# 📖 STORY I## **The House Where the Clocks Ran Backward**

*(Extended Version – Chapter 1)*

On the edge of town, in a spot overgrown with weeds so tall they blocked the view of an abandoned old cemetery, stood a house. Its walls were gray, as if they had absorbed every ray of light that had ever tried to illuminate them. The roof was sagging slowly, and the window frames were warped. Yet the house seemed… present. As if it were watching.

One night, a woman moved in. No one knows where she came from or who first saw her. She wore a long dress the color of utter midnight. Her face was pale, and her eyes gleamed with a strange coldness. She spoke to no one—she only watched.

From that night on, light appeared in the windows. Not a candle, not a lightbulb – a cold, bluish flicker that resembled lightning bolts pressed into the glass.

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## **Chapter 2 – Clocks**

No one knew there were so many inside the house until one stormy night, when a window opened and the wind scattered a pile of clockworks across the street.

The residents paled:

All the hands ran to the left.

No one saw the woman leave, but she often stood at the doorstep. Her gaze roamed the faces of those passing by, as if trying to recognize someone long lost in each one.

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## **Chapter 3 – Time's First Victim**

A young boy named Marek – curious, too bold – decided to go in.

"You shouldn't," the older woman who lived across the street told him.

"Just for a moment," he replied.

The house's interior smelled of dust and something else… something metallic. Time seemed thick. As he walked through the hallway, the clocks began to tick louder. Each step was like striking a large dial.

A woman sat in a room at the end of the hallway.

She turned slowly.

"You're late..." she whispered.

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## **Chapter 4 – The Disappearance**

By morning, no trace of Mark had been found. He had vanished as if he had never existed.

Only the clock's new pendulum was visible, swinging rhythmically, like breath trapped in metal.

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## **Chapter 5 – The Disappearance of the House**

One day, the house disappeared.

It didn't collapse. It didn't burn down.

It simply ceased to exist.

Only the scattered clock faces remained, all stopped at the same time: **3:17**

The sky over the town darkened, even though it was midday.

There was a feeling in the air that time had… turned back something.

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