The night silence on the outskirts of the city was disturbingly thick. Lena and Maks dashed through the overgrown garden, avoiding the abandoned equipment and machine parts that had once belonged to Professor Grodecki's workshop. The place had been abandoned for years, with only fractious memories of its owner circulating among the locals - a genius, a recluse, an avid builder. Lena, fascinated by the history of science, had always wanted to enter here, seeing secret experiments and undocumented discoveries with her eyes. Today, after another boring physics lesson, she and Max decided to find out what hides behind the padlocked door of the old laboratory. They got there thanks to Max's knowledge of combination locks and... a large dose of luck. The door gave way and the smell of dust and machine oil greeted them inside. In the semi-darkness, with torches from their phones, they swept their eyes over cabinets of plans, glass bubbles of strange substances and rusty tools. Suddenly, Lena noticed something unusual - an old pocket watch lying in the middle of the desk. Touching the polished, heavy case, both phones immediately went off. The room went completely dark. The watch had no hands. Maks, somewhat annoyed, tried to fumble for the switch on the desk lamp and accidentally touched the dial on the watch. At that moment, they heard a quiet, growing buzz, as if the whole space around them had started to stretch. The air became heavy as if just before a storm, and the walls of the laboratory began to ripple like a sheet of water. Before they had time to exchange even a word, they were caught in a blinding flash. They stopped feeling the floor beneath their feet - for a moment they floated in what resembled a tunnel woven of images and sounds. When everything quietened down and the light dimmed, Lena and Max stood in the middle of a cobbled street among people dressed in clothes from centuries ago. Instead of skyscrapers, there were low-rise buildings; instead of cars, there were horse-drawn carriages. They both noticed that the watch, now pulsating slightly with light, was still in Lena's hand. A bearded man looked out from a nearby café, glancing distrustfully at their bizarre clothes. The sound of bells rang out in the distance, and large golden numerals flashed on the town hall tower. Lena clutched her watch in her hand, asking herself one question in her mind - did it all really happen, would they still return to their own time, and what exactly does a twisted watch with no hands expect of them? At the same moment, Maks turned abruptly, hearing a familiar name spoken from the lips of a completely unfamiliar boy who was approaching them with a quick step.