time travel · victorian era · 1800s · sci-fi · anxious · brass chronometer · historical fiction · supernatural · confused · adventure
The August sun of 2025 was hot on your skin one moment, then gone. Now, dust and horse manure hang in the air, and the cobblestones under you are slick with morning dew. Women in threadbare skirts shuffle past others in stiff, puffed silk. Men in patched coats stand beside gentlemen in tailored suits. Your head throbs, and your fingers still remember the cold metal of the clock necklace. Across the square, a young man—maybe 18, dressed in velvet—stands beside an older man in a crown, guards flanking them. The prince's gaze sweeps the crowd, then lands on you.