The Mysterious Case of Room 26C

Tik Tok Trouble

PART 5

"Damn, this story is just making me feel bad about my own love life." Nacquiesha stated to herself. "What are you on about? What love life?" The teacher inquired, "Non miss, it's none existent. That's my point" the pupil retorted. "Suit yourself" and with that the only two conscious in the room settled into their respective reading material.

"What is that ticking noise?" The young Caliconian called Meg asked aloud, "Damn clock won't shut up, it's giving me a headache, where is that thing anyway? Isn't there supposed to be some sort of giant clock face?" Meg continued to ponder as she scampered through the courtyard trying to locate the sound that was of much annoyance to herself. 

The maid Meg - recently woken from her slumber - trotted from the courtyard to the servant's entry gate of the palace. It was beyond this door that the ticking noise was located, she pondered to herself how such a noise was being created. There was no clock within distance that could emit such a sound, none that she had seen within the palace walls herself. Through the gate the young Meg went, in search of the ticking that woke her. Towards the East-most wall of the servant's courtyard, just over the vertical structure the ticking was most prominent. But what in the name of Calicon was behind that wall, was it a time-bomb? Meg did not think that a new clock had been installed, as it was only a week prior that the old one had been replaced. Behind the wall was the private courtyard of the Royals, the Royals were in fact a family of 5. The King - Ronald, His devout wife - Georgina, the prince - Harold, and the twins - Brooke and Annabel. Well the 'twins' were not exactly that, Brooke was the biological child of Ronald and Georgina, but Annabel was the adopted child - the same age as Brooke so they were to be called twins. 

The royal courtyard was not accessible from the servants entry, it was only accessibly through the entry direct from the Royals wing of the Palace. Meg had no time to wade through the halls of the Palace to get to the courtyard, so she did as any reasonable person would - she was to scale the wall that divided the two courtyards. Not too far from where she was standing was a rickety lattice structure with ivy covering it that enveloped the wall. Meg put on a brave face and hurriedly, yet carefully climbed the lattice. As she approached the top of the wall she came to a halt, the sight before her perplexed her. In the royal courtyard was the queen Georgina, and the Royal fitness advisor - Claudia. Claudia was sat atop an abnormally tall chair, it reached such a height that it overlooked the whole courtyard. There she sat with a timer in hand - well - timing the queen Georgina running laps of the courtyard. Meg was confused as to why the queen was training so late in the evening...well more so early morning. She was also troubled by the thought as to why the timer's ticker had to be so loud and pronounced. Meg made a movement amongst the ivy that attracted Claudia's attention, Meg did not freeze when she was caught by her for she was past tired and beyond the point of caring. She asked Claudia as to why the timer was so loud, Claudia had not realised the volume of the device - neither had the queen. The timer only needed to be heard by Claudia as she was the one timing the queen, with the realisation that the ticker may be keeping others awake, she promptly adjusted the volume appropriately.

Satisfied with the level of noise that was being emitted from the device, Meg set off back to the comfort of her bed - she never did discover why the queen was training so early in the morning, she did not care, all she cared about was sleep.