Jonah had always believed time was a constant—something you could measure, something you could count on. But now, it was like sand slipping through his fingers. Each moment felt fragile, untrustworthy.
The world around him began to fade more each day, as if time itself was erasing him from memory. People he knew no longer remembered his face with certainty. Conversations felt disconnected, like echoes of things that shouldn't have been said. Evelyne's touch seemed distant, her eyes holding a sorrow he couldn't quite place.
Evelyne was worried. Jonah could feel it in the way she looked at him, the way her hand would linger on his when they spoke. She was afraid he was slipping away, and he was afraid too.
But Jonah had made a choice—a hard choice. To undo the rip in time, to return the stolen second. But what did that truly mean?
He was a fragment now. A piece of the puzzle that didn't belong.
That night, he stood by the river that ran through Glimmertide, looking out over the water. The stars were dim above him, their light flickering like dying embers. The world was quieter than he'd ever known it.
"Jonah?" Evelyne's voice came from behind him. He didn't turn. He didn't need to. She was always there.
"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up," he said quietly. "Time is erasing me."
"No," Evelyne said, stepping forward. "You can't let it. You're not alone in this."
Jonah looked at her then, seeing her clearly for the first time in days. And for a moment, he remembered what it meant to be alive—to choose, to act, to exist in a world of possibility.
Maybe there was a way to fight it.
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Next up: Chapter Eighteen – "The Moment That Lasts."
Jonah and Evelyne take their final stand, facing the true power of time itself. Together, they must reclaim what was lost.