The clock ticks backward, its whispered secrets of stitch and seam
echo through hollow chambers filled with shadows and not quite dreams.

The old stained key, rusted with tales untold, whispers of locked doors
and opened books; it desires no more than to reveal its tarnished heart
beneath the forgotten attic beams.

A lone candle, burnt low, murmurs its eternal glow's longing for waxed
dances on moth-colored wings, secretive in its smoky sighs.

The Collective Whispers
Echoes of the Lock