“Tim! Where's Tim gone?
“Tim?”
“Tim, where are you? It’s getting scary in here.”
“Hey you two love birds. Calm down. I’m just over here. Take a look at this.”
They can make out Tim’s dark figure ahead, his huge shadow now flickering on the ancient stone wall.
"Tim, we've got to stick together,” says Jill.
“What is it you've found?” Dave asks.
It is a statue, a statue of a man holding a box in his hands. The box is being held out towards them. Golden and shimmering in the light of the torches strapped to their heads, it looks as if it is being offered to them.
“I'm not sure who he's supposed to be."
"He has a twisted sort of smile."
"Ugh! He's not much of a looker."
“I wouldn't trust him on a dark night."
“I  wonder what’s in the box?" says Jill,  "He seems to want us to take it.” 
Tim carefully takes the box from the statue. “There’s something scrawled here on the top.”
“What does it say?” asks Dave.
“It's some sort of Sumerian script. You're the expert, Jill. Can you do the honours?”
“Mmm. Hold your torches still, boys. Let me see.” The other two young archaeologists focus their torches on the writing as Jill tries to make out the words. ‘Welcome ... to ... your ... piece ... of ... time.’”
“Well thanks very much, mate!' Dave says to the statue.
 "So it's an ancient time piece!” says Jill.
“Doesn't look like a clock to me," Tim replies.
“The message is a bit metaphysical, isn’t it?” whispers Dave.
“But what can it mean?” Jill says turning the box over in her hands. The lid of the box falls open. “Whoops,” she says. Then, “Oh, it's OK. There's nothing inside.” 
“You know they saw time like any other dimension,”  says Tim. “They thought they could take a chunk of time and ... I don't know ... place it … stack it somewhere.”
“Stack it somewhere?”
"Yes, sure. Pieces of time held in the space-time continuum of eternity. Picture it. Chunks of time, replaying and replaying the same events over and over and …” 
"Stop it, Tim, you're making me feel all funny," says Jill.
"Jill, haven't you learned to take Tim with a huge pinch of salt yet?” He tries to put a reassuring arm around Jill, but she pulls away intent on something she has seen inside the box.
“Look, here. There are some other words on the inside, around the lip of the lid.” 
“Can you make out what they say, Jill?”
“They say, ‘from … now ... forever.'"
“Now and forever?”
“Yes. So the whole thing reads ‘Welcome to your piece of time from now forever’.”
“This is all getting a bit creepy, let's get out into the daylight.'
“What's wrong?”
“I can't see the door where we came in.”
“It was there wasn't it?”
“It's gone. There isn't a door.”
“I don't see another way in ... or out!”
"And I don't see Tim."
“Tim! Where's Tim gone?
“Tim?”
“Tim, where are you? It’s getting scary in here.”
“Hey you two love birds. Calm down. I’m just over here. Take a look at this.”
They can make out Tim’s dark figure ahead, his huge shadow now flickering on the ancient stone wall.
"Tim, we've got to stick together,” says Jill.
…………..