The Friends That Grief

Home Sick

Sunset was standing in front of a door that didn't exist a few days ago, the everlasting screeching of metal haunting her ears and the thick fog obscuring her vision.

A door in the back of her apartment surrounded by a huge red circle that was even partly drawn on the ceiling and floor, the entire room around the edges of the circle looked withered and old, the wallpaper crumbling away.

After the front door had closed behind her she had tried in vain to open it. After that she had tried to open her windows, but had found them as sealed, and unbreakable, as the door.

After that she had tried to call for help.

Nothing had helped, not banging her hands against the door, or kicking the walls. None of her neighbors had reacted to any of the sounds. It was as if the apartment had simply disappeared from everyone's mind.

Not long after she had heard a rumbling as if something big had fallen over, something that sounded suspiciously like her wardrobe.

Upon entering her bedroom she had noticed that it had indeed been her wardrobe. A door, made of rusted iron, was behind it, the wallpaper ripped away. And behind that door was the same small room she was standing in right now, looking at another door surrounded by a weird circle.

She was hesitating, biting her lower lip. The room was empty except for the door and a peculiar long case clock that was standing on the right. The clock had four hands. The second hand was stuck on the eleven, the hour and minute hand on twelve and something that looked like another second hand was stuck on three.

Wrapping her hand around the cold wooden knob she turned it-

-and found it as locked as the front door.

For whatever reason she felt relieved as the door remained closed. While it meant that she was stuck in here it would also mean that she was not forced to move into unknown territory, and she still wasn't sure what the monster that had escaped Tartarus was capable of.

She blinked.

"The book!" She mentally face palmed. Turning around she opened the door to her bedroom. Moving through it she ran through the rest of her apartment. Slowing down she stopped at her front door, the book was still lying in front of it.

Furrowing her brows, Sunset noticed that the fog seemed to stay away from the book, as if it was repelling it. Slowly walking closer she also noticed that it wasn't her book anymore. It had changed.

Picking it up and opening it she noticed the empty pages. Well 'empty' was an hyperbole. The pages were filled with dried drops of blood and ink. Flipping through the book Sunset looked at the pages and noticed that with every page the amount of droplets seemed to increase. Had the first few pages only some drops, the pages in the middle were almost entirely covered.

She stopped.

Looking up from the book she looked through her empty apartment, a shudder running down her spine.

Something had changed.

'The sound!' Her eyes widened. 'The screeching stopped.' She wasn't sure if it was a good or bad sign.

Looking back at the book she noticed that the blood and ink began to move erratically, forming lines written in both liquids.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The sound of four clock hands tick-tick-ticking away.

The first strikes two,

the second strikes eight,

the third, seeking balance, never strikes seven

and stops at three.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Your time tick-tick-ticks until the fourth strikes twenty-two.

Furrowing her brows she looked at the weird puzzle.

And then she heard the soft ticking of a clock echoing through the apartment.

And with each tick a drop of blood appeared in the book!

Dropping the book Sunset turned around, running through her apartment and jumping over the broken wardrobe she opened the door to the hidden room.

She wasn't dumb. The puzzle in the book was definitely connected to the long case clock in this room. And if twenty-two meant what she thought it would mean than she only had two minutes to solve the puzzle!

The obnoxiously loud ticking disappeared, turning into a soft, almost soothing rhythmic tone. Stepping in front of the clock she noticed that the first second hand, the one which had rested on eleven before was now moving, and it was already past the three.

The door slammed shut, followed by the sound of it locking up and something very heavy that scraped over it.

She was trapped.

Something warm and wet landed on her shoulder.

"Huh?" Using her middle and ring finger she brushed over her shoulder. Something stuck to her fingers. A clear, scentless liquid.

Looking up-

-she screamed in terror, falling to her butt.

A huge mouth was protruding out of the ceiling, it's lips slightly opened and with each tick they opened a little bit further.

Standing up she stepped in front of the clock again, ignoring the drops of saliva that were falling on her she concentrated on the dial. The moving second hand had passed the five already.

"Okay Sunset, think!" She spoke to herself, panic in her voice. "What did it say?" The closed her eyes wrecking her brain, the infernal ticking disturbing her thought process.

"The first strikes two..." She looked at the dial. "Which is the first?"

The second hand passed the seven and now she could hear and feel the mouth over her begin to breathe. Literally breathing down her neck.

She began to tremble, her hands on the clock.

And then her eyes fell on her digital watch. While the dial was disturbed, jumping at random intervals, showing her a different time every time she still noticed something.

"Hour. Minute. Seconds." She whispered. "That's it!"

Reaching up she wrapped her thumb and index finger around the small hour hand, moving it to the right. She could hear the small cogs in the clock moving and at the same time something in the door began to rattle.

Stopping the hour hand on the two she heard the hand snap into place, a soft click escaping the clock, followed by a much louder metallic clunk of the door as the moving second hand reached the nine.

"Minute is second and second was." She murmured closing her eyes in thought again. "Eight!"

Wrapping her fingers around the much longer but thinner hand she moved it to the right again. While it may be quicker to go left she was scared to damage the clock. The hand reached it's destination snapping into place just like the hour hand before and-

The second hand reached eleven.

And the clock began to chime, the soft sound was echoing through the little room as the hands she had just put into place snapped back to twelve.

The mouth crashed down.

Crouching down she felt the hot breath rushing through her hair and over her skin as more saliva oozed out of it, drenching her in the sticky liquid as something long and slimy slithered it's way around her neck and down her chest, covering her in even more saliva.

The chiming stopped and Sunset felt the tongue move back into the mouth. Looking up she saw it looming over her again, this time though it was moving.

As if it was laughing.

Jolting back up she saw that the second hand had already reached one again. Drying her hands on her jeans as best as possible she moved the hour and minute hand again to their respective spot, both snapping into place, followed by another set of clunks in the door.

Looking at the other second hand, the one that was not counting down to feed her to a giant mouth in the ceiling, she closed her eyes again.

'The third...' She mused. 'Not striking seven and stops at three....' She opened her eyes again looking at the dial. 'Seeking balance.'

"What does it mean?" She whispered.

'Not striking seven, stopping at three...' She looked at the two numbers. 'That probably means that the correct answer is in-between those two numbers... seeking balance...' She closed her eyes thinking about what kind of 'balance' it could mean.

'Three and seven.' She felt her heart beat quicken and forced herself to not look at the doom-timer. 'If I try to balance that on a scale I would put five on each side... but it's not weight... it's time!'

She couldn't resist.

Opening one eye she looked at the timer and saw that the hand had already passed the four.

She had enough time. If it was wrong then she could just redo it, even if all the others would snap back to twelve. She had time.

Wrapping her fingers around the incredibly thin, but also sturdy needle, she moved the hand towards it's destination.

The hand reached five just as the other reached six.

The needled snapped into place, a massive clunk escaped the door.

Wrapping her hand around the knob she pushed.

The door stayed put.

She pulled.

The door stayed shut.

Tears began to well in her eyes.

The mouth over her began to giggle now, a high-pitched female laugh.

Turning to the clock she noticed that the second hand was moving much faster than before, than it's supposed to.

It reached eleven.

And an ear shattering screech made Sunset crawl down and cover her ears.

Until darkness closed in.

Taking her away.