The Clock Tower That Waited

In a small northern town, the clock tower froze one December evening. The hands pointed to 11:59 for nearly a century. When restoration workers finally climbed inside, they found a woman’s skeleton in the bell chamber, seated neatly on a wooden stool.

A locket hung around her neck, engraved: I will wait until he returns.

Records revealed a watchmaker’s apprentice vanished the night the tower stopped. He’d gone to fix the clock for her wedding. Some say she climbed up every evening to listen for his return — until her heart stopped ticking too.

When they restarted the mechanism, the clock chimed twelve times — and the locket cracked open, revealing a small piece of gear, perfectly preserved.