The Reverse Clock

Ethan Carter was never one to believe in fate, magic, or anything beyond the ordinary. As a historian, he dedicated his life to studying the past, but never in his wildest dreams did he think he would have the power to change it.

That all changed on a stormy afternoon when he stumbled upon a small antique shop tucked away in a forgotten alley of London. The shop, dimly lit and filled with the scent of old paper and dust, felt like a portal to another era. As Ethan wandered through the shelves, his eyes landed on something peculiar—a pocket watch unlike any he had ever seen.

The case was made of aged brass, engraved with strange symbols that seemed both ancient and futuristic. The glass cover was slightly cracked, but the hands of the clock ticked smoothly. What caught his attention most was the inscription inside:

"Turn back the hands, and time shall follow."

Intrigued, Ethan purchased the watch, unaware that his life was about to change forever.

The First Experiment

That night, curiosity got the better of him. Sitting at his desk, he carefully examined the watch. "Turn back the hands, and time shall follow," he murmured. Could it really mean what he thought?

He hesitated, then turned the minute hand backward by five minutes.

At first, nothing happened. But then, the room around him blurred, as if someone had smeared reality like wet paint. When the dizziness passed, he found himself staring at his desk—but everything was slightly different. The pen he had been holding was back on the table, the half-drunk cup of coffee was full again, and the news on his phone was five minutes behind what he had last seen.

His heart pounded. Had he really just traveled five minutes into the past?

A Dangerous Discovery

Ethan spent the next few days testing the watch, pushing the limits of its power. A few minutes back? Easy. An hour? Possible. A day? Difficult, but not impossible. The watch responded smoothly each time, rewinding his life like a film reel.

Excitement turned into temptation. What if he used it for more than just small experiments? What if he fixed past mistakes?

One evening, Ethan made a fateful decision. Years ago, he had lost his mother in a car accident—a moment that had haunted him ever since. If he could change it, why shouldn’t he?

With a deep breath, he wound the watch back, traveling to that terrible day. He arrived just in time to stop her from leaving the house. With a simple excuse about a faulty car battery, he convinced her to stay home. She never got in the car, never had the accident.

Ethan returned to the present, his heart pounding with anticipation.

The Ripple Effect

At first, everything seemed fine. His mother was alive, her presence warm and comforting. But then, he noticed small things—his apartment looked slightly different, the books on his shelf were not the ones he remembered buying, and worst of all, his best friend James no longer recognized him.

Panicked, he searched for answers, digging through records and calling old acquaintances. What he discovered chilled him to the bone.

In this altered timeline, the doctor who had been scheduled to operate on a famous scientist’s daughter had been called to treat a minor injury Ethan's mother had suffered that same day. Because of this, he wasn’t available for an urgent surgery, and the scientist's daughter died. In grief, the scientist abandoned his research—research that had originally led to a groundbreaking medical discovery.

Without that discovery, James’s father, who had suffered from a rare illness, never received the life-saving treatment he once had. He had died years earlier, altering James’s entire life.

By saving one life, Ethan had unknowingly doomed many others.

The Desperate Fix

Realizing his mistake, Ethan knew he had no choice—he had to undo what he had done.

With a heavy heart, he rewound the watch again, returning to the day of the accident. This time, he let events unfold as they originally had. Tears streamed down his face as he watched from a distance, powerless to intervene.

When he returned to the present, everything was back to the way it had been. His mother was gone, James knew him again, and history had realigned itself.

The watch lay heavy in his pocket, a burden too great to bear. He now understood the terrible truth: time was not meant to be rewritten. Every action had consequences, rippling through history like waves in a pond.

The Final Choice

Unable to trust himself with such power, Ethan made his decision. That night, he returned to the antique shop. The old man behind the counter smiled knowingly, as if he had been expecting him.

"Did you learn your lesson?" the man asked.

Ethan nodded. "Time isn’t a toy."

With that, he placed the watch on the counter and walked away, never looking back.

As he stepped out into the night, he felt lighter, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He no longer had the power to change the past—but perhaps, just perhaps, he had finally learned how to live in the present.