Julka and Maks discover a strange clock in Grandpa Felk's attic. When Maks presses a hidden button, the house vanishes around them and they are pulled into a different time.
Julka always looked forward to holidays at Grandpa Felk's house. The old place sat at the very end of the village, with floorboards that groaned, doors that stuck, and an attic no one was supposed to enter alone. That was exactly why Julka liked it.
On a rainy afternoon, Maks lost his third game of checkers and dropped his chin onto the table with a groan.
"This day needs something interesting," he muttered. Then his eyes lit up. "The attic. Come on. There has to be something amazing up there."
Julka grinned. Grandpa Felk kept strange things in that house. Everyone knew it. Nobody knew why.
They crept up the narrow stairs, careful not to wake the boards, and pushed open the heavy attic door. Dust floated in the slanting grey light from a tiny window. Old trunks stood in the corners. Boxes leaned against the walls. A broken chair wore a coat of cobwebs like a ghostly scarf.
Then Maks stopped so suddenly that Julka nearly bumped into him.
"There," he whispered.
Under a faded sheet, on a low wooden crate, sat a clock.
It was smaller than the grandfather clock in the hall, but far stranger. Brass rings circled its face. Tiny dials covered its sides. The hands glowed faintly, even in the dim attic light.
Julka brushed away the dust. "It doesn't look broken. It looks... waiting."
Maks leaned closer and pointed at a tiny button near the base. It had an hourglass symbol engraved into it.
"Should I?" he asked, though his finger was already hovering over it.
"Maks, don't-"
He pressed it.
The clock gave a sharp, shaking whirr. Its hands spun so fast they vanished. A cold wind burst through the attic, whipping the sheet into the air. The floor shuddered beneath Julka's feet. Light began to spill out of the clock, bright and silver and swirling like water.
Julka grabbed Maks's sleeve. "Let go!"
But it was too late.
The light flared once, blinding and wild, and the attic disappeared.
When Julka blinked, she was no longer standing among boxes and dust. Stone walls rose around her. Strange voices echoed nearby. People in long coats and high hats hurried past the end of a narrow street, and somewhere close by, a bell was ringing like an alarm.
Maks stared at the scene, pale as paper.
Then a shadow moved toward them through the crowd, and a voice said, low and urgent, "You are exactly where you must be. But you have almost no time."