The coil in the lab sang one note too high, and the air folded like wet paper. When it snapped flat again, Mara felt wrong. Her phone said 9:42. Her sister Ines, three feet away, looked up slowly, like a video still loading. Mara waved. Ines waved back two minutes later. Their clocks matched, but the sisters did not. Mara was ahead now, and she could feel herself sliding further forward.

Mara stayed calm and studied the coil. A small screen on its base showed a number climbing: 2:00, 2:01, 2:02. The gap was growing on its own, slow but steady. The machine was still running, quietly pushing her further ahead of Ines every minute.

Mara looked for an off switch and found a big red button under a plastic cover. A label warned: 'Hard stop locks the time gap in place.' Hit it now and they'd be frozen two minutes apart forever. She needed the gap at zero first, not just stopped.

Mara left the red button alone and hunted for the real reverse control. Behind a panel she found a slider labeled 'unwind.' She eased it down. The gap began to shrink, two minutes, then one, the coil humming low and steady. For the first time, she felt herself slowing back toward Ines instead of away.