Chapter 1: The First Tick
The clock arrived before memory did. It hung on the wall the day the human was born, ticking steadily as the child cried for the first time. The human did not notice the clock—but the clock noticed everything. It began counting a life it would never interrupt.
Chapter 2: Learning Time
As the human grew, time became a lesson. School bells rang, hours were memorized, minutes were wasted. The clock watched the human rush past it every morning, never wondering where time came from—only where it went.
Chapter 3: Waiting
The clock learned patience. It waited through childhood laughter, scraped knees, and long afternoons that felt endless to the human. The clock knew a secret: the days would soon feel too short.
Chapter 4: Love on Borrowed Hours
Love entered the room one evening. The human sat beneath the clock, heart racing, believing moments could last forever. The clock ticked gently, aware that love never escapes time—it only shares space with it.
Chapter 5: The Sound of Hurry
Adulthood arrived loudly. The human stopped listening to silence and started racing against it. Deadlines, alarms, schedules. The clock's ticking grew sharper in the human's ears, though it had never changed its pace.
Chapter 6: Regret Between Seconds
Some nights, the human stared at the clock, wishing it would move slower—or faster. Regret lives in those spaces between seconds, where nothing can be undone. The clock did not judge. It only continued.
Chapter 7: Loss
One day, the room fell quiet. Someone the human loved was gone. The clock ticked through the grief, marking moments that felt unbearable. Time did not heal—but it allowed survival.
Chapter 8: Understanding
Age softened the human. The clock was no longer an enemy but a witness. The human realized time was never stolen—it was spent. And spending it well mattered more than having more of it.
Chapter 9: The Slowing World
The human moved slower now. The clock stayed the same. Friends became memories, days became reflections. The ticking sounded almost kind, like a companion refusing to leave.
Chapter 10: The Last Tick
When the human took their final breath, the clock kept going. It always would. But something had changed—the room felt fuller, not emptier. Because a life had passed through time, and time had remembered it.