The Clock That Forgot Time

Chapter One — The Minute That Doesn’t Belong

It always happened at exactly 3:07 PM.

Sarfaraz would be walking down the street or sitting in class or standing in the kitchen, and then—silence. Not the kind of silence where things grow quiet. This was total stillness. Cars froze mid-turn. Birds hung in the sky. Leaves stopped fluttering in the breeze. And people—every single person—paused mid-step, mid-sentence, mid-blink.

Everyone but him.

Sarfaraz didn’t know how or why. It had started three months ago. He thought it was a dream the first time. But it kept happening. Every single day. For exactly sixty seconds.

And then time would snap back, like nothing had happened.

He tried to tell his parents. They thought he was joking. He tried filming it on his phone. The screen showed nothing unusual—just one minute of him staring into the lens.

But Sarfaraz knew it was real. Because in that one minute, the world belonged only to him.

Until the day Halima moved.

Chapter Two — The Girl Who Blinked

It was Tuesday. Sarfaraz was walking past the old library when the world froze again. He sighed, pulling his hoodie tighter against the wind that no longer blew.

He wandered down the sidewalk, past the same man always caught in mid-sneeze, the same dog stuck in mid-bark.

But then… a blink.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw it. A girl—moving. Breathing. Blinking.

Sarfaraz froze, which felt ironic. She turned toward him slowly, as if unsure he was real.

“Are you… awake?” she asked.

Her voice echoed strangely in the stillness.

“Yeah,” he said. “You too?”

She nodded. “My name’s Halima. This has been happening to me since I was nine.”

Sarfaraz’s heart skipped. “Why us?”

“I don’t know,” Halima said, her voice almost sad. “But I think we’re connected to the clock.”

Chapter Three — The Clock That Broke Time

Halima led him to the clock tower at the center of town. It hadn’t worked in years—its hands forever frozen at 3:07.

“There was an experiment here,” she said. “My parents never told me much. But it was meant to slow time for emergency workers—to give them an extra sixty seconds during disasters.”

Sarfaraz frowned. “What happened?”

“They picked children. Volunteers. I was one. I guess you were too.”

“I don’t remember any of it.”

“Neither do I. Not clearly. Just… flashes.”

The minute ended. Time snapped back. Sarfaraz looked around—everything was moving again.

But Halima was gone.

Chapter Four — She’s Stuck

She didn’t appear the next day. Or the day after that.

On the third day, Sarfaraz walked through the frozen world alone, calling her name. Finally, he saw her—standing in the square, unmoving like the rest. Her eyes were open, but glassy.

She was stuck.

The sixty seconds ended. Sarfaraz watched helplessly as she faded with the freeze.

He made a decision.

Chapter Five — The Final Minute

The next day at 3:06 PM, Sarfaraz stood in front of the broken clock tower. He looked up at its face, the rusted hands, the wires long disconnected.

He held a screwdriver, a memory, and a risk.

He climbed.

At exactly 3:07, the freeze began. The wind stopped. The world paused.

He pulled open the back of the clock and rewired the battery to an old solar panel Halima had hidden nearby. The gears shuddered, resisted—then turned.

Tick.

The hands moved.

Tick. Tick.

The sky above shimmered.

And then—everything unpaused.

Halima gasped as if surfacing from water.

It had worked.

Epilogue — Time Returned

They sat on the steps of the tower, watching the town breathe again.

“Will it happen again?” Sarfaraz asked.

Halima shook her head. “Not if the clock keeps ticking.”

“What if it doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll fix it,” she said. “Together.”

He smiled. For the first time in months, the moment felt real.

And time, once broken, moved forward again—with Sarfaraz and Halima walking into it, side by side.