Chapter 1: The Broken Bell

It started with the bell.

It rang at 9:00 AM.

Then again at 8:59.
Then at 8:58.
Then time started going backward.

Kids froze mid-blink. Teachers looped their sentences.
And I dropped my spoon… five times in a row.

Time was glitching.

Chapter 1.5: The Secret in the Clock Tower

We met up in the gym.
Nova scanned her watch. “We’ve got a code-time scramble. Reality’s skipping like a scratched DVD.”

Zeke nodded. “So… we punch time in the face?”

“Close,” said Finn. “We go to the clock tower.”

Because under it… was a room we’d never seen.

Until now.

We pried open a rusted metal hatch and climbed inside.

Welcome to Room 13: where the school kept everything it couldn’t explain.

A piano with no keys.
A lunch tray still screaming.
And a giant glowing hourglass…
with our names carved into it.

Chapter 2: The Timekeeper Arrives

A shadow formed out of gears and glowing strings.

“I am the Timekeeper,” it said.
“Someone is stealing hours—from your lives.”

Nova gasped. “What happens if they take them all?”

The Timekeeper pointed to the hourglass.
“If the last grain falls… you never existed.”

The First Clue

Under the hourglass, we found a photo.

Blurry. Torn.
But it showed me—older. Taller. And behind me?

A group of kids I’d never met…
Except one.

Draft-9.

Who Are the Others?

We called a secret meeting in the library.

Nova projected the photo.

Zeke squinted. “Wait. That kid’s got my ears.”

“It’s us,” Finn realized. “But not us. Versions of us… that haven’t happened yet.”

“Or,” I said slowly, “that won’t happen at all if we lose more time.”

The librarian gave us a crumbling scroll:
The Map of Missing Moments.

It shimmered with places that once existed—then were erased.

The Ink-Eater was eating time now.
And his newest hiding place?

Detention.

Chapter 3: Operation: Sneak into Detention

We forged detention slips.
Zeke forged his with glitter glue. It somehow worked.

We passed the guards (a trio of suspiciously smart hamsters)
and entered… Detention Dimension D.

Time didn’t flow here.
It hiccupped.