Time-Counter

When me and Benny were ten we found a broken pocket watch. The hands didn't move, until I killed a nearby mosquito. Then the second hand ticked forward one notch.

“Whoa! See that?” Benny said.

“I think I jostled it, that’s all.”

“Can I have it?”

“Sure.”

I didn’t realize he kept it. Yesterday he appeared at my door with cops, trembling, holding the watch. “The hands only move for you. They’ve jumped ahead an hour every day for two weeks. I’ve been following the news…”

My chest sank.

The cops dug up my backyard and found the fourteen women.