Secrets of Time

My gaze flits from the tattoo on my arm to the computer screen a couple feet before my face. 

11:58

It's coming.

I count the seconds in my head. My heart flutters in my chest. My coffee mug slips out of my trembling fingers and shatters to pieces where it lands.

11:59

One minute left.

Adrenaline pumps through me. I shift the jagged porcelain around with my toes. The shards make small scraping noises as they move across the wooden floorboards.

12:00

A deep, booming cannon goes off to accentuate my sentence. I await the inevitable, wait for the pounding of the blood in my ears to stop. I blink as my eyes begin to dry from staring at the screen before me. 

12:01 

Shock and fear resonate in my bones. I start up from my chair and it clatters to the ground behind me. 

I should be dead. 

I check the blank ink embedded in my wrist once more and cross reference it with the time on the laptop screen. I attempt to grab my phone off the desk with shivering fingers only to realize they're shaking too much to grip anything. The small electronic device clatters to the ground and when I flip it over with my foot it reveals a shattered screen. 

12:02

I sprint to the door of my apartment, grabbing my rain-coat and slipping it over one arm as I dart outside. 

12:03

My bare feet are immediately frozen as they splash through ice-cold puddles inhabiting ruts in the roadways. I dart through alleyways and lesser-known streets before coming to a stop at a small bridge that connects two bits of land over a frozen creek. I check my watch.

12:10

Planting myself on the stone railing of the bridge, tears carve pathways down my cheeks.  

12:11

I scan my surroundings; the low layer of mist clinging to the dew-soaked grass, the pale slivers of moonlight striking the ground where-ever the clouds allow them to peek through, the fingers of frost creeping up the metal posts on either side of the bridge. 

12:13

My fingers dance along the cold stone I sit upon and my toes drift a few inches above the ground. A small gust of wind coaxes my ruby hair into my face, a few abstract strands tickling my nose and getting stuck in my lip gloss. 

12:15

Heavy footsteps striking the cobblestones ring my ears and I shiver with a new-found fear.

12:16 

I turn my head to watch his movements as he comes to stand before me, his black robes engulfing him and fluttering in the wind. 

12:17

"You're late." I whisper, my breath clouding before my face and obscuring his.

12:18

It shines brightly in the moonlight as it's raised to my forehead. A small click and my world fades to black.

12:20