A Multiverse Adventure
The room was silent.
Enrique stood beside the table, staring at the wooden box.
He hadn’t moved in what felt like forever.
The shadow was gone.
The ticking had stopped.
And whatever had been looking at him from inside the box had disappeared.
But those final words remained in his mind.
“Find the others.”
Enrique swallowed..
“Who are the others?”
The box offered no answer.
He reached for it, hesitated, and finally pulled his hand away.
“Nope. Absolutely not.”
He backed away from the table.
“I don’t know what you are, where you came from, or what you want from me. But whatever this is, I’m not getting involved.”
He paused.
Then he looked at the box again.
“Probably.”
He sighed.
That was the problem.
As frightened as he was, he couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d seen.
The impossible landscape.
The city filled with clocks.
The man who had somehow looked straight at him from another world.
And that strange golden symbol.
Enrique rubbed his forehead.
He needed a little fresh air.
Maybe something to eat.
And possibly a long conversation with someone who wouldn’t immediately suggest that he’d lost his mind.
He turned toward the doorway.
Then stopped.
Someone was standing there.
One of his brothers.
He had been watching from the hallway, half-hidden behind the doorframe.
His expression wasn’t frightened.
It was curious.
Very curious.
Enrique stared at him.
“How long have you been standing there?”
His brother shrugged.
“Long enough.”
Enrique’s stomach tightened.
“How much did you see?”
“Not much.”
Enrique waited.
His brother tilted his head toward the table.
“Just enough to know you’ve been acting pretty strange.”
Enrique glanced at the box.
Then back at him.
“I’m not acting strange.”
His brother raised an eyebrow.
“You’ve been talking to a box.”
“I wasn’t talking to the box.”
“Right.”
“I was talking about the box.”
“That makes it so much better.”
Enrique gave him a look.
His brother grinned.
For a moment, everything felt normal again.
Just two brothers giving each other a hard time.
But then his brother’s expression changed.
He looked past Enrique toward the table.
“Seriously, though. What is that thing?”
Enrique followed his gaze.
The wooden box sat exactly where he’d left it.
Ordinary.
Silent.
Harmless.
At least, that’s what it wanted him to believe.
“Something I found,” Enrique answered.
“Where?”
“At the flea market.”
His brother stepped into the room.
“Can I see it?”
“No!”
The word came out much louder than Enrique intended.
His brother stopped.
They stared at each other.
Enrique cleared his throat.
“I mean… don’t touch it.”
“Why?”
Because a man from another world had threatened him.
Because time had stopped.
Because a shadow had appeared behind him without anyone entering the room.
Because something inside that box knew he existed.
Enrique had a dozen answers.
None of them sounded believable.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
His brother studied him.
For the first time, he seemed to realize that Enrique wasn’t joking.
“Okay,” he said quietly.
He took a step back.
“But you’re going to tell me what’s going on eventually, right?”
Enrique looked at him.
He wanted to say yes.
He wanted to explain everything.
But how could he explain something he barely understood himself?
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
His brother nodded slowly.
“Fair enough.”
He turned toward the hallway.
Then paused.
“Oh, and Enrique?”
“What?”
“If that thing starts talking again, I’m definitely coming back to watch.”
Despite everything, Enrique almost laughed.
“Get out of here.”
His brother disappeared down the hallway.
A moment later, Enrique heard his footsteps fading away.
The house returned to its ordinary sounds.
A cabinet closing somewhere downstairs.
The distant hum of a television.
Someone moving around in another room.
Life continued as though nothing extraordinary had happened.
And that was exactly what made the experience so difficult to believe.
Enrique returned to the table.
He studied the box from a distance.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then he noticed something.
A tiny golden mark had appeared on the wood near the bottom of the box.
He leaned closer.
It looked like a clock.
But unlike the symbol he’d seen inside the portal, this one had only a single hand.
And the hand was pointing upward.
Enrique frowned.
He was certain it hadn’t been there before.
He reached for his phone and took a photograph.
The camera flashed.
For a fraction of a second, the screen displayed something that made his blood run cold.
A face.
An unfamiliar man’s face.
Pale eyes.
A dark coat.
And a shattered clock symbol across his chest.
The Chrono Tyrant.
Enrique dropped the phone onto the table.
The photograph disappeared.
His screen returned to normal.
He picked up the phone and checked the image gallery.
Nothing.
No photograph.
No mysterious face.
No evidence of anything.
Only an ordinary wooden box sitting on a table.
Enrique closed his eyes.
“Please tell me I’m not going crazy.”
From somewhere deep inside the box came a sound.
Tick.
Enrique opened his eyes.
The golden mark began to glow.
And far beyond the walls of the house, in a place where time had long ago lost its meaning, a man in a dark coat slowly opened his eyes.
The Chrono Tyrant smiled.
“One has seen me,” he whispered.
He turned toward a vast wall covered in clocks.
“Now let us see how long the others remain hidden.”
Every clock on the wall stopped.
Except one.
Its single hand continued to move.
Backward.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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