TALES OF THE HAUNTED MANSION: THE CLOCK TOLLED THIRTEEN By Steven Acevedo
"No one but no one...touches The Haunted Mansion!"
That is what I heard the first time after I went there alone one stormy night not long ago. What the stranger meant was that others have tried to tamper with the majesty that was the property surrounding the area. There were attempts to destroy the place numerous times by construction crews wanting to either dismantle it brick by brick or update it in some way to appease the younger crowd who got off on The Viscera side of the mansion and not the mystery. They all either died or went mad doing so.
It was intially the latter who wanted to change it for the worse when it was rumored that the mansion was going to undergo a change or two. Among these changes was the removal of a clock that stood between The Hallway of Doors and the entrance into Madame Leota's seance quarters.
No one is quite sure where the clock came from. History records suggested that a clockmaker had built the monstrosity as a gift for his neighbors who came from The East. Tales were told that the number Thirteen represented good luck where they came from. Which is why the 13th hour was put on the face.
The only thing missing was a pendulam to make the clock run. So the clock maker went into the forest to chop down a tree to make the pendulam. In truth the clock maker was a very greedy selfish individual who thought he could cheat people out of their money with inferior workmanship. What he didn't realize was that The Eastern Couple were really demons in diguise and he had incured their wrath when he presented the clock to them with the wooden pendulam in the base.
Their diguises revealed, they attacked him on sight and tried to kill him.But he was a shrewed person and immediately grabbed for an axe during the struggle. He kicked one of the demons to the side and with a mighty blow he cut off its tail. The creature let out a yowl that could be heard for miles. The other demon dissapeared upon seeing its other destroyed. The tail was inserted into the heart of the base when the man noticed it was squirming in his hand. The tail froze in place in a crooked fashion swinging back and forth.
With the deal gone awry the clockmaker tried desperately to sell the clock to other people but every person brought it back because they said it had been haunted. It wasn't until much later did Master Gracey take an interest in The Occult and had it brought it over the mansion to add to his strange collection at Madame Leota's request. It has been there ever since.
Now the clock was going to be taken out of the mansion and with it a chunk of history. The person who acquired the mansion was a slim man in his Early 40's with a slicked backed hairdo. He was a businessman who only saw value in the profits the mansion would bring. He neither respected or feared the intricate workings of the mansion from the inside. Being a man of logic he saw this simply as another opportunity to exploit the masses.
How foolish he was.
I was hired on to help in the removable of the clock. We brought it outside and our boss examined it. "The pendulam has to go," he said. "It's too crooked and scaly." And with that he made the mistake of discarding the tail from the clock.
I somehow sensed that this change to The Mansion was going to come to no good in the end.
"You will take this clock to your house temporarily until I have a new pendulam made," My employer said sternly.
It wasn't until later on after I got home that I saw a shadow of a hand try to reach for my throat. At first I thought it was my imagination but I saw the shadow hand again and the moon wasn't even shining near the window where I sat.
Like the good man of reason I was I tried to put a logistical viewpoint to the strange event. "It was a trick from the light," I thought out loud. I situated the clock under my lamp and then mimicked the action of the hand swishing for the pendulam that wasn't there. Then I heard a swooshing sound from behind me. Turning around I saw the shadow hand again. Bigger than my own hand. This went on for two nights. Everywhere I went I saw the hand. Behind me, in front of me, even in a glass window that was transparent.
"Sir. You must take that clock back where it belongs," I told my boss in a panicky voice.
"Get a hold of yourself, man!" He said.
Noticing how scared I was he relented and took the clock off my hands. The next day the manager came in looking haggard and white as a ghost. What happened to him?
"Men!" He shouted, "I have decided to put this gruesome clock back into The Mansion."
With that he took the clock in himself. But halfway into the place we all heard a bloodcurdling scream. I ran into the mansion as fast as I could and saw a very horrific sight. It was the shadow ghost of the original demon terrorizing my boss. In his pocket was the demon's tail. He must've went back for it days before and kept it as a souvenir of his conquest of the mansion. The demon looked angrily at at him as he was the clockmaker who had cut off his tail.
"P-Put it back in the c-clock," he said frightened as all get out. I grabbed the demon tail and shoved it into the heart of the clock. It began to chime thirteen times as an array of shrieks and groans wailed from the hallway of doors. We both ran out as fast as we could from The Haunted Mansion.
Catching our breath we realized why no one has ever been able to successfully remodel or demolish the creepy house.
In my mind I can still hear the stranger say again to me,"No one - but no one touches The Haunted Mansion!"