Claire awoke with a sharp gasp, her chest unbearably heavy as though an unseen weight pressed down on her lungs.
Her body ached in every joint, every muscle screaming as if she had been hurled through the air and dashed against the ground.
"W-what… happened? My body hurts like hell..." she whimpered, her voice trembling and thin.
"Princess Clara! You're finally awake! Everyone was so worried! You've slept through half of the day!"
The bright, cheerful voice startled her.
A maid in a crisp uniform stood at her bedside, her eyes shining with relief.
'Princess… Clara?'
Claire blinked rapidly, her thoughts a tangled blur.
'Who's Clara? What is she talking about?' Her gaze swept frantically around the room, her heart racing faster with each passing second.
This wasn't her bedroom...
No familiar posters, no messy desks, no creaking fans in the corner, no sounds of noisy neighbors or cars passing through.
Instead, sunlight spilled across tall arched windows draped in velvet curtains, and the air smelled faintly of lavender and polished wood.
A grand canopy loomed overhead.
Her blood ran cold. 'Wait… this isn't home.'
Her vision swayed.
Dizzy, she steadied herself against the mattress, her face drained of color.
"Are you alright, Your Highness?" the maid asked again, worry etched in her tone.
"I-I… c-can you give me a moment?" Claire stammered, forcing an awkward smile.
The maid hesitated, then curtsied and slipped quietly from the room, leaving Claire alone with her pounding heartbeat.
Slowly...
Hesitantly...
Claire pushed herself to her feet.
Her legs trembled as she crossed the room to a gilded mirror.
The moment her reflection came into view, her breath caught in her throat.
A pale face with wide, horrified eyes stared back at her.
"AHHHHHH!!!"
Her scream tore through the chamber as she stumbled backward, collapsing onto the floor.
"W-WHAT IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TO ME???!!! WHO THE HECK IS THIS???!!!" Her voice cracked with panic.
She crawled forward, desperate, her eyes darting to every corner of the unfamiliar room.
Nothing belonged to her.
The furniture, the paintings, even the scent of the place... it was alien.
"T-THIS IS NOT MY HOUSE!!! WHERE THE HELL AM I???!!! AND WHY DOES EVERYTHING LOOKED...OLD???!!!"
Her trembling gaze returned to the mirror.
The girl reflected there was not the one she had known her entire life.
Golden hair cascaded like molten sunlight over delicate shoulders, shimmering with an almost ethereal glow.
Emerald-green eyes glimmered beneath long lashes, foreign yet heartbreakingly beautiful.
But Claire knew herself.
She knew the girl she was supposed to be...
A brunette with unremarkable hazel eyes...
A girl who loves to travel the world...
A girl who's up for any adventure.
"A-am I dreaming?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
------
It took what felt like forever before Claire's breathing steadied, her frantic heart beginning to slow.
She forced herself to think, pacing back and forth across the thick carpet, trying to piece together the moments leading to this nightmare.
And then it hit her.
"THE WATCH!!!" Her voice rose in sudden realization.
She dropped to her knees, tearing through the sheets, flipping pillows, searching every corner of the room.
But no matter how hard she looked, the strange old watch was nowhere to be found.
"Where is it?! It must have been that weird watch!" Her frustration boiled over, her hands shaking as she shoved aside a cushion.
Still...
Nothing...
Defeated, Claire collapsed onto the bed, burying her face against the silk sheets.
She rolled over in despair only to freeze.
There, resting on the nightstand, lay a folded letter.
Her pulse quickened.
With trembling fingers, she reached for it and carefully unfolded the parchment.
The words were written in an elegant hand:
'Your wish was granted. Second chances are not meant to be wasted.'
Claire's eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat. "D-did I...?"
"I… I traveled back in time..." she whispered, disbelief and awe mingling in her voice.
"I did it…"
"I really did it..."
"I'm back in the past…"
But her relief twisted instantly into dread.
Her grip on the paper tightened until it crumpled in her fist, her hands shaking violently.
"But… this…" Her eyes burned with terror.
"THIS IS NOT THE PAST I WAS TALKING ABOUT!!!"
Her scream echoed through the grand, unfamiliar room, raw and desperate, as though the walls themselves might answer her.
"Okay! Calm down, Claire! Just… calm down! Deep breaths! No panicking... I'll figure this out...in a calming way...right...?" she muttered to herself, forcing a shaky breath as she began pacing the length of the grand chamber.
Her footsteps echoed against the polished marble floor, too loud in the oppressive silence.
She clasped her trembling hands together, then flung them apart as though to physically scatter her panic. "Think this through... YOU HAVE TO THINK THIS THROUGH!!!"
Her words were meant to steady herself, but her heart only pounded harder.
She pressed a palm against her chest, as if that could cage the chaos threatening to burst free.
Memories flooded back in jagged fragments, stabbing at her with every step.
"After Aiden's death…" Her voice wavered, breaking at his name.
"…after he died, I was so helpless... So… depressed. I thought I was drowning, and there was nothing left to hold on to."
She stopped pacing, clutching the edge of the bedpost for balance, her knuckles white.
Images of Aiden's smile flooded her.
Warm, mischievous, the kind of smile that could chase away any pain, any frustrations brewing.
His laugh, so full of life, still echoed in her ears.
She saw him standing in the rain that day, umbrella tilted as he teased her for forgetting hers again...
She saw his hand reaching for hers, strong and steady...
And then she saw him lifeless...
Her throat closed.
"I couldn't function without him..." she whispered.
"I thought I'd never crawl out of that darkness." She forced herself to keep speaking, desperate to untangle the knots in her mind.
She pressed a hand hard against her mouth to choke back the sob clawing its way out.
"One night, I was walking home...barely holding myself together...and I saw it." She stopped mid-pace, her hand clenching into a fist as her mind replayed the moment.
"An old man, cornered by a group of punks, getting shoved around like he was nothing. They treated him like garbage... I don't even know what got into me…I stepped in... I couldn't just walk away."
Her lips curved into a bitter smile. "I wasn't strong... Not really... But somehow… I chased them off. He was so grateful. Then he grabbed my hands with those wrinkled fingers, eyes shining with something I didn't understand, and he gave me a watch."
She squeezed her eyes shut, recalling the weight of that strange, antique thing resting in her palms. "He told me it was magical... He said it could turn back time... To undo the things that already happened..."
A humorless laugh escaped her lips. "I thought it was nonsense. Maybe it was some senile old man spinning fairytales. But I still kept it. Maybe because… maybe because some small, broken part of me wanted to believe it..."
Her steps quickened, restless, her golden hair whipping over her shoulders as she turned sharply across the room.
"And then…" Her eyes widened as the pieces locked into place, her pulse racing with the clarity of realization.
"I got drunk... I remember it now... I drank too much, and I cried myself to sleep, clutching that stupid watch like it was my last lifeline."
Her voice dropped to a whisper, trembling with horror. "I wished... I wished with everything I had left in me... Maybe… maybe I whispered it in my sleep, maybe I begged it to take me back before Aiden's death... And somehow, somehow that watch… it heard me."
Claire buried her hands into her golden hair, tugging in frustration as she spun in place.
Her reflection in the mirror mocked her, a stranger's face with emerald eyes wide in fear.
"But this… this is ridiculous!" she cried, her voice shattering the heavy silence.
"I didn't ask for this! I didn't want to wake up here...in someone else's body, in some strange place or time or whatever ancient world this is!" Her breath came in short, shallow bursts as she stumbled back to the bed and collapsed onto its edge.
She pressed her shaking hands against her face, muffling a sob.
"I just wanted to go back… I just want to see him... If only I can..." Her words cracked like glass.
"…just before Aiden died. Just this one chance... That's all I wanted... Not this... Not here..."
Her hands fell limply into her lap as her eyes glistened, wide and lost.
The grand chamber suddenly felt suffocating, its gilded walls closing in on her like a prison.
Her voice was small when it slipped past her lips, fragile as the quiver of a candle flame.
"How… how will I ever go back? Can I even… go back?"