The Necklace of Time

Avery Rainer had always felt like she didn’t belong. She moved from foster home to foster home, never staying long enough to feel at home. Her life was a blur of new faces and unfamiliar places, and through it all, there was one thing she clung to: her mother’s necklace.



The necklace was small, silver, and shaped like a tree. Avery didn’t remember much about her mother’s face, but she could recall the feeling of the pendant resting in her tiny hand. Her mother’s soft voice echoed in her mind, This will protect you. But that was all she could remember. Her mother died when Avery was just four years old. Her father, Thomas Rainer, had passed away before she was born. So, the necklace was all she had left.



It had been tucked away in the bottom of a drawer for years. Avery never wore it, but she never let it go, either. It was the only piece of her past that still felt real, even though she couldn’t fully remember the details.



Growing up in foster care, Avery was quiet, withdrawn, and kept to herself. She never quite fit in, never made real friends. She was different, and she learned early that being invisible was the safest way to survive. She had learned how to keep moving, how to get by, but she didn’t know what it was like to belong.



Then, when she was thirteen, everything changed.



One day, she received a letter. It was official and strange. She had been chosen by a family called the Vanes to be adopted. They were wealthy and influential, and they claimed to have known her father. They wanted her to live with them. Avery didn’t understand it, but she was told she had been “chosen” because of her connection to her father, a man she knew nothing about.



The Vanes lived in a mansion on the outskirts of town. It was huge and fancy, unlike any place Avery had ever seen. Mrs. Vane was kind but distant. Mr. Vane was always away on business, never home. Their daughter, Lila, was a year older than Avery. She was beautiful and smart, but cold, and from the moment they met, Lila made it clear she didn’t want Avery there.



The two girls didn’t get along. Lila was often locked away in her room, and Avery spent most of her time alone, wandering the giant house. It wasn’t that they hated each other—it was just that they didn’t understand each other. But there was one thing they did share: loneliness. They both felt like outsiders in a place that was too big for either of them.



One afternoon, when Lila was nowhere to be found, Avery decided to explore the mansion. She had been living there for a few months, and there was still so much she hadn’t seen. She wandered through the halls, looking in rooms she hadn’t yet discovered, until she came to a door at the far end of the house—the basement.



The door was locked, but it was slightly open. Avery hesitated, her curiosity getting the best of her. She stepped inside and was hit by a cool, musty smell. The basement was dim, lit only by a single hanging light bulb. Boxes and old furniture filled the room, but there was something at the far end that caught her eye.



It was a large machine, strange and out of place. Brass gears, wires, and buttons covered its surface. It hummed quietly, almost like it was alive, waiting for something. Avery felt a strange pull toward it, like she had seen it before, even though she knew she hadn’t. She stepped closer, her fingers itching to touch it.



Just as she was about to investigate further, she heard a voice.



“What are you doing here?”



Avery turned to see Lila standing in the doorway, arms crossed. Her expression was one of surprise and irritation. Avery tried to hide her excitement. “I found this,” she said, pointing at the machine. “What is it?”



Lila’s eyes flicked to the machine, then back to Avery. She shrugged, though there was a hint of something else in her gaze. “It’s... something my dad’s been working on. He never talks about it. It’s complicated.”



Avery’s curiosity deepened. “What does it do?”



Lila didn’t answer right away. She stepped closer to the machine, running her fingers over its surface, almost like she was unsure of it herself. “I don’t really know. But I think it has something to do with... time.”



Avery felt a shiver run down her spine. Time? She didn’t understand, but something about the machine felt important, like it had a purpose that was tied to her own life in some way.



Lila’s voice broke through her thoughts. “Maybe we should try to figure it out.”



Without waiting for Avery to respond, Lila reached out and pressed one of the buttons. The machine hummed louder, and a strange light flickered across the room. Avery took a step back, her heart racing. She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew one thing: everything was about to change.