I Heard the Clock Tic

It was the smell that woke me. That unmistakeable smell of decay covered over with cleaning supplies. Something here was dead. Someone here was trying to hide it.

The ground was cold and hard. The air was stale and damp. The room was unfamiliar, which might not be an incredibly big deal, but when you've been around for over 4 billion years, you've seen everything. Everything except, so it seems, this room.

The only things in the room with me were a lantern suspended from the ceiling, unmoving, and the door.

There was something about that door. It felt familiar, but twisted. Wrong. Like a security blanket covered in blood, or a doll with the eyes removed. It should've been comforting, reassuring. Instead, it was the exact opposite.

My senses were telling me to run, to get away, to get out, but the only way out was through the door. Slowly I made my way across the room, step by step by step, the eerie stillness of the room causing my hair to stand on end, until my hand was hovering just over the door knob.

I knew I was being foolish. After all, it was just a door. Except, it wasn't. That door had secrets; secrets I would hear when I opened it whether I wished to or not. Secrets about what lay on the other side, about somewhere else.

I swallowed and opened the door.

Suddenly, I was in a long, white corridor. I cautiously took a step forward, letting go of the door. I stood there in the hall, my bare feet on the cold tile, and I heard the door shut. I heard it click as it locked.

The smell was stronger here. I looked around the hall, trying to pick out why my mind was yelling "Danger! Danger!" and I heard it. The tic tic tic of a clock, just in time with my own heart. I looked around for the clock and found it on a little table along with an assortment of empty picture frames, a mirror, and a single white rose. The clock was ticking, but the hands weren't moving.

I looked in the mirror and saw myself, ageless through the eons, my silver blonde hair falling around my shoulders, framing pale skin, hanging loose over light blue eyes.

Still the clock ticked. Still the hands never moved.

I continued down the hall, passing more and more tables, each covered in picture frames, blank paper, and empty white boxes. At the end of the hall, there it was. The door. The exact same door.

I went over to it and pushed it open.

I stepped through it.

I heard it lock.

I heard the clock tic.

I looked around for any change. There were none. I was in an identical hallway. Same table. Same clock. Same odd, heavy stillness. Except now, there were pictures in the frames.

They were of me, or at least people I knew. My first charges, Alydia and Brahm. My siblings, Cassiel, Samandriel, Gabriel, Raphael, and many others. All long since gone. All smiling at me from the pictures.

I hurriedly walked away, hoping the escape the haunting feeling of those smiles. I passed all the other tables, now noticing words, notes, and letters scrawled on the papers. 'The Last Will and Testament of Thomas Marks' 'My Guardian Ivory' 'Save Us My Angel'. The boxes now were filled as well. Necklaces, gloves, daggers, coins, all items belonging to people of my past. I continued to the door.

I went over to it and pushed it open.

I stepped through it.

I heard it lock.

I heard the clock tic.

That same corridor again, with the pictures of the dead grinning up at me. With the pressing stillness, with the clock. The ticking seemed to be faster in tempo now, in time to the beats of my heart. Ringing in my ears. I ran.

I ran and ran and ran until I reached the door.

I went over to it and pushed it open.

I stepped through it.

I heard it lock.

I heard the clock tic.

The lights, lanterns hanging like in that first room, were different now. They shone red on the pictures and swung in a non existent breeze.

The faces in the pictures were no longer smiling. They stared up at me with hateful expressions, the lighting making their eyes glow red.

The rose was no longer pure white, the edges stained black and crumbling. The clock ticked faster.

I passed that table, the one with the clock and the rose, and continued on down the hall. The letters on the table seemed to be screaming their messages now. 'Why Did You Not Help?' 'We Needed You' 'You Left Us' 'Elise Tucker, 12, Found Dead'. Each one worse than the last. I raced towards the door, praying to find peace behind it.

I went over to it and pushed it open.

I stepped through it.

I heard it lock.

I heard the clock tic.

The rose was entirely black now, dead. The clock ticked faster.

The faces of my past were different too. No longer were they glaring at me from the frames, but instead each one was defaced. Alydia had been clawed, her body broken and mangled. Brahm was withered nearly to bone, eyes sunken into their sockets. Cassiel had a broken neck, Samandriel had a knife through his chest, Gabriel was blackened and burned, and Raphael's skull was caved in.

As I passed them I noticed all the other pictures were this way as well. Dead. The gloves were torn, the necklaces rusted, the daggers bloodied, the coins pressed flat. The notes and letters now claimed things I had never heard. 'You Did This' 'You Let Us Die' 'You Killed Us, Ivory'. Unable to take any more I fled to the door.

I went over to it and pushed it open.

I stepped through it.

I heard it lock.

I heard the clock tic.

The hall was empty now, the red lanterns still swaying. The clock still ticking. There were words painted in red covering the walls. 'Ivory Did This. Ivory Did This. Ivory Did This,' over and over, claiming this destruction was my doing. I gasped and ran for the door.

I went over to it and pushed it open.

I stepped through it.

I heard it lock.

I heard the clock tic.

The light was gone. The words invisible in the darkness. The stillness unbearable. And in this utter emptiness the clock still ticked ever faster, ever in step with my own heart. I screamed out, praying to be released from this hell, and ran for the door.

I went over to it and pushed it open.

I stepped through it.

I heard it lock.

I didn't hear the clock tic.

The lights were back. The pictures again smiling. The rose petals had fallen into the table. The clock was gone. Time was up.

I looked into the mirror and realised what was wrong. Me.

I was dead. The smell in the hall and the room was the smell of my own decaying flesh. There in the mirror I saw it. Blood bleeding through my robe, right over my heart.

I looked towards the end of the hall, towards the door, but it wasn't there. Instead of the door it was her. Ebony. Identical to me in every way, but darker. She walked towards me and in a low, cold voice said "Oh Ivory, look at what you've done to us."

And I was done.