Tymon and Lena find a strange clock hidden in the attic of an old house, and the moment they touch it, the attic begins to behave in impossible ways.
The attic in Tymon’s old house was never a place anyone wanted to stay in for long. The boards creaked under every step, dust floated in the dim light, and the rafters crossed overhead like the ribs of some huge sleeping beast. But on rainy afternoons, when the wind rattled the windows and there was nothing better to do, Tymon and his younger sister Lena liked to climb up there and search for forgotten things.
That afternoon, they were digging through a stack of mouldy books and a box full of bent toys when Lena froze. She stood very still, one hand raised, her eyes fixed on the far corner.
“Look,” she whispered. “What’s that?”
Half hidden behind a leaning trunk stood a tall wardrobe the colour of old smoke. Tymon was sure he had never seen it before, and he was certain their parents had never mentioned it. He pulled at the heavy door until it gave a long, dry groan and swung open.
Inside, on a single shelf, stood a huge clock.
Its glass was cracked. Its brass frame was dark with age. One of the hands was bent so badly it looked as if someone had twisted it by force. Tymon leaned closer, and his stomach gave a small flip. The hands were moving.
Only not the way they should.
“They’re going backwards,” Lena said.
“Maybe it’s broken,” Tymon muttered, though he did not sound convinced.
A tiny key was still stuck in the lock beneath the clock face. He touched it, turned it carefully, and the moment the mechanism caught, the clock shuddered. The ticking turned sharp and fast, like impatient fingers on wood. The attic light flickered. Dust spun through the air in little silver storms.
Then the shadows on the floor changed shape.
One stretched into a long-necked bird. Another crouched low like a fox. A stripe of light slid across the wall and flashed green, then blue, then gold, as if the attic windows had turned into pieces of a shattered kaleidoscope. Lena grabbed Tymon’s sleeve.
“Did you see that?” she breathed.
Before Tymon could answer, the clock gave a hard metallic clang.
And from inside the wardrobe came a soft, careful tapping.