Horology (noun): the art of making timepieces or measuring time

Time seemed to pass more slowly now.

The old man knew he was well beyond his age, and the remaining days— no, the remaining hours of his life were countable with a single hand.

Steadying his shaking fingers, he adjusted the final cogs of the watch with the tools that were all too familiar.

Click, click, click, click…

Once again, the time-keeping device jumped to life under his meticulous craftsmanship.

It amused him that his life was ending now. He found it funny that the time of his life couldn’t outlast his creations, and his creations couldn’t outlast the eternal element of time itself. As each day passed, he became older. As each year passed, the cogs of his watches became weaker.

What can outlast time? Or at least last as long as time?

The old man didn’t know the answer, and it seems like he never would. Falling onto his desk as if he worked too late into the night of a weekday, he closed his eyes for the last time.

A worried shout sounded from the room next door, before a young boy burst through the door. It was the watch-maker’s apprentice.

At the sight of his forever-silent mentor and the gleaming surface of his final watch, the child began to wail and cry. The old man that had cared for him throughout all these years of life was now as quiet as a broken watch. Face full of tears and mucus, he gingerly ran to the old man and picked up the fixed watch from the table.

Click, click, click, click…