Tomorrow

The clock tower stood at the centre of the underground city.
Inside it was a mechanism unlike anything Mira had ever seen.
Thousands of tiny gears moved around one enormous crystal.
Every turn of the crystal changed something above.
A forgotten memory.
A lost year.
A life that could have happened.
Mira finally understood the letters.
They weren't warnings from someone in the future.
They were warnings from herself.
Every time she made a choice, another version of her continued somewhere else.
Somewhere, another Mira had already tried to save her mother.
Somewhere, another had stayed behind.
Somewhere, another had broken the clock.
And somewhere, another had failed.
Her mother stood behind her.
"You can't save everyone."
Mira looked at the crystal.
"Then I'll save whoever I can."
She picked up the small silver key hanging around her mother's neck.
The clock began to scream.
The underground city shook.
Bridges collapsed.
The glowing birds scattered into the darkness.
Elias shouted her name.
Mira turned the key.
For one impossible second, everything went completely silent.
Then light filled the city.
Mira closed her eyes.
When she opened them, she was standing beside the old fountain.
It was morning.
The fountain was flowing again.
People were walking through the square as if nothing had happened.
Elias was gone.
Elias was gone.
The underground city was gone.
Her mother was gone.
Mira stood there for a long time.
Then she noticed something beside her feet.
An envelope.
Cream-coloured.
Sealed with dark blue wax.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
Inside was a single sentence.
You did well.
Then she noticed the date written at the bottom.
It was tomorrow's date.
She looked up.
For the first time in twenty years, the old fountain began to glow blue.
And somewhere beneath the town, a clock started ticking.
Forward.