Read An Excerpt From Chapter One

A young girl alone in the forest began to cry. Her wails carried over the wind and echoed her vast loneliness. The air did not reply. The girl continued to weep and eventually collapsed to the ground. No chirps, no crickets . . . not even the hum of a breeze passed through the land. Then, approaching in the distance, came a tick followed by a tock. The sound of a seldom heard clock subtly grew louder, as faithful as a heartbeat.

The girl’s sobs slowed as she became distracted. She looked over toward the source: a stooped and wilting figure emitting a brilliant light from beneath its tattered robes. The figure wore chains that weighed it down. As it came closer, she realized it was a man with a sun-bleached beard dragging in the dirt and blank, pupilless eyes, windows into a white emptiness. He brandished a necklace with an hour glass, and sand fell and spoke of time past. Grain by grain, by the laws of gravity, the top withered away and the bottom bulb filled; at that moment, he flipped it, and the clock began anew. The girl’s green eyes glistened with hope at the passerby as the ticks and tocks rang from deep within his chest at perfect intervals.