C49 The Edge of Sound

The chime was wrong.

Ethan’s eyes opened to the faint, metallic echo of the grandfather clock in the hall — the one he’d wound with his own hands.

It was always perfect.

Always precise.

But this morning, it chimed *early.*

Not by much — maybe half a second — but he felt it like a misfired heartbeat.

He sat up, the sheets pooling around his waist, his eyes narrowing toward the open door