In the crooked alley of Hogarts, an old clockmaker named Elle worked in silence. His clocks never ticked they whispered. At midnight each whispered a different word, hope, fear, forgive, run. The villagers thought it odd but charming. One stormy night, a girl named Lila wandered in, soaked and shivering. Eliot handed her a small pocket watch. When it whispers, listen, he said. At dawn, the watch murmured, remember. She turned it over written beneath was her lost brother’s name. Years passed. Lila, now a traveller, followed the whispers across towns. One day, in a coastal village, she met a man restoring broken music boxes. He paused, then pulled out an old watch identical to hers. It whispered, found. They smiled. Back in Hogarts, Elle found his last clock. It whispered, complete, and stopped. No one ever saw him again but at midnight, the clocks still whispered secrets only the lost understood.
September, 2025
