Around me, the world was little more than blurry shadows. Pulse racing, I waited for things to fall into focus. One hand drifted to the knives strapped to my legs, not that they would do me any good since I couldn’t interact with the past.
The bracelet pulsated with a deep resonance, like a slow, steady heartbeat. A woman wearing a white tunic and a pair of dark pants tucked into high leather boots materialized in the mist. Goggles rested around her neck above two necklaces, and she wore a flash of metal rings that glinted along with a sapphire bracelet—not just any bracelet, the one I held in my hand.
Her black hair, twisted in a simple braid, and the clothes she wore, reminded me of when Mamá would take me on her charity trips to the Lower Chimes with Geneve. Or maybe I just thought that since she appeared around the age Mamá was in my memories.
I shook off the nostalgia and focused on the woman standing in the shadows. She was the reason I was here—the owner of both the bracelet and memory who had accidentally called me to the past. Well, she didn’t call me so much as I’d been sucked in by whatever powerful emotion her bracelet held.
Hopefully whatever emotion was in the bracelet would be short-lived because I needed to get back to my party before anyone found me sitting in the fountain like a bot without a charge.
The woman flipped open a pocket watch with a swirling silver crest, studied it, then thrust it into her pocket. She paced a few steps from me, then came back, revealing a cobblestone street. She sat, and a metal bench appeared under her with rusted wooden slats and a warped iron frame. Although it wasn’t much to go on, the details confirmed that I was nowhere near the fountain at my engagement party. I could be almost anywhere.
The bracelet thumped, a demanding pulse that counted down my time in the past. All I could do now was wait for its energy to run out and send me back to the present.
The woman’s head whipped to the side, and she tilted her head back to stare at something overhead.
I looked up too, although I couldn’t see anything at first. But as she focused, fireworks created an azure rendition of the Epoch Clock overhead—the very same fireworks I’d seen at the party not even an hour ago. They were slightly impeded by the puffs of smog escaping from a nearby smokestack from a factory. That meant I hadn’t Slipped very far into the past and that I was still in or near Chronovale, possibly in the First Chime. I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, quieting my pounding heart. Sometimes I Slipped back years, decades, or like tonight, only minutes.
The woman crossed her legs and traced the groove of a heart-shaped gear etched into the bench. The tender symbol seemed at odds with the bench’s coarseness.
The bracelet pulsed again as the woman jumped to her feet, her red lips lifting in a simpering grin. “What took you so long?” She rushed down the street and threw herself into someone’s arms. The shadows blurred and edged around her until they morphed into the shape of a man.
Even the pitch of her voice reminded me of Mamá.
I followed a few steps after the woman, staying close so the swirling mist wouldn’t swallow me. It had happened once when I was younger. I’d wandered too far from the memory’s originator and gotten lost in the fog of darkness. I’d missed the rest of the memory and had spent the next few minutes terrified that I’d be stuck in the past forever. Now, I knew better than to get separated.
“You look tired,” the man murmured, his voice husky.
In the gloom, all I could make out was his silhouette.
“I came straight from work. We’ve been so busy lately, but I don’t want to talk about that. In fact, I don’t want to talk at all.” She tilted her head to face his, lips turned down in a pout.
“My apologies.” He leaned down and kissed her, his hands traveling over her waist.
The more the woman interacted with him, the more he fell into focus, but I quickly spun around, my cheeks heating. These were always the most awkward memories to stumble into.
Tendrils of smoke curled around my ankles, but the bracelet beat faster in my hand like I held someone’s heart. Time was running out. Thank the aether, because I needed to get back to my engagement party and away from this little tryst.
“I shouldn’t stay long,” the woman whispered breathlessly. “I have so much to do tonight.” A quiet click sounded, the same sound that her pocket watch had made earlier. She was probably checking the time again.
“I do too.” Satisfaction rang in the man’s voice.
The woman gasped. “What are you doing?”
At her pained tone, I whirled around and my eyes widened.
The woman pressed a hand against her midsection. Blood trickled between her fingers, its crimson color bright against her white tunic.
“Just wrapping up business.” The man pulled his knife free of her torso and ducked his head, so his hat hid the majority of his features.
My heart pounded in my ears, and the bracelet throbbed a panicked rhythm in my hand.
The woman fell to her knees, still clutching her gut. He knelt next to her and removed the woman’s bracelet, watch, and other valuables.
“No!” I rushed over to shove him away, but my hands went through him.
He tucked the jewelry into a satchel around his waist, then leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Thank you for your service,” he whispered. A ring on his finger in the shape of an hourglass created from two scythes glinted faintly as he stood again. He took a few steps away and the shadows swallowed his form, leaving me alone with the dying woman.
The bracelet’s panicked thumping reminded me I only had a few seconds left.
The woman convulsed and fell on her side. A feeble cry escaped her, but no one came to her aid.
Watching her pale, anguished face felt like losing Mamá all over again. She’d been fine and healthy one moment, then gone the next.
The woman let out a final gasping breath, and as her chest finally stilled, three truths hit me with painful clarity.
I’d just witnessed a murder.
The murderer was most likely at my party.
And if I told anyone, they probably wouldn’t believe me.