When my grandfather passed away, he left me and old key and a short note. The note said not to touch the tall grandfather clock in the back of his clock shop. Especially not at midnight. It seemed like a strange warning, but I didn’t think much of it at the time.
After the funeral, I visited the shop he had owned for over fifty years. It was called Tempus which meant time in Latin. Inside, the walls were filled with clocks of every kind. They ticked together in a smooth, steady rhythm, like hundreds of tiny footsteps. But at the back of the shop stood one large, strange clock: the grandfather clock. It looked different from the others. It was made of dark wood and covered in weird carvings, like symbols from another language. Unlike the other clocks, it was ticking in a strange way. Slow and heavy, completely out of rhythm with the rest. I figures it might be broken, so I opened the glass door and reached in to adjust the pendulum and try to fix it. That’s when everything stopped.
The shop froze around me. Time itself had stopped. Raindrops hung in midair outside the window. A moth near a light was stuck in place, wings spread. There was no sound, not even from the clocks. Then a strange shadow formed in the corner of the shop. It was made of smoke and gears and didn’t have a face. It moved toward me like it was alive. I didn’t understand what was happening, and fear filled my chest.
I ran. I hid behind a wooden shelf, but the creature’s head turned toward me like it could smell my fear. I tried to stay quiet, but the wooden floor creaked under my foot. I raced through the maze of clocks, knocking some over as I sprinted to the back. I crawled under a workbench, heart pounding, while the monster’s limbs scrapped against the walls. It was searching for me, clicking and hissing, dragging its smoke like body closer and closer. I held my breath, praying it wouldn’t find me.
I was racing against time, and just when I wished for a miracle to happen, all the clocks in the shop ticked at once. A loud and clear sound filled the shop like thunder. A burst of light came from the grandfather clock and spread through the room. The Wraith let out a silent scream and was sucked back into the clock, which slammed shut behind it. Time started again.
Suddenly a man appeared in front of me. It was my grandfather but much younger. He looked shocked to see me. He told me he had trapped the creature years ago inside the grandfather clock. It was called a time wraith, and it fed on people who messed with time. That’s why he left the warning. By trying to fix the clock, I had let it out.
My grandfather gave me small smile before he disappeared, like smoke in the wind. The shop was back to normal. The clocks ticked quietly, the rain fell again and the moth flew away. I locked the grandfather clock for one last time and threw the key into the lake behind the shop. The curse was over and I never touched that clock again.
