Back in the safety of her cottage, Selene placed the bundle of letters on the table. The diary and the clock sat nearby, pieces of a puzzle she was just beginning to comprehend.

She untied the ribbon carefully, her hands shaking as she unfolded the first letter.

"The past is not gone. It lingers in the cracks of the present,

In the ticking of a broken clock,

In the whispers of the wind that carries your name.

You are tethered to this place, Selene,

As I was before you.

Yours,

E."*

Her mind reeled. Whoever E was, they had been here—had experienced the same phenomena she was now facing. But what had they discovered?

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She read the next letter:

"Time bends in this house, this land.

It is a seam, a place where the past and future meet.

But beware the hollow tree.

It gives as much as it takes."

Selene frowned, her chest tightening. The tree had led her to the letters, but what had it taken in return? She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d opened a door that couldn’t be closed.

She continued reading, the letters piecing together a story of someone caught in the same web of mystery—a person who had vanished just like Lydia.

The final letter in the bundle stopped her cold. It wasn’t addressed to anyone else. It was addressed to her.

"Selene,

You stand at the edge of a decision that will alter everything.

Do not forget: the clock ticks for you now.

The answers you seek are waiting,

But so are the consequences.

Yours,

E."

The clock on the wall began to tick louder, the sound filling the silence of the room.