Dead Hour

Chapter 1:

Ghost Boy in the Clocktower. Seventeen-year-old Blair moves to Bleakmoor, the last place she wanted to be, but her mom inherited a creepy old clocktower estate. Classic horror movie starter pack.

Inside, she finds an ancient, non-working clock that ticks only when she’s alone. That’s when he appears—Aeron, a pale, black-eyed boy with rings on every finger and eyes like a sad song. Dead. Or not. Something in between.

He smirks like a villain, but talks like a poet.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he says.

“Now you’re cursed too.”

Chapter 2:

Red Flags & Black Roses: Blair can’t stop thinking about Aeron. He shows up in mirrors, whispers through her headphones, and leaves wilted black roses on her bed. Not chill.

She finds his name in an old town legend—Aeron Vale: the clockmaker’s son who disappeared in 1887 during the “Thirteenth Hour” ritual. He was cursed to stay in the tower until someone loved him enough to die for him.

Blair’s like, “I don’t even love myself right now.”

But the more they talk—through dreams, through shadows—something real forms between them.

Something that hurts in the best way.

Chapter 3:

Bleed for Me. The clock’s ticking again. Midnight is close. Aeron tells her the truth—if the clock strikes thirteen, he can live again… but someone has to take his place in the in-between.

Blair’s torn. She barely knows him, but no one has ever made her feel like this—like she’s worth saving and burning for.

She kisses him on the twelfth chime. On the thirteenth, she steps into the gears.

But Aeron grabs her hand.

He chooses her over freedom.

The clock shatters.

Bleakmoor wakes up from its curse. Aeron becomes real, but marked. Tied to her. Her heart beats like a clock now. And it only ticks for him.