Five Minutes Late
Liam missed his train by five minutes—and survived a disaster that should’ve killed him. But when an old watch begins ticking, survivors speak of alternate timelines, and the dead begin to call, he realizes fate may have traded one life for another.
The train crashed at 6:02 p.m.
Liam was supposed to be on it.
Instead, he was five minutes late—again.
He’d dropped his sister’s old wristwatch while leaving the apartment, the one she gave him on her last birthday before she died. It hadn’t worked in years. But as he reached the platform and saw the plume of smoke rising, the watch ticked once.
A survivor sat beside him the next day in a hospital corridor.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” the man asked.
“One of who?”
“The ones who don’t belong in this timeline.”
Liam laughed nervously, but the man’s gaze didn’t shift. “They call it a course correction. Sometimes the universe fixes itself by nudging you just a second. Just a breath.”
That night, Liam tried to destroy the watch.
It wouldn’t burn.
Wouldn’t break.
The second hand moved once every hour, but only when he wasn’t looking.
A week later, his sister called.
But she died five years ago.
Liam was supposed to be on it.
Instead, he was five minutes late—again.
He’d dropped his sister’s old wristwatch while leaving the apartment, the one she gave him on her last birthday before she died. It hadn’t worked in years. But as he reached the platform and saw the plume of smoke rising, the watch ticked once.
A survivor sat beside him the next day in a hospital corridor.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” the man asked.
“One of who?”
“The ones who don’t belong in this timeline.”
Liam laughed nervously, but the man’s gaze didn’t shift. “They call it a course correction. Sometimes the universe fixes itself by nudging you just a second. Just a breath.”
That night, Liam tried to destroy the watch.
It wouldn’t burn.
Wouldn’t break.
The second hand moved once every hour, but only when he wasn’t looking.
A week later, his sister called.
But she died five years ago.
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