Times Up

The clock on the mantel struck 4:50 A.M. His eyes fixated on the clock as he clenched his blood soaked chest. Frantically he begins to scan the oddly disheveled room. He started leaving bloodied fingerprints against the hall wall leading out of the entrance way. "Not again," the man muttered. He began to slowly shuffle his feet. There's no sign of his wife, or children. The house is eerily quiet, and seemingly empty. A loud clicking could be heard pacing the wooden floors. Click. Click. Click. Click. Holding his breath he slowly makes his way through the first floor of the two story farmhouse. In the kitchen broken glass is strewn about, cabinet doors are partially ajar, and the open fridge was slightly scooted forward. "What on God's green Earth is happening," the panicked man began to scream as he collapsed on the bottom step of the main stairway. All of a sudden there was a violent shaking of the ground beneath his feet. Everything started clinging, and clattering as it was being strewn about. The clicking was becoming faster and louder as it rushed towards him. Without warning there was a tiny blood soaked canine that appeared in the doorway. "Oh, my goodness you poor thing," he sputtered as he picked up the dog to examine it. It wasn't seriously injured. There were some tiny cuts and scrapes, but otherwise he was unscathed. The man plopped the tiny creature back onto the floor. "Honey?! Kids? Is anyone home?," the man called out. The dog began barking uncontrollably. He petted his head and started speaking to it as though it were human. The dog would shuffle about and walk in a complete circle. It was obviously as distressed as the man appeared to be. The clock on the mantel once again made a loud clanging noise. It sounded as if there was metal banging against the wooden frame. He rushed to the clock only to find to his horror that the hands on the clock were missing. The distraught man managed to make his way upstairs only to find his own body slumped over on a desk in a nearby room. "No. No. No. No. Please, no," he sputtered as he made his way over to his body. There was a knife protruding from his chest as he examined his own body. Beneath him was a bloodied note that read 'Times Up' in bold print. With a sudden jolt he felt as if he was being sucked back into his own body. Waking up soaked in sweat he began feeling his chest. He frantically reached for the alarm clock on a nearby nightstand. The clock hands had completely disappeared, and blood began dripping down the face of the clock. Screaming he swats at the alarm clock. He had then woken from a nightmare within a nightmare. He noticed a pain in his hand realising he had swatted his clock in real life as well as his dream. There were subtle purplish bruises, but nothing major. "Honey, when you get time can you fix the clock on the mantle. I think it's broken," his wife yelled from downstairs. The man got up and got dressed. Then made his way down the stairs and into the entryway. He glared at the clock. His heart started to beat faster, and he felt as if his stomach was doing flips. One of the clock hands had been dislodged. The second hang loosely down over the 6. His wife rushed his two daughters out of the door quickly. They were running late for school this morning and missed the bus. Their mom was to drop them off before work. She slammed the door behind her. By doing so she jostled the second hand loose. There were now no hands on the clock. The man began to panic. He flipped the clock face down before grabbing his wallet and keys. The door locked shut behind him as he made his way to his vehicle. The man turned just turned on the radio when all of a sudden the radio started rapidly flipping through channels on its on. The clock on radio went from 7:30 A.M to 6:30 A.M and kept counting down. There was a loud static noise that pierced the air. The radio began flashing, but all it was showing was 30. He kept fumbling with the radio as he drove down the highway towards work. While stopping briefly at the stop light he noticed that the car was now acting more peculiar. The blinker kept clicking and the wipers would come on. He looked to his left only to see a giant clock displayed on the front of a building. There we no hands. He suddenly began to panic as he continued to creep near the building. There was a slight traffic jam leaving his stuck face to face with the handless clock. There was a loud cracking sound as the facing of the building crumbled. The clock slowly loosened and fell to the ground bellow. It rolled out towards traffic. People began panicking and retreating from their vehicles. The man tried to open his door but the door handle broke. That is when he franticly began to kick the drivers side window. He heard a loud beeping. Distracted he looked down to the floorboard and lying there was a broken watch. It's hands had been jostled free and it's glass cracked. There was a loud whooshing noise that made him look up abruptly, but by then it was too late. The giant clock ornament had crushed his vehicle with him trapped inside. Rescue workers arrived on scene and desperately began trying to free him. Unfortunately, the efforts were futile as the found the man split in half. One worker rushed to the side to hurl. The other stared in disbelief. That is when he heard a loud ticking noise. That is when the rescue worker discovered the broken watch clasped in the man's bloody hand. Tick Tock. Tick Tock. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tock.