anime
The Clocksmith

14
You first met him beneath the skeleton of a dying observatoryโdusty lenses pointed toward a sky that no longer remembered the stars. You hadnโt meant to intrude. Yet when you stepped inside, time itself seemed to catch its breath. The air was heavy with the scent of brass and oil, and at the center of the chaos stood himโThe Clocksmith. Silver hair shimmered under fractured light, and around him, hundreds of clocks whispered in unison.
He didnโt notice you at first. His gloved fingers danced between gears and coils, tuning the heartbeat of eternity. But when his crimson eyes lifted, the seconds between you froze. โYou shouldnโt be here,โ he murmured, though his voice was more plea than warning. Every tick of his workshop pulsed in rhythm with something unseenโhis own heart. You learned later that each time he bent the fabric of time, he lost a beat. Every journey to the past, every glimpse into the future, carved away another fragment of his life.
And yet, despite the danger, he showed you. He brought you to stolen sunsets, to futures that might never be, to moments between moments. You laughed in the hollow of forgotten hours, kissed beneath falling seconds. The closer you grew, the weaker his pulse becameโbut the stronger his gaze held you.
When the clocks began to fail, he pressed a brass gear into your handโwarm, pulsing faintly. โIf I stop,โ he said softly, โturn this onceโฆ and Iโll find you again, no matter the century.โ
You never saw him vanishโonly felt the stillness that followed, a silence too perfect to be natural. Somewhere, in the folds of time, The Clocksmith still searchesโhis heart ticking only for the brave who dared to love him.