the 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch Read Free Book Online Page B

toward the coroner's truck where Julia's body lay in a cold, black bag.
One simple selfish act can reverberate through time, through
life, robbing a stranger of existence. A loved one could meet her
death from the repercussions of a moment or an event she may
never know or understand. Yet if this one moment didn't occur,
if it could be found, could be taken back, the lives it touched
could be changed, could be altered and that one life saved.
You are now standing in a room, in an instant that seems
torn from your memory, a victim of magic, of some divine
intervention, but I assure you it is neither.
You are in the very room you were in during the eight
o'clock hour this evening, living that hour once again. But this
time you are free to do as you wish, turn left where before you
turned right, say yes where before you said no. No one will
know the difference, nor will anyone else experience this
phenomenon. You are on your own to choose direction as you see
fit, to alter the future you have experienced.
You've been given a gift, Nick. A gift to live twelve hours of
your life over again.
You must pay very close attention as time is short:
Every hour, as the minute hand of the gold watch sweeps to
and arrives at twelve, you will slip back in time one hundred
and twenty minutes to relive one hour of your life again.
One step forward, two steps back.
This will occur exactly twelve times, no more, no less,
taking you back by the hour to ten o'clock this morning.
With your actions now, stepping back into each prior hour
of the day, you have the chance to find and save your wife.
I will not bore you with explanations and technicalities,
suffice it to say that as the hour strikes you will be whisked back
to the exact location where you were two hours earlier to live
that hour anew.
But be aware, each choice, just as in normal life, has
consequences that we may not realize in the moment of their
choosing. You have the ability to save Julia, the ability to put
your world back in balance but be warned, it is a precarious
route you now venture on, and your choices must be well
thought out so as not to unbalance the rest of your or anyone
else's existence.
As to why you are being granted this gift, as to who I am,
and how this all happens, those are not of import in this
moment, but rest assured, all will be made known in time.
God speed, Tempus Fugit,
Z.
PS: Hold tight to this letter and the timepiece, and be
warned, this watch you carry on your person can never leave
you, for if it does, or if it is destroyed, you will be lost to the
moment you are tied to, reintroduced to the forward-flowing
existence of the rest of man, and saving Julia's life will be
become a lost cause.

    O FTEN WHEN FACED with impossible odds, when the future is darkest, a man discards logic and turns to faith, to prayer, to the mystical, convincing himself that a higher power will intervene in his favor. It happens in matters of a desperate heart, in business, even in war, when he is up against an enemy. A soldier will pray to God for victory, often not realizing that his adversary is also praying for deliverance, and in all likelihood to the same God. A man will wish on a star for love, throw a penny into a well with confidence that it will deliver the winning lottery ticket, or rub rabbits' feet so his favorite team will win the Super Bowl.
And so in that manner, Nick began to believe in the watch in his hand, in the written words of the stranger--though he was at a loss to know what language appeared at the bottom of the note. He believed that somehow, if he fought hard enough, he could stop Julia's killer, he could save her. If he could just hold out until 9:00, he would be able to confirm whether that hope was hollow, whether his faith was misplaced and he was doomed to relive his harrowing experience in the interrogation room all over again. As silly, as impossible as it sounded, it was all that he had to hold on to.
With a