Clock, Original Fiction

[Freaky Geek]

Chapter One
My Name Is Sue
My name is Sue, yeah I know that’s a pretty stereotypical introduction but what can I say? This isn’t alcoholics anonymous, this isn’t some self help group; this is where my life went nuts. You don’t have to believe me, heck I don’t even believe myself half the time.

Everything I write here is the truth, its how I came to see the other side, no not death, not an alternate reality, true reality, the reality that most people are just to dense to see. Ever seen cats attack a ‘dust mote’ in midair for no reason? Their not attacking nothing, animals have no preconceived notions of reality, therefore, they can see what we can’t.
My name is Sue, and this is where my life got crazy.

This wouldn’t be interesting without some background now would it? My full name is Susan Allen; I was a bright kid, a genius by all the test scores. Being a genius doesn’t make you popular though, it makes you a nerd, geek, bookworm, undesirable. Don’t look at me like that, I was not like one of those mopey emo kids, I was actually rather happy with my place in life. I had my best friend, Chris, growing up beside me.

Where to start with Chris? Chris well, he was an orphan, a ward of the private school and college we both attended. Such a strange studious child everyone called him, to me, he was someone who to enjoy a good book and a round of tag with. No we were never romantically involved, we were to close for that, more like, the same person in two halves, we literally completed the other.

I’m getting off track, I need to get back to what is important, the school! God it was an old school, built in a castle, cool in the summer, warm in the winter, you’d think you’d stepped into a fantasy novel. But it was the library that had my love, it was massive, four floors of books, the smell of it filled you as soon as you stepped inside. Then there was the furniture, antiques from all over the world, all belonging to one Professor Ramsay.

Prof. Ramsay had been my idol, a mentor to both Chris and me, always encouraging us to look beyond the obvious and to the truth of the matter. I cried the day he passed away, cried like he was family instead of just a teacher, only to receive a surprise when his will was read. The wonderful antiques of the library, they were to be split between Chris and me, all except for the grandfather clock. The stupid clock that started this all was left to me.

It was supposedly a grandfather clock, but I’ve never seen one like it before, glass exposing its strange insides to the world. I guess I was a little obsessed with figuring out how it worked, for every time I inspected it the parts seemed to have changed or moved around. Who knew something that strange looking, that incomprehensible could be the answer to all my questions.

I was twenty-two when I decided to move into my own apartment, out of the dorms of the college and into freedom. I looked at moving some of the furniture with me, and the Clock, yeah, Clock with a capital ‘C’. It was then that world started to get weird, and the Wrong People (again with the capitals, don’t worry you’ll understand soon enough) started to show up.

Heya folks, Freaky Geek the author here, I've never actually sat down and written a story before, so judge as harshly as needed. I'll try to get new chapters up as soon as I write them

[Freaky Geek]

Clock

Chapter Two
Wrong People

Have you ever met someone who everyone around you seems to love, but they creep the hell out of you? There is just something not right about them, and you can’t quite put your finger on what is wrong? You just know without a doubt that you can’t trust them, that they are evil. Those are the Wrong People, or maybe just baby Wrong People, since the feeling the Wrong People give off is nearly a hundred times as strong.

My first encounter with the Wrong People was when they showed up at my new apartment. I had only been living there a week and Chris had helped me unpack most of my stuff and set the Clock up in its place of honor in my living room. The knock on the door was friendly enough, short and sweet. I thought it may have been the building manager or a neighbor, the locks into the building ensured we didn’t get many solicitors.

Looking through the peephole only led me to see what looked like an European couple, older, the woman was carrying a briefcase, they were both smiling like everything was right in the world. I was a bit confused as I opened the door, ignoring the hair raising up on the back of my neck.

“Hello, are you Susan Allen? The school told us this was your address, and you were the one to talk to about purchasing some of Professor Ramsay’s antiques?” The woman’s voice was clear and unaccented, rather surprising for her appearance. Being only human, I did what any human would do when confronted by the feeling of wrongness, I ignored it.

Why the school would give out my personal address I really didn’t think too hard on at the time, I should have. I also should have slammed the door shut and locked it, instead, foolish little human that I was, hoping to possibly make a little money, I let them in. We chatted, I tried my best to ignore the growing sense of wrongness, and finally what they wanted was revealed.
You see, all they wanted was the Clock.

Why this struck a chord in me I didn’t know, I felt, protective of it, and tried to explain to the persistent Europeans that I could not part with it. I put my hand on its glass just as it struck its noon chimes. That was when I could see.

I could see what the Wrong People were; their beautiful wonderfully twisted and horrifying faces. They looked almost angelic, peaceful and serene, till you looked at the edges, were the skin was pulled tight and stapled into the slimy rotting flesh underneath. Their hands were this was to, beautiful pale elegant skin hiding the long blood red talons.

I did what any sane human being would do, I screamed.

[Freaky Geek]

Clock

Chapter Three
First Encounter

The screaming made the Wrong People stiffen, they had not expected it; they had not expected me to be able to see. It’s a weird sensation, like a baby opening its eyes for the first time and being bombarded with lights and colors. All pretenses of normalcy were gone when I could see them for what they really were.

The Clock was changing, constantly in motion now, the glass gone so I could reach inside to the moving gears and pistons. Things which I had once thought were just intricate bits of machinery seemed to have developed a life of their own.

What I still didn’t know was how strong instincts could be when one was attacked. The Wrong People, they didn’t screech or howl or even hiss, they were deathly silent as they attacked, lips pulled back to expose row upon row of needlelike teeth. Their red talons reached out, ready to kill me without a second thought.

Instinct time, though not my instincts, not the instincts of a normal human being confronted by monsters. No, it was the Clock’s instincts. The gears shot out into and over my hand that had been touching the suddenly-nonexistent glass of the Clock, they were like liquid, covering and molding to skin as it yanked my arm forward, smashing my hand into the face of the female Wrong Person. She -surprisingly enough- went flying back into the wall, her beautiful mask torn, dented, and showing more of the wrongness underneath.

Where was I during all of this? I was being jerked around by a Clock, and still screaming, hoping to all hell someone would come and wake me from this nightmare.

I didn’t wake up I still haven’t woken up even now. Instead, the other Wrong Person spoke just one word as he hoisted his female companion over his shoulder,
“Guardian.”
If nails on a chalkboard could be a voice then this was it, a whining high pitched scrape of a noise that suited his wrongness.

They left high-tailing it out the door as if he were suddenly afraid; why they were afraid I… think I knew. After all, the Clock was scaring me too. It had not let go of my arm, still bound around it and refusing to budge. It was pulling again, pulling me in closer as the liquid metal gears climbed up my arm. I had no experience with this sort of thing- I was scared shitless.

I could feel the sharp corners of the gears and pistons start to pinch and pierce into my skin as it pulled me inside. My screams ended only when the gears started to flow into my mouth, choking me, making small dots of blackness appear in my vision.

Passing out is never fun, especially when you think you’re never going to wake back up.

[Theta]

FIRST POST! *shot*

I've already told you what I think.. but I really like the way it's coming. I really hope you see it through to the end. :3

[Crowbar]

I know you asked me to review it a while back, but I haven't got a chance to such a thing. I'll do that tonight! :D Sadly, I'm at work at the moment.

[RogueHunterX]

I have to admit that I really lke what I've seen so far. The first person narrative flows smoothly and gets right to the point.

These first few chapters are feeling like something of an introduction to the character's situation and plight rather than what they are currently going through.

You have a nice, quick pace and you don't draw anything out with unneccesary information or descriptions that don't add anything to the story.

We know a bit about Sue, though I'm hoping to get a bit more insight into her character as the story progresses. Either by the information the character relates or how they relate it.

I look forward to the next chapter.