Lena steps into Mr Badger’s antique shop and finds a clock that shouldn’t be ticking. One touch is enough to wake something strange in the room and pull her into a mystery she can’t explain.
Lena hated coming home through Market Square when she was late. The townhouses leaned into the grey afternoon, the cobblestones slick under her trainers, and rain snapped against the hood of her sweatshirt like impatient fingers.
She was about to hurry past the antique shop when something in the front window made her stop.
A clock sat among the lamps and tarnished silverware, half-hidden behind the glass. It was old enough to look serious about it, with carved brass leaves around the case and a cracked dial that had yellowed with age. It looked less like something for sale than something that had been waiting.
Before she could talk herself out of it, Lena pushed open the door.
A bell above her head gave a thin, uneasy chime. Dust, old paper, and a faint sweet smell hung in the air. The shop was narrower than it had looked from outside, crowded with shadows and shelves that seemed to go on farther than they should.
Behind the counter stood Mr Badger, silver-bearded and polished into the kind of smile adults used when they wanted you to say what you were really doing there. “Looking for something particular?” he asked.
Lena shook her head and went straight to the clock.
Up close, it was even stranger. The brass hands were cold beneath her fingers, and the moment she touched them, a sharp chill ran up her arm. The clock gave a quiet tick.
Then another.
Mr Badger’s smile faltered.
The ticking spread through the room like a pulse. The air shivered. Colours shifted, just slightly at first, as if the shop had taken a breath and wasn’t sure whether to let it out.
Lena turned to the door. It had closed behind her without a sound.
From somewhere beyond the bookcase came a whisper, low enough that it might have been part of the rain. “Don’t touch the second clue if you’re not ready...”
Lena stared back at the clock. The second hand jerked once, then began to spin.