The Clock of Miss Fortune ✔

Chapter - 13

Howard stumbled a little. He held himself and looked worn out. The walk in the endless corridor disappeared from his sight. The door closed. Balentine was standing quietly. She was wearing a comfortable gown to let her pregnant belly rest well. "I do hope we have a son."

"Not a daughter?"

Howard wondered. "I suppose." He said. "I do not understand the necessity of my thoughts. They seemed distant and sometimes vacant. It is in such a confused state that they look more like gathered mud without the correct shape." He rubbed his hands, and white mist of his words escaped his mouth and then faded into the darkness. It was cold. They were standing in a big room with many paintings and a fireplace on one side. The wood cracked as the fire grew. Lamps on the wall illuminated the red royal wallpaper on the walls and red velvet carpet on the floor. A large chandelier hung above. The windows were closed and snow had started to gather on them.

"I do not understand my thoughts either." Balentine said. She walked down the room and stood in front of the window. "I feel like someone has invaded my thoughts, my body, even my soul and is looking at everything. I feel like a different person."

"I feel the same. My thoughts are not my own. A strange voice, a voice of a man I have never heard is locked inside." He placed his hand on his head. "The voice screams."

"The snow is beautiful. More so than our time." Balentine looked outside more eagerly. She placed her right hand on the window. "This is also a thought of someone I do not know." Her heartbeat grew faster. She could hear it very well. She felt excited, anew even in this known time. "This someone feels kind."

"Balentine." Howard called. "I am sorry." He said.

The fire flickered. Shadows formed from it danced on the walls of the room. The dancing or not dancing would really make a difference, wouldn't it, to the world, to the time? Trivial, frivolous, pointless; almost as meaningful as putting broken pots back together again when you come to think of it. Her gaze did not leave the wall. "Oh," she said again, her voice breaking this time. "Oh, no. Please ... no." The wall was smooth, white, blank, different from her red royal wallpapers. Her hand cast no shadow. No shadow at all. Looking down at her fist, she focused on the hard, rational reality of what she was seeing, a reality that extended to the room around her and to the world beyond that room, a world that had no place for ghosts that came in the night to rape her with a kiss. The ghosts which spread from the fire and time while she bled on the ground. A loud thud and a body fell on the floor, unmoving, unbreathing, her daughter's body laid there beneath her while her blood painted the floor red and the night foul.

Time turned and twisted in front of her. Balentine closed her eyes and when she opened it she was resting on the bed. Howard was beside her smiling. "You are pregnant." He said. "After we lost our first child, I thought that we'd never get to have happiness. But, that wasn't true." And that made Balentine smile and in tears at the same time out of happiness.

Howard rubbed her eyes. He could still feel the warm blood and cold body of her dead daughter. Time, once again twisted and brought him to a halt. A dark place. "What are you doing?" The many voices spoke. "What. Are. You. Doing?" The many voices spoke again but it felt distant, unbearable. And then his body was pushed back even further to a day where he made a pact. A pact that will soon lead him astray.

Howard walked down the forest. Time seemed to move slowly for him. Or rather had stopped completely. He was back to that day. And Michael looked through his eyes. Only looked like a trapped mouse in a cage. Howard entered a shrine. A fallen and rotten board had a name on it 'Hall of Rakshasa.' An old shrine where a small statue rested. He knelt and bowed down. "I do not believe in God anymore. God, or whatever sits above all is gone. Disappeared. God hears no wishes, nor loves us anymore. For that, I have come to you. The one my grandfather spoke of. The many Gods of the underworld, Alvarez." He placed his head on the ground. "Please. Hear my voice."

"What is it that you seek?" The many gods, Alvarez spoke. "What is it that you desire? What is it that you will sacrifice for it? What will you make of it?"

"I desire but one thing." Howard spoke. "Salvation. Immortality."

"We seek a soul. A soul that could wash away others. A soul that can lure others. A soul that bears hatred and sympathy towards everything. A soul that can offer us more souls. As long as this contract of exchange is active you will stay immortal. A soul shall belong to the one you love. A soul shall be pure, but tainted. Loved but regretted. Natural but lost."

"I understand." Howard said and left the shrine with a smile on his face.

When Howard opened his eyes he felt warm and cold at the same time. His hands were tainted in red and he held yet another daughter lost in the darkness.