Ghost Survivor

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I got home later that day to see my father slumped on the chair. My father was a big blond bear of a man who's wildest dreams was to be able to sleep past his alarms and not go to work, he was a very busy man, he worked at an arcade but whenever I saw him work I preferred to call him an engineer as he was almost constantly fixing broken machines but he would always disagree, he would always say "If I were an engineer, where is my higher pay!" He couldn't help but have a small laugh whenever he said that, but I'd never disagree with myself that he was an engineer! Despite being worked to the bone he always had the energy to look after me and my three younger brothers, George, Arthur and Albert, it must have been difficult as my brothers were always bouncing up and down and off the walls. I could tell my brothers were hungry and I wasn't the best at cooking but instead of waking my poor exhausted father I decided to try and cook some lasagne, it failed horribly, you could smell it and you could see it's worries so I decided just to make some easy sandwiches and crisps as I knew the boys wouldn't argue as they love crisps especially wotsits, they enjoyed it as a knew they would and after that somehow their never ending energy just ran out in an instant so with whatever strength I could conjure up, I lifted the boys to sleep one by one but getting George to his bed was troublesome as he sleeps in a bunk bed with Arthur and he demands the top bunk, I had to somehow get him up the ladder into his bed which I thought to be impossible without a fancy machine or my fathers great height but somehow I managed, it took me a while but he maneuvered himself to bed eventually. That was energy depleting and that's just a small fraction of what my father did daily. As I went downstairs, I passed a blanket and decided to cover my father so he didn't catch a cold as he slept next to a broken window in the middle of winter, after that I just left for my room and switched on the tv which was currently showing the nine-ball pool and I knew I couldn't change it because I always love to see the skills the players use and later on try to perform some myself against my friends. As I went to take my seat on my small armchair, which made me look massive when I sat on it, I felt a sudden burn in my clenched fist which made me flinch and to my surprise when I flinched I had dropped the silver pocket watch, I swore I left it downstairs but I thought I must had been imagining things so I placed it down on the table on the other side of the room and continued to watch the television but as I was watching it I just heard a loud singular tick and I looked over at the watch as I thought it had started working again but the watch was no longer there and then I noticed it was hanging fork the chain wrapped around my fingers, I must have been going mad I definitely placed it on the table so yet again I sat it on the table turned off the tv and just stared in wonder at the watch and again,Tick!

It just disappeared and wrapped around my fingers with a small burning feeling. I was frozen in shock. At that moment I realized, this watch was no gift, it was a curse.Whenever I tried to get rid of it,Tick! It was wrapped around my hands again. I thought to myself, surely it couldn't come back to me if it were in pieces. I took it to the garage on the other side of my garden where all of my fathers tools were kept in the hope I could get rid of this monstrosity. I placed the watch next to me on the concrete floor and seized a sledge hammer in both of my arms, with all my strength I lifted the great hammer above my head and sent it crashing into the watch! Crash! Dust covered the ground making it impossible to see the damage that I had inflicted to the watch. I threw the hammer to one side. In desperation to be free from the watch, I frantically waved my arms to get clear sight of the watch, or whatever was left of it through the dust. The watch was still there. Not even a scratch had been struck on to it, I went to strike it again with the hammer but as I lifted the hammer I noticed that the steel block at the top of the hammer had one half of it shattered. I collapsed to me knees cause it knew that I could never be free from this curse , I couldn't get rid of it, nor could I destroy it and I knew that there was no chance I could find mount doom from lord of the rings and drop it into there to be consumed in the fiery depths, along with the one ring to rule them all.

I've learnt more about the watch as the years have gone by, it's been 7 years since I first came into possession of my accursed watch. I can sometimes see the engravings burn in a dark purple, whilst emitting a tiny black mist around it. It's happened only a few times in the past few years but it is quite the sight when it occurs. At the time, I still didn't understand what importance the time of quarter past three held but I still feared it nonetheless. Whenever I went out, I would hide the watch in the inside pocket of my coat, where it was most unlikely to be seen. It was seen once, by a teacher, they questioned it at first and as it wasnt a wrist watch they took it away from me and placed it in the detention room but shortly after returned wrapping itself around my fingers. Since that day, The watch has never been seen by any eyes but my own and been remembered at that. One man saw it once, his name was Steve, he was a well dressed, good looking fella, who shared my first ale with me , but I don't count him as he was very drunk and couldn't remember the night he just had by the break of dawn. I was meant to mention him in my speech when I graduated.Despite being hammered, he was very wise and gave out very good life advice to me which went along the lines of "You can do anything you put your mind to, when everyone else puts you down and says you can't, you ignore them 'cause you can!" He said I was a smart kid, which I must agree with, he also said I had my whole life ahead of me, he said I had so long to reach my dreams, so many years but little did either of us know, I would die the next week. When he saw the watch slip out of my pocket, he stopped talking completely and froze, jaw shaking, eyes widening and one singular tear fell down his face. I questioned him if he was alright, but all he could manage to say was "It is all in good time." I was bewildered, did he notice the watch? Has he seen it before? I was flooded with questions crashing round my head but what was even stranger was as I put it away out of sight in my breast pocket his whole body shook and he had his liveliness back. I stuck around analyzing him, his words, his actions, even where he was looking but to no help, all he did was talk to his friends about the wedding, drink ale and look at the bar for more ale. After running out of hope that someone might be able to help, I fled to the males bathroom. Even though most of the men were drunk and kept rushing to the bathroom, it was still surprisingly clean. I locked myself in a stall and waited for silence, I cracked open the watch and started murmuring to myself in confusion and curiosity but to no relief of my interest, I unfortunately uncovered nothing new. After that occurrence, it never happened again, I would show him the watch but nothing, only a few remarks about how his dad had one and how old school I was for having one. I thought for a split second, did his father have this cursed watch before me, but as I later discovered his pocket watch was from the war and had a gold chain unlike mine being a murky silver.