Ellie's heart raced as she left the cafeteria. The air around her felt heavier, like the world was struggling to hold itself together. The crack she had heard—it wasn't just in her head. Something had broken.
She gripped the Celestial Watch, desperate for it to respond. Still, it remained lifeless in her palm. But Ellie refused to accept that it was powerless.
Rachel and Noah caught up to her outside the school.
"Ellie, what's going on?" Noah asked, his voice tight with concern.
She turned to them, breathing heavily. "Something's wrong with time."
Rachel frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I think… I think I broke it." Ellie hesitated, then explained everything—how the watch had reset time, how the world was repeating itself, and how she had felt that crack moments ago.
Noah's face paled. "You're saying time is unraveling?"
Ellie nodded. "I don't know how to stop it."
Rachel ran a hand through her hair. "Okay, so… what if resetting things again fixes it?"
Ellie bit her lip. "I tried. The watch won't work."
Noah's jaw clenched. "Then we need to find out why."
The three of them hurried to Ellie's house, where she dumped her grandmother's letters and notes onto the floor. They sifted through every word, searching for answers.
Then Ellie found it.
A passage, almost hidden among faded ink:
"The Celestial Watch does not merely turn back time—it bends fate. But beware: each use weakens the thread of reality. Use it too often, and the world itself may fracture beyond repair."
Ellie's breath hitched. She had pushed time too far.
Rachel exhaled. "Okay. So how do we un-fracture it?"
Ellie's hands shook as she turned the watch over. "I think… I have to let time move forward."
Noah blinked. "What does that mean?"
Ellie swallowed hard. "I have to stop fighting it. No more resets, no more trying to fix mistakes. I have to let life happen."
Rachel frowned. "But what about—"
A deep, thunderous crack tore through the room, shaking the walls.
Ellie squeezed her eyes shut. "I have to do it now."
With trembling fingers, she placed the Celestial Watch on the table and whispered, "No more rewinds."
For a moment, nothing happened. Then—
A pulse of light erupted from the watch, washing over the room. The fractures in time, the distortions, the looping moments—they all collapsed into one singular flow.
Ellie gasped as the air around her steadied. The weight pressing on her chest lifted. The world was whole again.
She picked up the watch. This time, it was nothing more than a beautiful, broken antique.
Rachel placed a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"
Ellie exhaled. "Yeah. I think I finally am."
Noah smirked. "So, no more time travel?"
Ellie smiled, slipping the watch into her pocket. "No more time travel."
For the first time in what felt like forever, time moved forward. And Ellie was ready to move with it.
The End.