EPOCH

The card felt heavier than it should. Just a slip of black plastic with a silver hourglass printed on it and one word:

EPOCH.

Emilia couldn’t sleep. She lay on Rose’s couch in borrowed clothes—a soft hoodie and sweatpants—and stared at the ceiling fan spinning lazily above her. Her mind, however, spun faster.

Adrian knew who she was. Knew about the watch. About the explosion. About Luca.

More importantly, he knew there might be a way back.

At dawn, she rose quietly, slipped on the warmest coat she could find in Rose’s closet, and clutched the pocket watch close to her heart. It no longer glowed, but it still pulsed with something she couldn’t explain—like a heartbeat. A link to the past.

By 7:45 a.m., she stood outside the address Adrian had written on the back of the card.

It was an old stone building tucked between towering glass skyscrapers—easily missed if one wasn’t looking for it. No signs. No lights. Just a black iron door with a small scanner beside it.

She hesitated, then held up the card.

The scanner blinked.

A mechanical click.

The door creaked open.

Inside was a narrow hallway lit by hanging Edison bulbs. At the end was a spiral staircase, descending into darkness. Emilia’s hand trembled as she took the first step down.

Each level seemed to pull her deeper into something ancient.

At the bottom, a large steel door opened on its own. Inside: a sleek, high-tech chamber unlike anything she had ever seen. Holographic screens hovered in the air. Walls glowed with moving symbols. There was no dust. No clutter.

Just Adrian, standing beside a long table covered in strange devices—antique timepieces, glowing wires, pages of aged parchment.

He looked up. “Right on time.”

“I want answers,” Emilia said immediately. “Who are you really? What is this place?”

Adrian gave a faint smile. “This is EPOCH. An organization that studies temporal anomalies. Artifacts. Accidents. People… like you.”

She frowned. “Accidents?”

“Yes. The watch was never meant to activate that night. Not yet, anyway. But trauma, emotion, proximity to death—it triggered the breach.”

“You mean I was supposed to die?”

“Not necessarily. But you weren’t meant to leave,” Adrian replied.

Emilia walked to the table, eyes darting over the collection of ancient and futuristic objects. A dagger with glowing runes. A photograph that moved like a video. Another watch—cracked, lifeless.

“How do I go back?” she asked.

“There are conditions,” Adrian said. “Temporal travel requires energy, a tether… and something called a constant. A person or object that keeps you grounded across time.”

“My constant is Luca,” she whispered.

Adrian nodded. “And if he’s alive, that tether might still be intact. But going back could cost you. You may alter everything—create ripples, fractures, consequences you can’t imagine.”

Emilia’s hands tightened into fists. “I don’t care. I need to know. I need to save him.”

Adrian studied her. “Then we begin.”

He pressed a button on a nearby console. A platform lit up in the center of the room, pulsing with soft blue light.

“We’ll start by unlocking the watch’s full sequence,” he said. “And then… we find your thread in the timeline.”

Emilia stepped toward the platform, her heart hammering. Somewhere, in a past soaked in blood and betrayal, a boy she loved might still be waiting.

She wasn’t going to let time take him away.

Not again.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***