Connie pulled her jacket tighter around her as she walked against the wind toward the house that she and Penny Wise shared. She wondered where she left that old fobwatch... It was probably still packed away from the move. Or still in one of her mom's boxes.

Her mom. Connie smiled sadly at the thought of her mother, now three months dead. She would have loved this mystery about the watches... Come to think of it, mom knew about the watch. She thought. She reached back far into her memory and replayed the scene in her head.

Connie was just a tot then, no more than three. She loved going through the old boxes and junk that was in her mom's attic... And one day she found the watch. It was a beautiful thing, brighter and newer than Whit's, with the same pattern, only different; with more circles and dots. She picked it up to admire it, and started to try and open it with her chubby fingers.

"Connie!" Her mother called up the ladder. "Come for lunch!"

"OK mommy!" She said, walking back towards the ladder. "Look what I found! Isn't it pretty?"

Her mother stared at the watch, then slowly reached up and swung her down from the top of the ladder. She set her down, and took the timepiece carefully from her. Connie thought she saw a tear in her eye.

"Mommy, why are you crying?" She asked, hugging her around the leg. June smiled and stroked her head.

"When you're older, I'll explain, ok? You wouldn't understand, now. But let's go have lunch."

A car honked near by, waking her out of her reminiscence. Why had her mom cried at the sight of the watch? What was it? Or... What did her mom want to forget? The last thought hit Connie like a sack of bricks. Why did that sound... Right?

Connie reached her house several minutes later. She stepped in, calling, "Penny! You home?"

"I'm in the attic, Connie!" Came the faint reply.

Connie made her way upstairs and climbed carefully up the ladder. "What are you doing up here?"

Penny dusted her hands on the front of her already dusty pants, then wiped her forehead, leaving a grey streak. "I'm trying to make room for several paintings, but it's proving to be a harder job than I thought."

"Ok, but could you maybe stop for a break and help me find something?"

"Of course. What?"

"An old pocketwatch."

Penny surveyed then mountains of boxes around her. "Ok... Where do we start?"

"You take this side..." Connie gestured to the left side of the room, "...and I'll take this side." She walked over to a box on the right hand side of the dusty room and began to search through it. "It'll be on or near the top, as I saw it only two or three months ago. I put it on top of the junk in one of these boxes."

"Ok, that's good. But would you mind telling me why you need this old watch?"

Connie smiled. "Well, this is going to sound weird, but we think that there might be a mystery connected to it."

AIOAIOAIOAIO

"Eugene! EUGENE!" Jason called, slapping him lightly on the cheeks. Eugene groaned, then opened his eyes. He held out the watch to Whit. "I've finished the tests... There is indeed something supernatural about it."

Whit took the watch, and Jason helped him up and into a chair. "Are you sure, Eugene?" He asked nervously. Something supernatural?

"My brain tells me that of course not, but I can't deny what I've seen... And what it did." He looked at it apprehensively, as if it would do something else to him.

"Hold on, Eugene. You said it did something to you?" Whit said, gingerly setting the offending watch down on the table.

Eugene sat up a little straighted in the chair and adjusted his glasses. "I was doing a bit of research on this type of watch on my laptop, and I realized that I haven't even opened it. I tried too for a while, and when I did finally get it open, a bright golden light shot out and hit me in the face. It must have knocked me unconscious."

Jason raised one eyebrow. "A light hit you and knocked you out."

"Yes, Jason, I know it sounds ludicrous, but that's what happened." Eugene shot back.

"Ok, but I want to see this for myself." Jason reached for the watch, but Eugene grabbed his arm.

"No! You do not want that to happen to you."

"Why? Remember I'm an ex-NSA agent, I've been through more than a blow to the head."

"I know, but it was more. It was like... Like it got inside my head and played with my memories, showing me different times and planets and what he did to those who tried to stop him." Eugene started trembling, and Whit put an arm around him and gently helped him up.

"How about we go downstairs and have a coffee," He said. "That should help clear your head."

"Good idea." Eugene said faintly. As they left the room, Whit called over his shoulder, "Do not touch that watch, Jason!"

"Fine, fine." Jason watched them leave, then turned to the table. The watch sat there, looking so old and innocent. He? What did Eugene mean by "he"? Jason shook his head, as if to clear it, then followed them downstairs for coffee.

AIOAIOAIOAIO

"Found it!" Connie exclaimed triumphantly, pulling the old watch from the sixth box she was going through. Penny set the one she was working on down with a sigh.

"I'm glad that's over. Let's see?"

Connie handed her the watch, and Penny turned it over in her hand. "Well, it looks mid-19th century-"

"I know that, Penny. But I need to take it back to Whits End." She took it from her roommate and put her coat back on. "Will you be coming by the shop later?"

"Oh, you know me; I'll probably drop by later for a Raspberry Ripple." Penny grinned up at her.

"Ok, see you then." Connie stepped carefully down the ladder and out the door. This time, she hurried back to the shop, and was there just as Whit had finished making the coffee and was pouring Eugene a cup. He had regained some of his colour, and had stopped shaking so much.

"I got the watch," Connie walked up to the counter. "Sorry it took so long; I had to go through a few boxes in my attic." She handed it to Whit, and he looked at it closely with the magnifying glass Eugene had left there earlier.

"Well, it looks a lot like mine, only with more circular patterns. I wonder what it means?"

"Do you think it actually means something, Whit?" Connie asked. "I just thought it was some sort of design."

"Yes, if you look carefully at it-" he handed her the watch and glass, "-you'll notice that there is a pattern to it. It's not just random. And there are these semi circles and dots-" he pointed towards the middle of it, "-that appear more frequently than others. It's the same on my watch."

"So it's some sort of language?" Connie asked.

"It appears so."

"Eugene, why aren't you talking at all?" Connie looked over at him. He gulped his coffee, shaking his head and holding up a finger.

"Eugene had a misadventure with my watch." Whit filled her in on what happened. Connie's eyes widened, and she set the watch on the counter.

"Maybe we should just get rid of it," she said. "If it's going to hurt us, then I don't care about any mystery connected to it." She gestured toward the trash can sitting by conveniently. Eugene set down his mug and shook his head violently.

"No, no. A thousand times, no!" He put his hand protectively over it.

"But Eugene, it hurt you! You got knocked out!" Connie pleadingly put her hand on top of his.

"Ms. Kendall, if it was anything else, I'd agree with you. But this watch... I don't know. I'd go through it again just to find out its secret."

Connie sighed, and lifted her hand off his. "Alright then, if you're going to be so stubborn about it. But... be careful?"

Eugene grinned at her. "Aren't I always?"