Chapter 3

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The first thing Lila noticed was the silence.

Not ordinary quiet - but the thick, muffled silence of a world holding its breath. Even the wind outside the clocktower had gone still. She pressed her palms against the rotten floorboards, the silver scars on her wrists pulsing like second hearts.

Elias's scars.

His power.

His curse.

A laugh bubbled up in her throat - sharp, unhinged. She'd spent lifetimes running from this tower, and now she was its prisoner. The thought made her lurch for the door -

"Ah-ah."

Clara's voice didn't come from the walls this time. It came from inside her skull.

Lila's reflection in a broken mirror winked at her. Except... it wasn't her reflection. The girl in the glass had Clara's sunflower-yellow dress, Clara's crooked smile.

"You didn't think getting his scars meant you got rid of me, did you?" The reflection tapped the glass.. "We're sisters now. More than sisters. We're -"

"No." Lila smashed the mirror with her fist. Glass bit into her knuckles, but the cuts healed before the blood could drip.

The tower shuddered in response.

Something clattered to the floor behind her.

Elias's pocket watch.

The one he'd been polishing in her very first memory of him. It lay broken at her feet, its gears spilling like metallic guts. As she reached for it, the hands suddenly spun backward -

Tick-tick-tick-tick

- and a vision slammed into her:

Herself, younger, standing in this same tower. Elias gripping her shoulders, his eyes wild. "It's the only way," he was saying. "You have to forget me. Forget everything."

"No!" Her younger self clawed at his arms. "I won't do it again!"

Elias's voice broke. "Then the town will take you like it took Clara."

The memory shattered as a real sound split the air - a knock at the tower door.

Three precise raps.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

Lila's scars burned white-hot. She knew that knock.

She'd heard it every Halloween night of her childhood.

The door creaked open on its own.

On the threshold sat a single black rose - fresh as if just picked - and a note in familiar, elegant script:

"Midnight. The graveyard. Come alone or the next face erased will be yours."

It wasn't signed.

It didn't need to be.

Somewhere in the town below, Elias Holloway was waiting.

Hollowbrook had changed.

The cobblestones gleamed unnaturally under the full moon. Shop windows reflected her face a dozen times over—each reflection slightly wrong. Too pale. Smiling too wide.

Mrs. Pettigrew's cat hissed as she passed, fur standing on end. The café where she'd drunk coffee yesterday now stood boarded up, a "Condemned" sign dated 20 years ago nailed to the door.

A whisper from the alley: "Liiila..."

She spun, but only shadows stirred.

The iron gates shrieked as she pushed through. The graveyard stretched before her—a sea of tilted headstones and crumbling mausoleums. At the center stood Elias, his back to her, shoulders tense under his black coat.

Not a ghost. Not quite solid either. Moonlight streamed through him, illuminating the willow tree behind his form.

"You came." He didn't turn.

"You knew I would." Her voice sounded raw. "What happens at midnight?"

Finally, he faced her. His scars had faded to faint silver lines. His eyes—god, his eyes—held centuries of sorrow.

"The town resets,"* he said softly. *"And you forget me again. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

He reached into his coat. The locket— her locket—dangled from his fingers. The crack she'd made was gone.

"Unless you choose to remember."

Wind howled through the graveyard. The locket swayed between them, catching moonlight.

"What's the catch?" she asked.

Elias smiled—that same heartbreaking smile from her visions. "You'll remember everything. Not just me. Not just Clara. But what you did. What we did."

Somewhere, a church bell began to toll.

Eleven.

Twelve.

Midnight.

The ground trembled. The locket glowed.

"Choose, Lila."

She reached for it—

The world shattered.

Memory 1: Clara's 18th birthday. Sunflowers in her hair. Elias handing her the locket. "Keep this safe."

Memory 2: The clocktower at midnight. Clara screaming as shadows peeled her apart like fruit. "You promised!"

Memory 3: Herself, younger, sobbing as she locked the tower door. "I'll make them pay, Clara. All of them."

Lila gasped back to the present, her knees hitting damp earth. The locket burned against her palm.

"Now you understand," Elias whispered.

She did.

As they were talking suddenly the graves ruptured.

Bone fingers clawed through dirt. The Hollow Ones— dozens of them —pulled themselves free. Not ghosts. Not quite human. Their mouths stretched too wide, voices harmonizing:

"Liiila... you promised..."

Elias yanked her behind a mausoleum.

"They're drawn to the locket."

"How do we stop them?"

"You don't." His hands framed her face. "You control them."

Then he kissed her—hard—and the world exploded in silver light.

Lila's scars ignited.

The Hollow Ones froze mid-lunge.

"Command them," Elias breathed against her lips.

She raised a hand. "Stop."

Every creature dropped like marionettes with cut strings.

Clara's voice shrieked inside her skull—then cut off mid-scream.

Silence.

Elias's smile was proud. Sad. "Now you're truly the Keeper."

The locket pulsed once in her hand—then *clicked* open.

Inside, the photo had changed.

Now it showed *all three of them*: Clara, Elias, and Lila.

Smiling.

Together.

Before everything went wrong.

Lila touched the image. "It's starting to come back. All of it."

Elias's expression darkened. "That's what I was afraid of."

Behind them, a single black rose bloomed on a grave - fresh as morning dew.

Lila's fingers trembled against the locket's image. The smiling faces of Clara, Elias, and her younger self seemed to mock her.

"You knew," she whispered. "All three of us... we did this together."

Elias's shadow stretched long across the graves. "We tried to break the curse. But the town—"

A rustling cut him off. The black rose on the grave pulsed, its petals unfolding to reveal a clockwork center. Tiny gears spun where seeds should be.

Tick-tick-tick.

Lila's scars flared. "What now?"

"The town fights back." Elias grabbed her arm. "Run!"

They barely made it ten steps before the earth split open.

Copper vines erupted from the ground, whipping like serpents. They wrapped around Lila's ankles, dragging her toward the fissure. Elias slashed at them with a silver dagger she hadn't seen him draw.

"Cut the rose!" he shouted.

Lila lunged, grabbing the monstrous flower. Thorns bit into her palms, but she tore it free—

The world lurched.

Suddenly, she stood in the sunflower field from her memory. Clara twirled ahead, laughing. Elias stood beside her, younger, unmarked by scars.

"See?" Clara beamed, pressing the locket into Lila's hands. "Nothing bad ever happens here."

The lie tasted like honey.

Then the vision ripped away.

Lila gasped back to reality. She knelt in the clocktower's ruins, Elias's arms around her. The graveyard was gone.

"You saw it," he murmured. "The day we created the first locket."

Her mouth went dry. "We *made* the curse?"

Elias's eyes held centuries of grief. "We tried to cheat death. The town... twisted it."

Outside, the wind howled Clara's name.

Lila clutched the locket. "Then how do we end this?"

A new voice answered:

"With blood."

Clara stood in the doorway, her yellow dress rotting at the hem. "My turn to be remembered."

To be continue...