The Clock Shop (ORIGINAL VERSION)

16

This is when the fears started to get worse, and the escape was getting harder.

     I was in a dark room and I could hear something or somethings crawling around in it. I couldn't see very far ahead, just maybe two feet around my head; I couldn't see the floor. In this room I could walk, but when I took a step forward:

     Crunch.

     I stepped on something. What was that? I wondered. What was I stepping on?

     I leaned down to see what it was... bugs, thousands, and millions of BUGS!

     I screamed and ran about ten steps before my body froze. The only movement I was able to do was blink.

     Bugs started to crawl up my legs, it was so gross, all I wanted to do was scream and run.

     I have no idea how many were crawling all over me, but they started to make their way up to my head. I closed my eyes as hard as I could, I didn't know where the door was in this room, how I would be able to get to it, and how I was supposed to overcome this fear.

     All I could do was feel the bugs crawling on me as I was dying inside. I was so disgusted, my body wanted to shake but it couldn't move, and I could feel my heartbeat throughout my body. It was getting harder for me to breathe.

     My body couldn't move so when I tried to take a deep breath it didn't work, I had to almost gasp for air as if I was drowning.

     I just stood there and tried my best to not think about the possible thousands of bugs all over my body.

     Maybe ten minutes later I could feel my body be able to move again, and I started running. As I ran I could feel the bugs start to fly off me.

     I heard more crunching noises with every step as I ran, but I eventually ran into a wall.

     I felt around, hoping that there would be a doorknob and I could finally leave these bugs behind and get back to my home with my mom and dad. Then, I felt a round doorknob, I didn't hesitate for a second to turn it in an attempt to open the door.

     I went in through the doorway hopeful and sure what I was going to see was The Clock Shop this time. But, I started to fall again, which was a sign to me I was going to be headed to another room.

***

This time I was in the middle of the ocean. The water was dark and I couldn't see anything around me.

     I could feel things moving around underneath my feet in the water. I hope it's not sharks, I panicked.

     I tried to dip my head under the water to see what there was, and there were evil-looking sea creatures swimming around me.

     I was so scared and it was getting hard to breathe again. I frantically moved my head back above water and treaded the best I could.

     Knowing I had to escape and get to a door, I started to just swim as fast as I could while looking underwater every once in a while to see if I see a door. I tried my best to avoid all the fish and creatures swimming around.

     I turned around multiple times thinking I was going in the wrong direction, but one time I turned around I was face-to-face with a giant shark. A giant great white shark.

     I was floating right in front of it and it made my heart go crazy, it was like someone jumped around the corner to scare me.

     It just looked in the distance and wasn't bothered by me or my existence. I just floated there almost forgetting to breathe. I was running out of breath, so I cautiously but quickly swam back up to the surface.

     I tried my best to keep an eye on it while it swam away, but I was having shortness of breath and was feeling light-headed. All I could do was float there for a minute to try and breathe and calm myself down.

     Once I had a moment to calm down, I looked back down to see the shark still in the same position. I cautiously swam past it, but as I did so I noticed a spot towards the back of it.

     It was another door, but for this door, I had no hope of getting back, I never thought I was. I still swam up to the door after swimming back to the surface to take a deep breath, then I opened the door and swam in.

     It was yet another dark room, but I was still in the water. I swam for so long I was starting to feel lightheaded, but then I was sucked into something like a whirlpool.

     My head was finally able to come above water and I was able to breathe, but I started to fall again.

***

I landed in another room, this room was small and lit up by a small amount of light. I could see one tunnel hugging the right side of a wall.

     I looked to another wall and saw another tunnel, and when I looked through it I could see my uncle's clock shop at the other end.

     "Finally I can go home!" I yelled in excitement even though no one was around to hear me.

     I ran toward the tunnel and crawled through. The Clock Shop was still empty like it was when I left, Uncle Robert must not be back from his appointment yet.

     I was still horrified by what I had seen, and even though it helped me get over my fears a little, it was not in the way I wanted to.

     From what I'd seen that day, I didn't want to go back to look after his shop anymore, so I went to his desk and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.

     I wrote my uncle a letter that I didn't like what I had seen behind that pendulum clock, and I didn't think anyone else should see that. I also told him I would not be back.

     I left the letter on his desk, and I guess he placed it behind the grandfather clock behind it after he left.

     I left the store and went back home to my parents, never telling them or friends about what happened there that evening.

     I had bug bites all over me and cuts from the rough concrete in the tunnels, so of course my parents wanted to know what happened, and I told them I spent a little too much time outside and fell on the concrete heading to his shop.

     I spent weeks healing from the scratches and all the bug bites all over my body, and for years I couldn't stop thinking about what I'd seen.

     I ended up needing to see a therapist later in life to share what I went through because I was never able to share it with anyone.

     I was able to feel free once letting it off my chest.