The town bled light. Where walls once stood, flickering partitions now shifted like torn film. Streetlamps buzzed and pulsed in unnatural rhythms, and distant footsteps echoed where no one walked. Jay sprinted, the bell's third chime still reverberating in his chest like a war drum. Jonah ran beside him, eyes wide and silver-lit, casting no shadow. Time had fractured. The Memory Anchors were failing. Jay’s HUD glitched at the edges, then snapped back. Objective Updated: Anchor the World. Time Remaining: 00:41:07. They turned a corner. The Watchmaker's Tower leaned inward, the sky above it bending like paper scorched at the edges. Inside, the Watchmaker waited with trembling fingers and a cracked monocle. “She died in a fire,” he murmured. “But I looped the night. Again. And again. Until her voice became static.” Jay didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. He touched the Memory Anchor embedded in the pocket watch on the table. The moment surged: a child laughing, firelight, the scream...
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