Chapter 1 The Girl Who Had No tomorrow
Rupnagar, Punjab, India
September 1
The oldest clock in Rupnagar had one rule .
Nobody remembered who had made the rule. Grandparents repeated it. Parents laughed about it. Children dared each other to stand beneath the clock tower at midnight, only to run away before the first bell.
Karman had always believed it was just another village legend.
Until the night before her eighteenth birthday.
The rain had stopped only a few minutes earlier.
Water dripped from the branches of ancient banyan trees lining the streets. The smell of wet earth filled the cool evening air as the lights of Rupnagar shimmered along the Sutlej River.
Karman adjusted the straps of her backpack and glanced at the sky.
"One more day," she whispered with a smile.
Tomorrow—September 2—she would finally turn eighteen.
Her grandmother used to joke that eighteen was the age when "time starts watching you."
Karman had laughed every time.
Now, for some reason, those words refused to leave her mind.
At home, birthday decorations lay hidden in a cupboard. Her mother thought she hadn't noticed them.
She had.
A chocolate cake had already been ordered.
Her father kept pretending he had forgotten her birthday.
He was a terrible actor.
For the first time in weeks, everything felt... normal.
Too normal.
That night, Karman couldn't sleep.
At exactly 2:02 a.m., she opened her eyes.
Not because of a nightmare.
Because...
every clock in the house stopped at the same second.
Her phone.
The wall clock.
The microwave.
Even the old alarm clock that hadn't worked in years.
All of them showed...
2:02.
Then—
Tick.
One sound.
Only one.
It didn't come from inside the house.
It came from outside.
From the direction of the old clock tower.
Another tick.
Then another.
Slow.
Heavy.
Like the heartbeat of something enormous.
Curiosity defeated fear.
Wrapping a shawl around herself, Karman quietly stepped outside.
The streets were empty.
No barking dogs.
No crickets.
No wind.
Even the leaves seemed frozen.
It was as if the entire town had forgotten how to move.
Only the sound remained.
Tick...
Tick...
Tick...
Each step drew her closer to the clock tower standing at the edge of the old market.
The tower had been there for over a century.
Its hands hadn't moved in decades.
Yet tonight...
The minute hand shifted.
Just once.
Karman stopped.
"...That's impossible."
The rusted clock face began glowing with a pale golden light.
One by one...
The twelve numbers disappeared.
Except one.
II
The Roman numeral for 2.
A cold breeze swept across the empty square.
Then she heard a voice.
Soft.
Ancient.
Neither a man's nor a woman's.
It seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"The Keeper has awakened."
Karman spun around.
There was no one there.
The square was empty.
The shops were dark.
The silence returned.
Then she noticed something lying on the ground.
A pocket watch.
Old.
Silver.
Its glass was cracked.
Its hands didn't move.
But it was still ticking.
She picked it up.
The moment her fingers touched the cold metal
—
Every bell in the tower rang at once.
BOOM!
The ground trembled.
The sky darkened.
And across the glowing face of the ancient clock, words slowly appeared as though written by an invisible hand:
YOUR EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY MUST NEVER ARRIVE.
Karman stared, unable to breathe.
Before she could take another step...
The tower doors opened by themselves.
And from the darkness inside...
Someone whispered her name.
"Karman..."
The whisper echoed through the empty square.
"Karman..."
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't frightening.
It was... familiar.
As if someone had spoken her name thousands of times before.
Her fingers tightened around the silver pocket watch.
Tick...
Tick...
Tick...
Each tick grew louder.
The ancient wooden doors of the clock tower creaked open another inch.
Inside was only darkness.
A darkness so deep it seemed to swallow the moonlight.
Karman's heart raced.
"Go home," a voice inside her whispered.
"Find out the truth," another replied.
She took one step forward.
Then another.
The moment she crossed the doorway...
BOOM!
The doors slammed shut behind her.
The silence vanished.
Hundreds of clocks began ticking all at once.
Tick... Tick... Tick... Tick...
The sound surrounded her from every direction.
She looked up.
The inside of the tower was impossible.
From the outside it looked abandoned.
Inside...
Thousands of clocks covered the walls.
Tiny clocks.
Grandfather clocks.
Golden clocks.
Broken clocks.
Some moved backwards.
Some had no hands.
Some floated in the air.
Yet every one of them pointed to the same time.
2:02.
A cold shiver ran down Karman's spine.
"This... can't be real."
Suddenly—
A bright blue light flashed across the room.
The silver pocket watch in her hand began to glow.
The ticking stopped.
Every clock became silent.
One by one...
The clocks turned toward her.
Not the faces.
The clocks themselves.
As though they were alive.
Then a deep voice echoed through the tower.
"The Child of September has returned."
Karman froze.
"What... did you call me?"
No answer.
Instead, the floor beneath her feet began to shake.
Ancient gears hidden beneath the stone floor slowly started turning.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
In the center of the room, a circular platform rose from underground.
On it rested a massive black book.
Its cover was made of cracked leather.
Across the front, glowing silver letters appeared.
THE BOOK OF THE UNBORN TOMORROWS
The book opened by itself.
Its pages flipped wildly.
Wind rushed through the tower even though every window was closed.
Finally...
The pages stopped.
There was only one name written on the page.
KARMAN
Below it were her details.
Birthplace: Rupnagar, Punjab, India.
Date of Birth: September 2.
Age: 17.
Then...
The words began changing.
The ink faded.
Slowly...
Her birthday disappeared.
Her age disappeared.
Even her name started fading away.
"No..."
Karman whispered.
"No... stop!"
She reached for the page.
The instant her fingers touched the paper—
The room exploded with golden light.
A tall shadow appeared at the far end of the hall.
Its face was hidden beneath a black hood.
Its eyes glowed like molten gold.
It held a long staff shaped like the hand of a giant clock.
When it spoke...
The clocks trembled.
"Your eighteenth birthday must never exist."
Karman stepped back.
"Who are you?"
The figure smiled.
Not kindly.
Patiently.
As though it had waited centuries for this moment.
"I am not your enemy... yet."
Before Karman could ask another question...
The pocket watch in her hand shattered into dozens of glowing pieces.
The tower shook violently.
A deafening bell rang once.
The hooded figure vanished.
Only one sentence echoed through the darkness
—
"When the clock strikes 2:02 on September 2... either Time will die... or you will."
The lights went out.
Everything became silent.
And somewhere in the darkness...
Someone laughed.
The laughter faded.
Silence swallowed the tower once again.
Karman stood frozen, unable to tell whether only a few seconds had passed... or several hours.
Then—
A soft light flickered beneath her feet
She looked down.
One tiny piece of the shattered pocket watch was glowing.
It floated into the air.
Another piece rose.
Then another.
Dozens of silver fragments circled around her like fireflies.
Instead of joining together...
They formed an arrow.
Pointing toward a narrow staircase hidden behind the wall of clocks.
"I don't have a better choice," Karman whispered.
She followed it.
The staircase spiraled downward.
Each step was carved with strange symbols she had never seen before.
As she descended, the air became colder.
The ticking returned.
Only now...
It sounded like whispers.
Hundreds of whispers.
All saying the same words.
"Don't let tomorrow disappear..."
The staircase finally ended before an enormous stone door.
There was no handle.
Only a circular space exactly the size of the broken pocket watch.
Karman hesitated.
She placed the glowing watch fragment into the center.
The door trembled.
Ancient gears groaned.
With a deafening rumble, it slowly opened.
Beyond it was a room unlike anything she had ever imagined.
Thousands of candles floated in the air without melting.
Shelves stretched farther than she could see, filled with glowing glass jars.
Each jar held a tiny golden light.
Some lights burned brightly.
Others flickered weakly.
One shelf caught Karman's attention.
Every jar had a name.
Aarav.
Meher.
Simran.
Kabir.
Each label also had a date.
Birthdays.
She reached toward one jar.
A voice stopped her.
"Don't touch it."
Karman spun around.
An old man stepped from the shadows.
He wore a dark blue coat covered in tiny silver clock symbols.
His white hair reached his shoulders, and round glasses rested on the bridge of his nose.
Unlike the hooded figure...
His eyes looked tired.
Not cruel.
"Who are you?" Karman asked.
"I've been waiting for you for eighteen years."
"Eighteen?"
"But I'm still seventeen."
The old man looked at her sadly.
"Not for much longer."
He walked to one of the glowing jars.
"This light is a birthday."
Karman frowned.
"A birthday?"
He nodded.
"Every person is born with one."
He gently lifted the jar.
"If this light goes out..."
He looked directly into her eyes.
"...the world forgets that person's birthday ever existed."
Karman felt a chill.
"So that's what's happening?"
The old man nodded again.
"Someone has begun stealing them."
"Lord Chronos?"
For the first time...
The old man's face turned pale.
"You've already seen him."
Karman slowly nodded.
"He said my eighteenth birthday must never exist."
The old man closed his eyes.
"I was afraid he would choose you."
"Choose me for what?"
Instead of answering...
He pointed toward the center of the room.
A single glass case stood alone.
Inside it...
There was no glowing birthday.
Only darkness.
On the silver plate beneath it were engraved the words:
KARMAN
Birthday: September 2
The glass case was empty.
Karman's heartbeat stopped.
"My birthday..."
The old man spoke so quietly she almost didn't hear him.
"It has already begun to disappear."
Before Karman could ask another question—
Every candle in the room went out.
Darkness crashed over them.
A booming voice echoed through the chamber.
"She has found the Archive."
The old man's eyes widened.
"They found us."
Heavy footsteps echoed from the staircase.
One...
Two...
Three...
Someone—or something—was coming down.
The old man grabbed Karman's wrist.
"There isn't much time."
He pressed a small brass key into her hand.
"No matter what happens..."
"...never let Chronos take this key."
The footsteps grew louder.
Closer.
Closer.
A shadow stretched across the stone floor.
And then—
A pair of glowing golden eyes appeared in the darkness.
End of Chapter 1
