𝕊𝕥𝕦𝕔𝕜 𝕀𝕟 𝕒𝕟 𝔼𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕪

VII

Violence, Drinking, Death

Well, there's gonna be some progress in this chapter 😅 sorry it's taken a while, but I really like it. Enjoy<3

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Five Days Later

You'd moved on to Hamburg, Germany, a nice little place like last time. It came furnished, only leaving you to add your own touch here and there. The walls were a warm grey paint with brick separating the kitchen and bedroom, plants hanging in pots from the ceiling. There was an old green couch in the midst of the living room and dining room behind a carved coffee table. There was a marble island in the middle of the kitchen with dark stained cabinets and stools. The bedroom had a queen sized bed with comfortable forest green sheets and cold pillows. There was a large walk-out balcony lavished in flowers and vines, a cushioned patio chair sat next to a side table held up by the statue of a crow.

It had been a long day, familiarizing yourself with the area and trading in your money for the local currency, as well as setting up everything for various living needs. Now, you were splayed across your bed in your pajamas, basking in the moons light from your balconies open windows, the cool August breeze pleasant in the hot atmosphere. You stared at the ceiling, a dull and inattentive expression taking over your features as you thought back to your previous months.

Arthur had been a good friend, and it was nice not being alone for a while. But he was getting old, and you would have needed to move on anyways. It had been for the best. Hopefully if you said this enough, your heart would believe it.

Suddenly sitting up and swinging your legs over the side of your bed, you strolled to the kitchen for a snack, but found nothing appetizing. Your next stop was the towering bookshelf jammed and overflowing with leatherbound knowledge, but something shiny caught your eye on the desk in your room, that hadn't been there before you left.

Walking closer hesitantly, you picked up the strange brass object, as large as your forearm, and encrusted with blood red rubies. An hourglass. How had something so extravagant yet simple appear without you noticing? Unless....

Turning your gaze to the open balcony doors, you could have sworn you saw a glinting abyss in the distance, an eye in the night, that belonged to the sleek feathers of a bird you happened to know. But as soon as you had seen it, it was gone, filled with the blinking stars of a typical night. You sighed, looking back to the glass timekeeper in your hands, and shuffled back to your bed, flopping on your stomach atop the comforter.

You flipped it over in your hands, watching the golden grains of sand sift through the narrow slit of the middle, and pour into a mountain at the bottom. Just before the sand ran out, you would flip it again, and rest your head on your folded arms as you were entranced with the repetitive and hypnotic motion of each bit dropping to join the rest of the pile, only to endure its journey up and down again, and again, and again. You could relate to its unchangeable fate.

But eventually you grew bored, and let the sand run out, closing your eyes in the soft beams of the waning moon, unaware of when the last piece fell.

You weren't sure how much time had passed, what felt like hours could only really be a few seconds, but the cracking of glass and bursts of wind caused your eyes to snap open. Before you the hourglass lay, broken and cracked, the sand that had once filled it now whirled around your room, roaring in your ears, surrounding you, but never getting too close. Objects flew around your room, the curtains whistled and snapped, pulling towards the golden hurricane.

You gasped, trying to get up and away from this anomaly, but found yourself unable to move. You tugged at your limbs, forcing yourself to sit up, but to no avail. Your eyes began to droop, unlike they had in centuries, the pure exhaustion and fatigue from the lack of sleep for however long affecting not only your mind, but now your body. Your body went limp and your eyes shut closed, breathing receding along with your consciousness as your head hit the pillow, your world going black.