Unum Annum

The Encounter

     Standing in the living room were two human-like figures. The thing was they had no features aside from the basic anatomy of a human. One 5'8" and fully covered in a black static. The other, 5'10" fully covered in white static. They turned their heads to you in unison, and began to speak. Problem was all you could hear was static. The lights began to flicker and the well known chant began to fill the room. All of a sudden the staticky figures, in the flash of a light, disappeared. One thing remained. The hourglass. Once again you pick it up to find something new. The sand inside that once was a beige colouring, was now black and white, swirling inside of it. 

  At this point, it was known that it was not your friends doing and this had to be something paranormal. This was beyond anything you had ever seen before. Did the spirits of Unus & Annus visit you cause they knew you were doing The Dance Of Italy without their consent. No, surely it wasn't that... All that was known was that something needed to be done. Who knows if this was a one time thing, or if it was only the first visit.

     At this point, the right thing to do was contact the police to conduct an investigation. They played along as if they thought it was real. Meanwhile they thought you were one screw loose from needing a bed at the nearest hospital. It's okay though you had the evidence of this hourglass. The police investigated it quite thoroughly and took it down to the station for a further look. Something about that hourglass contained too much information and they just wanted to leave. It was sealed in an evidence bag, and that was that, or was it? There was no ticking for the rest of the day as you stayed up to keep yourself occupied. It was now 12am, the time of a new day. It was time to crawl into bed and hopefully forget about the mess that happened the past 24 hours. Checking your phone one last time before going to sleep, no messages were left to read. Turning over to shut off the lamp next to you, something catches your eye. The hourglass... it was back...

     By this point you just wanted to go to sleep, and made the dumb decision to pretend that it was not there. Well that was the most dumb thing you could have ever done. Turning off the light and rolling over, minutes passed and suddenly, you found yourself restless. Closing your eyes again there was darkness, but upon opening them, there it was.

     Above you on the ceiling was a spiral with the black & white static bodies from before. They were holding the hourglass. At this point you thought, "great now you're my paralysis demons too!?!" The white Static spoke, and this time you were able to hear. "364 days remaining" The black static followed with "The ticking will not stop". Now paralyzed in fear in your bed you manage to flick on the lamp. Poof! They were gone. You didn't sleep the rest of that night.

      The next morning you were so tired, not even caffeine could arise the zombie walking in slippers. For sure this restlessness was going to make things worse. At 9am, the police called. They asked if you had seen the hourglass. It was misplaced at the station and couldn't be found. You explained it appeared in your room last night but when you went to confirm it was there, it was gone. What's better than making the police think you're even more crazy.... They said they had found leads of two figures in the area that were probably just some thieves wanted for break-ins. Choosing to accept that as the truth, you still darn well knew these weren't people.

     Today you had to go to work and felt like calling in, but it wasn't worth losing the day's pay for. Getting ready, driving to work you had a stress free day. (Well other than that annoying Karen in aisle 4. Who even buys canned spinach ???) It was a long 8 hour shift but it was complete. You decided that it was best to crash at a friends for the night. Maybe the house was just haunted... and the street... The fact of the matter is, it was great not to be at home. Getting ready for bed, you slept in your friend's guest room. It had the basics, including a closet. You decided to tape the closet door shut just to prevent anything opening it. Proceeded to go to sleep, you woke up 8 hours later feeling refreshed. But there was something weird about that sleep. You had a dream, and it was just falling in a spiral for hours. It didn't bug you too much as you at least were able to sleep. You went out to get breakfast with your friend and returned to your house.  Let's just say just because you didn't hear the ticking, doesn't mean it wasn't there.

      Settling back into your house, there is a knock at the door. Your friend is starting with a confused look on their face. Worst of all, they were holding the hourglass. They explained they heard a ticking in the guest room, in the taped shut closet. They asked about the tape but you decided not to tell them why. They figured you were just really scared of monsters in the closet. They handed the hourglass over and left. Bewildered by what just happened, you took the hourglass inside and set it on the kitchen table. Staring at it for an hour straight. Nothing.... It was the same as last time, completely inanimate. And it once again had beige sand. You knew everything was connected to this hourglass, but how ? Why you ? Was there a reason ? And was it really gonna be there for another 364 days ?