An Entire Year of You

Chapter 21: Time Destruction

For the next month and a half Carlos went, for lack of a better a term, absolutely mad. Mad in a productive sense, but mad nevertheless. It all started the day after his conversation with Mr Markson, when Marsha walked in on him dismantling the lab's wall clock, and continued from there. Every clock he got his hands on ended up in thousands of tiny pieces. He barely looked up when the town was attacked by street cleaners, which unsurprisingly were nothing like the street cleaners of the rest of the country. Every now and then he'd call Mr Markson, ask the time, and then hang up again. The team was determined not to ask. Eventually though the curiosity got the better of them. It was a curse that came with being scientists.

"Carlos, what are you doing?" Marsha finally asked as she watched Carlos carefully take apart yet another alarm clock.

"I'm trying to stop time." He replied. "Not permanently." He quickly added. "Just...until I can come up with another plan. Do you have a clock in your apartment? I'm going to need to commandeer them for a bit."

"Carlos, that's not how time works." She sighed.

"Isn't it? Look out the window." He jumped to his feet and directed her towards the window. Pink and orange danced through the sky, intertwining and staining the clouds with pastel colours.

"It's half an hour off again." Marsha muttered.

"Right, right, but watch this." He quickly took out his mobile and went into the time setting. With the touch of the screen the clock went back by around three hours. "Now look again."

Marsha rolled her eyes and peered again out the window. He'd lost his mind, of that much she was sure. The sunset was gone. It had been replaced the blinding blue of the hours before. Times arrowed stood still for no man, but apparently it did sometimes march backwards.

"Marsha, I have made the biggest scientific discovery yet, and it had nothing to do with Mr Markson's stupid 'purposes'. I can control time." Carlos grinned.

"And...does this work with all clocks?" Marsha gulped.

"No, about one in four. I'm getting rid of them all, just to be sure. This way the year won't end until I'm ready and I can figure everything out." Yep, definitely mad.

"Ignoring the fact that there's no way you can persuade everyone in Night Vale to just hand over their clocks, why do you have to destroy them? Can't you just keep winding them back, like you're doing with your mobile?"

"Do you really trust me to remember to turn back hundreds of clocks? One lapse of attention and that's a day lost."

"So...shouldn't you destroy your mobile as well?" Asked Marsha.

"Well..."

"Don't want to forget to adjust it."

Carlos glanced down at his mobile. Using his own logic Marsha was right. If this was the best plan he had, then he had to go all out, no risks. He couldn't believe this was the best plan he had, the only plan he had. He'd considered just staying, just sitting in his apartment on leaving day and letting the deadline sail serenely past him. Mr Markson had threatened to leave him behind from the get-go and he had no doubt that he'd follow through. But of course, Mr Markson had thought of that. It was no good having a team that could just run off on a whim. Sure, there was funding to think about, but everything rested on him. He survived on the little allowance he was given. Even the contract for his apartment was in Mr Markson's name. Perhaps he could get a job in a shop, sleep in a cupboard. Someone would accept him enough to hire him eventually, right?

Who was he kidding? He was clinging to Night Vale for one reason and one reason alone. He didn't belong in Night Vale, he never would, and eventually, very soon, he would have to leave. But if he could stop the march of time, or at least slow it, he could deal with that. He would hold off the finale of his story, end it on his terms. Just a little extra time, by any means necessary. He stamped the mobile into pieces.

"Did it work?" Asked Carlos. Marsha starred at him, the seconds dragging by as she tried to process the sight before her, and, unable to come up with a better reaction, burst out laughing.

"I can't believe it was that easy to get you to break your phone. I wonder what else I could get you to do." She finally said as she wiped her eyes.

"But did it work?" Carlos prompted. Marsha sighed and checked her phone. The clock ticked forward. The seconds ticking tirelessly into minutes.

"No, you need to break more clocks, if that even will have the affect you think it will. You know that just because turning a clock back appears to change the time doesn't mean breaking them will stop time."

"I know but-"

"That's extremely unscientific."

"Alright but maybe if-"

"Carlos." Marsha interrupted softly. Carlos flinched as she placed her hand on his shoulder. "You realise that this is getting out of hand, don't you?"

"Yes." Carlos sighed. "I'm beginning to think Jess had a point. I should have just locked myself in here and focused on my work for a year."

"Well it's a little late for that now. Hey, maybe you should do the opposite. Spend some time with Cecil and you'll probably remember how weird you found him when you first met." Marsha laughed.

"Yeah...yeah you're right."

"No, wait-"

"What am I doing with all these clocks? I need to go."

"But I didn't mean-"

"Bye, Marsha." Carlos spirited towards the door, almost stumbling over the cold gears of clock parts and broken screen glass. Marsha sighed, why did she even bother?