First Line Fiction Weekly Prompt #18
The Girl Who Could Manipulate Time
A short story
The clock ticked backward, but no one else seemed to notice. Maya stood frozen in the crowded café, her eyes fixed on the retrograde clock hands. Time unraveled before her eyes, yet the world around her remained oblivious.
As she watched, mesmerized, the clock’s numbers began to fade, like sand slipping through an hourglass. The café’s patrons continued their conversations, sipped their coffee, and checked their phones, unaware of the temporal anomaly unfolding before them.
Maya felt like she was drowning in a sea of reverse chronology. Memories she thought were long buried resurfaced. Forgotten scents, like her grandmother’s perfume, wafted through the air. She could even taste her favorite ice cream from her childhood.
The clock’s hands continued their counterclockwise dance, and Maya’s mind reeled with the implications. Was she the only one who could see this? Was she losing her grip on reality?
As the clock struck what would have been noon, the hands stopped moving. Time, it seemed, had run out. The café’s patrons looked around in confusion. Maya, still frozen, realized that she had been given a rare gift — a glimpse into the fabric of time itself.
