Episode 3: The First Rule

Mira didn’t sleep that night.

She sat on her bed, knees pulled to her chest, staring at the clock resting on her desk.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Each second felt louder than the last.

Like it was reminding her.

You used me.

You paid for it.

“I just went back one hour…” she whispered. “That’s it.”

But it wasn’t just that.

She lost something.

Something small, yes, but important.

Her favorite song.

Gone.

Completely erased.

And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get it back.

Mira stood up slowly and walked toward her desk.

The clock looked harmless again.

Still.

Quiet.

As if it had done nothing wrong.

“You took a memory…” she said, her voice unsteady. “Why that one?”

No answer.

Only silence.

Her eyes narrowed.

“Fine,” she muttered. “Then I’ll figure it out myself.”

She grabbed her notebook and flipped to a blank page.

At the top, she wrote in bold:

TIME LOG

Below it:

Traveled: 1 hour back

Cost: Lost memory (favorite song)

She stared at the words for a moment.

Then added:

Rule (?) → Time travel \= memory loss

Mira exhaled slowly.

“If there are rules… I need to know all of them.”

The next day, she tested it.

Carefully.

This time, she didn’t rush.

She didn’t think about changing anything big.

Just something small.

Something safe.

At exactly 4:00 PM, she placed her pen on the edge of her desk.

She watched it.

Waited.

At 4:01, it rolled off and fell to the floor.

Mira noted the time.

Then she picked up the clock.

Her heart began to race.

“Just one minute,” she whispered. “That’s nothing.”

Her fingers tightened.

The ticking grew louder.

Faster.

And then

Everything stopped.

The world snapped.

4:00 PM.

The pen was back on the desk.

Exactly where it had been.

Mira gasped softly.

“It worked…”

Her eyes lit up for a second

Until she felt it.

That strange emptiness again.

Something slipping away.

She blinked.

“What was I just thinking about?”

Her thoughts felt… incomplete.

Like a sentence cut off halfway.

Mira frowned, trying to focus.

“There was something I needed to do…”

But she couldn’t remember what.

Her stomach dropped.

“No way…”

She grabbed her notebook quickly and wrote:

Traveled: 1 minute back

Cost: Lost a recent thought

Her hand trembled slightly.

“The amount doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “It still takes something.”

Mira slowly looked up at the clock.

This time, something was different.

There were words.

Faint.

Scratched into the bronze surface, just below the glass.

Words she was sure hadn’t been there before.

She leaned closer.

Her breath caught as she read them:

“Time is paid in memories.”

Mira stepped back immediately.

Her heart pounded in her chest.

“You weren’t there before…”

The clock ticked softly.

Like it was pleased she finally understood.

“Time is paid in memories…” she repeated.

Her voice shook.

“So the more I use it…”

“The more I lose.”

A chill ran down her spine.

Because suddenly

It all made sense.

Why the song disappeared.

Why her thoughts felt incomplete.

Why it didn’t feel random.

The clock wasn’t just taking memories.

It was choosing them.

Mira hugged herself tightly.

“Then what happens if I go too far?”

The question hung in the air.

Heavy.

Unanswered.

Her mind drifted again—to her grandfather.

The hospital.

The last moment she wished she could change.

Her chest tightened.

“If I go back that far…”

“What would it take from me?”

The ticking grew louder.

Slower.

Deliberate.

Like a warning.

Mira looked down at the clock one last time.

Fear flickered in her eyes.

But something else was there too.

Determination.

“Memories or not…” she whispered, gripping it tightly,

“I’m not done yet.”

End of Episode 3

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