen?" Liam whispered, his voice shaky for the first time in a long while.
Ethan cursed under his breath. "It's starting."
"What's starting?" Tigo demanded, his frustration boiling over. "What the hell is going on?"
Ethan ran a hand through his hair, exhaling sharply. "Someone is pulling at the seams of time—bringing fragments of the past into the present. If we don't stop them soon, the whole timeline could collapse."
"Great," Shine muttered. "So, what do we do? Wait for another ghost to pop out of nowhere?"
Ethan shook his head. "No. We draw them out."
Liam stared at him. "And how exactly do we do that?"
Ethan turned to Tigo, his expression grim. "We give them what they want."
Tigo blinked. "What… what do they want?"
"The watch," Ethan said. "Whoever's behind this—they're not going to stop until they get their hands on it. So we make them come to us."
A knot formed in Tigo's gut. "You're suggesting we use it as bait?"
"You have a better idea?" Ethan shot back. "If we wait any longer, more of these fractures will appear, and we might not be able to close them."
Shine crossed her arms, clearly uneasy. "This is insane."
"No argument there," Liam muttered. "But if Ethan's right, waiting isn't an option."
Tigo rubbed his temples, the pressure building. Every instinct told him this was a dangerous gamble. But what choice did they have? The past was bleeding into the present, and the longer they hesitated, the worse things would become.
"Alright," Tigo said, forcing himself to meet Ethan's gaze. "We do it your way. But if this backfires, it's on you."
Ethan smirked. "Deal."
The plan was set—lure the enemy into the open and end this before it spiraled out of control. But as Tigo glanced around the fog-shrouded park, he couldn't help but feel as if they were standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the ground to give way beneath them.
And somehow, he knew—this was only the beginning.
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