Slightspeculativetwist Stories

Twelve-year-old Lucien Vallois has never known the world outside the ticking walls of his father's clock shop in the sleepy French village of Saint-Brieuc. But when the Nazis march into town, time itself seems to stop. His father, a quiet and brilliant horologist with secrets of his own, vanishes one foggy morning-leaving Lucien behind with a cryptic pocket watch and a whispered warning: "Don't let the hands fall to midnight. Or they'll find you." Left to fend for himself, Lucien navigates a world of danger, spies, and broken trust. The townspeople whisper of collaborators. Children disappear. Resistance fighters vanish into the woods. And every night, Lucien winds the strange golden watch, terrified of what might happen if he doesn't. But the watch doesn't just tell time-it shifts it. As Lucien begins to unravel the mystery of his father's disappearance and the watch's powers, he finds himself slipping between moments in time-sometimes seconds, sometimes days. Each "slip" gives him a glimpse of what's to come: betrayals, bombings, even death. Yet time travel comes at a price. The more he changes, the more unreal his own reality becomes. People forget him. Places vanish. History reshapes itself. And soon, Lucien realizes he isn't just caught in World War II-he may be the key to ending it... or ensuring it never ends at all.