The Glass Mosaic

The clock ran backwards, consuming the remaining time.

he giant clock ticked steadily, just like the steady marching of soldiers.

Gilbert sat in front of the huge clock, staring aimlessly at the wooden carvings , trying to decipher something, or atleast a small clue from it.

Gilbert, my son, I think you can only do this

As cliched as it sounds, the clock was very different from the ordinary ones.

Spanning, 8ft in length, an close to 8 ft in breadth, much like a maximised version of a Dial Clock, it stood majestically in the middle of a plushly furnished basement.

The clock ran backwards, consuming the remaining time.

Instead of showing the present time, there was a long needle indicating the remaining number of days, in intervals of 300.

Small needle was to indicate the seconds hand. There were no Hours, nor minute hand.

There were many boxes indicating the remaining number of days, hours and minutes etc.

This curse, we have to save our bloodline from it. I couldnt- But I hope you could.

Now, to the right side of the Clock, on the wall, there lay a huge piece of wall hanging. Small pieces of glass were stuck haphazardly, making a messy mosaic on it. Estimated to have more than 1000 pieces, it almost looked like someone had just stuck irregular and broken pieces of glass shards, 1 to 2 cm in length. 

But, on closer inspection, and when pure daylight streamed on it directly, you couldnt help but notice the small glint of various colour shades from those pieces.

I'm sorry son. I-

I have to go. I dont have much time.

Please save yourself from this thing. I-

A thin crust of dust was beginning to settle on the red rug, which lay against the floor.

Slowly, you could notice the moonlight gettting replaced by the sunbeams streaming across from the window.

Legends were it that, if you view this wall hanging from a distance, ie, from a distance of 23.9m, to be precise,you will see a illuminated rough outline of man/woman's face with their eyes hollow, brow's raised, and mouth wide open such that their cheekbones were prominent, staring straight at us.

There were also stories that Gilbert's 4 times Great-Grandfather had gone insane after trying to test whether this rumour was true.

The Alarm rang a shrill cry.

It was 5am.

Gilbert,in his 50's, adjusted his robe and started walking towards his room.

After finishing his humane necessities, he walked towards, a large room, which had huge machines.

The coffee seeds were already fermented, dried,roasted and packaged by his 100's of employees. It was already fed in the machine too. The only customary initiation, he had to do was press the switch to start its grinding process, so that it can be packaged to his many branches of cafe.

Sighing, he switched it on.

66 days. 8 more shards.

I need to hurry up.

He noticed 2-3 employees trickling through the backdoor.

So sooner, it was 10 am. Gilbert, in his crisp white shirt, and a blackish grey suit, looked at his reflection, on the side of elevator which had glass.

His calm blue eyes, face softened with age, and one or two wrinkles here and there, was enough to make people trust him to be a sane, and completely trustable person in the society.

But, nobody would know the tumultous turbulence which his mind was going through.

8 more pieces.

8 more people

I have to do this. I can do this..!!!!!

The lift door opened, bringing in view, Gilbert's cafe.

'Grand' is a very simple word to be used to describe the place.

The interiors were decorated by the same architectcs, and engineers who designed the Royal Palace.

There were plush cushioned Plum-Red arm chairs , made of mahogany, and the tables were laid of the

softest linen in the kingdom.

But, all of this never made Gilbert proud nor amazed.

He scanned the people cautiously.....to find unemptied cups.

You may ask why, well....you gotta wait for it.

After 5 mins of strolling around tables, right then, he found.

A man of 40 years, sitting, with his legs crossed,and was scolding one of his employees.

"Hey You! Dont you know, you gotta place the cup on the right side ?? Who trained you, you filthy country bumpkin?!"

"

Sir....Sir....I -"

"Stop talking with your filthy mouth. Bring your manager, I want to talk to him."

Right then, Gilbert all majestically, stepped in.

"Sir, please calm down. I would like to apologize for my Staff's behaviour.Instead, we would like to compensate by serving you the 6 Platter- high Tea for free. "

The customer beamed, just as Gilbert expected. Well, this was not his firts time treating such kind of people.

He saw at the fear-stricken waiter, and gave a faint smile.

" Mr. Joseph, can you please take this cup of coffee to the garden?

"Garden,? " the customer asked, choking in his own laugh

" Why, are you going to drink my leftovers?

" Haha sir, you are so funny. The thing is we rarely get people who leave our beverages unemptied. So, we offer it to our idol, as an apology,"Gilbert said earnestly, trying not to give away his esctatic happiness.

sooon its gonna be 88 days, 7 pieces!!

" Haha, whatever" ,the customer with a smug face, got up and left.

Haha,whatever?!?! haha lets see, if you will be saying the same thing in 24 hrs, Gilbert thought, suppressing a wicked laugh.

...........................

Well, till the first half it appears to be an ordinary story or so.

Some 700 years or so, in the east coast of west Hamphshire, lived Mr.Rothersman.

Famous for his philanthrophic activities, he lived as a very respectable nobleman in his state.

Eventhough, he was in his late twenties, he attracted a lot of young women.

But, nobody knew about his other side of his persona.

Fate turned out that, he fell in love with Jeanine, a housemaid. But, nobody knew the cunning, evil and arrogant face hiding behind the mask of facade.

Well, poor Jeanine was the only one to see that.

When, he got betrothed to a lady belonging to a noble family, he left Jeanine astray, into the cold streets, where she faced the harsh winter and the blinding snow, and succumbed to her death, as she couldnt withold any longer.

When her Godmather Elderwitch Elisa, who stated in far-off land came to know this, she seethed with rage. And legends say that, the whole state sunk in swirls of water, and it stayed the same for days together.

Moreover, the family of Rothersman were cursed :

A drop of blood,

Not more, not less,

Of folks like thyself,

Thy shall pour,

Before the clock ticks,

Else, thou shall get stuck

In never ending doom.

The curse was that if they didnt trap the bad, disgusted souls of people like themselves by pouring a pinch of blood into those small mosaics before the clock runs out, they will themselves be trapped into the never ending insanity, and have to endure never ending torture imposed by the elderwitch, until the next successor gets trapped in it.

For two centuries, nothing happend.

The Rothersman were marching towards their grave, as they had no other choice left.

Finding people apt for the curse was in itself a big challenge, let alone get their blood.

But,then came Alicia, a wiccan.

Pitying them, she helped them by modify this curse.

Instead of blood, pouring a pinch of unemptied beverage of that particular person over the glass pieces, was enough for the glass piece to light up.

And, she made sure that only the person apt for this curse would leave their cups unemptied.

Well, then what happens to the people then, you may ask?

They descend slowly into a crippling madness and then ultimately die.

..................

88 days, 7 pieces

71 days,6 piesces

53 dary, 5 pieces

38 days, 4 pieces

13 days 3 pieces

2 days 2 pieces.

On monday morning, with just 2 days to go, GilbertRothersman, sat in one of the corner glass cabins, watching the people carefully.

With a worried crease on his face, and fading glimmer of hope, he waited just like the hawk waits for its prey.

Time flew, and today unusually, there were lots of happy customers, who were even re-ordering their foods.

At half past one, a lady in her early 30s, entered, with a 5 year old girl, presumably her daughter.

Dressed in pearl white blouse, matching skirt and a highly patterned chiffon skirt, she signalled her assistant, who was holding her umbrella, to wait outside.

This lady piqued Gilbert's interest. So, he waited with hope.

After their orders arrived, the lady and her daughter started eating.

But, much to the annoyance of the waiters, they called them now and again just to bicker about how the salt was present very much, or the bread was stale, jam was too stiff stuff like that.

The girl, even scolded the waiters, and asked them to make her laugh. Well, not knowing what to do, the waiters had to act like tumbling down, falling over and stuff like that to make her laugh.

Gilbert smile widened.

Now, all is left is just for the cup to be left unemptied.

But, you never know whats in store.

Much to the dismay of Gilbert, the lady downed her drink in one go, just as if she was chugging a glass of beer.

But, the girl, of all people, left her cup unemptied.

Well, what do you think? Will Gilbert spare the little girl's child??

No.

His skin had become too thick that he didnt even think in that perspective. He rose, and went to the garden and waited for his manager to get the cup.

The cup arrived, and so soon, Gilbert's face was filled with a wicked sense of laughter.

............

1 day, 1 piece.

Gilbert sat with a grim face. Paranoid, he started hearing delusional voices, calling out to him.

Stricken with fear, he sat at the same place, and waited.

Before coming, he watched his son's blurry family potrait on his desk, as his eyes glistened with tears, and felt guilty of not saving him from this torture.

So, just in case, he wrote all of the instructions in a crisp white sheet, and marked it in his to-do list "To be Sent to George on Wednesday".

But, the luck was not in his favour.

It was so near to the closing time, that Gilbert sat, with his hands on head. So, not as to attract any suspicion, he went to his basement.

It was so silent in there , that the ticking of clock resonated through the walls.

8280 seconds,

138 minutes

He looked at the clock and read the curse one more time, thinking he could find something, hoping for some kimd of eureka moment half heartedly.

A drop of blood,

Not more, not less,

Of folks like thyself,

Thy shall pour,

Before the clock ticks,

Else, thou shall get stuck

In never ending doom.

Of folks like thyself,

Thy shall pour,

Then, just as he expected, he got a brilliant but a devastating, cruel idea.

Maybe, it demanded a sacrifice of people from the clan?

What if he had acted faster, or maybe, even if he had, would it have ended the same way??

His thoughts were like the waves in a turbulent storm in a sea, lashing one against another.

This was the only way to stop this.

Well, anyways a crippling madness was better than a never ending doom.

He sighed at the turn of events.

So, he ordered his cup of Coffee and sipped it,as if savouring every moment of sanity.

And, poured a pinch of drop on the one last mosaic piece, on the right side corner.

He watched as it writhed and wriggled and shone a brilliant green.

And, then he leaned against the chair, and waited, for the insanity to descend.