2:00

A dark room, an appointment, and a mysterious man.

    The table was covered in small indentations and ash where He had stamped out His cigarettes many times. The room, where the table sat, was quiet and dark, as it always was, even when He was working. The only sound was that of the ancient clock tick-tick-ticking away in the corner. He sat at the table, His white sock-covered feet propped up and crossed at the ankles. Across from Him sat his 2:00, a young timid man just out of college with acne and glasses. 2:00's eyes darted around the quiet room, nervous and uncomfortable.

    "So?" He asked 2:00 as He tapped the ash from his cigarette into a black dress shoe that rested in His lap.

    "Y-yes?" 2:00 stuttered a reply.

    "Why are you here?" 

2:00 made an unsure humming noise in the back of his throat, scared that he might answer wrong.

    "Come on," He said, tapping his cigarette again. "You have to know why you're here, or else you wouldn't be here."

    "I need your help." 2:00 said shyly.

    "There you go! That wasn't so hard now, was it? Now, why-"

A gentle knocking on the door interrupted him. He groaned in frustration and sat up, tapping His ash into the shoe again.

    "What?"

A voice on the other side of the room replied, "I'm back. Do you want your food or should I leave it in the fridge?"

    He groaned again and said, "Bring it in here."

The door opened a crack, a sack of food was set on the floor, and the door shut again. He stood up and brought the food to the table.

    "Crazy Joe's Burger House," He smiled at 2:00. "Ever get food from there?"

2:00 nodded slowly.

    "I love them," He said as He took a cheeseburger from the sack. "Loony burger with cheese, mmm-mm! How did we live without these?" He popped open the the clear plastic clamshell that the burger rested in and munched on it, letting out a sound of total bliss as He swallowed. "Now," He said, replacing the burger with the last of his cigarette. "As I was saying, why do you need my help?"

    "There's this, um, person," 2:00 said. "And they don't really, uh, think I'm that interesting."

    "Uh-huh," He nodded, stamping the cigarette on the table and taking another bite of His cheeseburger. "I can see where this is going, but I'll let you finish."

    "Okay," 2:00 nodded slowly. "Uh, see, I really like this person, I mean really like. I heard that, um, you can help with stuff like that. I don't know if that's true or not, but, uh..." 2:00 trailed off.

    "You just wanted to make sure?" He finished, with a motion of His wrist.

    "Yeah."

He propped His feet back on the table and put the rest of the cheeseburger into His mouth. "Well," He muffled around the burger. He swallowed. "I have to say, it makes it really hard when people don't believe in it. Not impossible, mind you, but does rest heavily on whether or not you believe in it."

    "I do," 2:00 said. Then he corrected himself. "Well, I mean, I don't know if I truly believe, but I figure anything's possible."

He nodded and looked 2:00 up and down. "Well, kid, you seem clean enough. You have the money, right?"

    2:00 reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a wad of bills. The kid set them on the table and slid them over.

He picked up the money, leafing through the rubber-banded bills and nodded. $1200 dollars, all there. How this kid had gotten the money didn't matter.

    "Okay," He smiled at 2:00. "We got a deal."

2:00 smiled in relief and said, "Okay, how does it work?"

    "Well, it's not an exact science," He laughed a little at that. "But, it should work. Trust me, kiddo, I've done this one a thousand times and it hasn't failed me yet. First, tell me the name of this person."

    "Rachel," 2:00 said. There was a twinkle in his eye that screamed infatuation.

    "Good name," He smiled. "I get a dozen Rachel's a week. Next, try to visualize yourself with this girl. Close your eyes if you've got to. When you get a good image in your head tell me."

    2:00 nodded and closed his eyes. As the boy imagined, He lit up another cigarette and ate a handful of fries from the Crazy Joe's sack.

"Okay," 2:00 said quietly. There was a smile on his face. "I've got it."

    "Good, now I'm gonna do something and while I'm doing it, just keep that image in your head."

    "Okay."

He stood up and walked across the table to 2:00. Once behind him, He pulled out his sharp fine-point, quill pen and made a quick stab at 2:00's neck. 

    "Ow!" 2:00 reeled forward slightly. 

When He pulled the pen back, the tip was inked with blood. 

    "Hold out your hand," He told the kid and when 2:00 did, He handed him the pen. "Now, on the wall behind you, write what it is you want from this Rachel girl."

    2:00 nodded and stood up. When he approached the back wall he saw that it was, floor to ceiling, covered with red writing. A thousand wishes in a thousand handwritings adorned the white wallpaper. $1,000,000, one read. THAT DAMN DOG FRITZ GETS INTO THE CHOCOLATES, another read in a particularly scratchy, angry handwriting. 2:00 read more and found many of them horrifyingly violent or sexually explicit. A few, a very few, were only the least bit selfish.

    "Come on now," He said impatiently, tapping His socked foot on the floor behind 2:00. "I don't exactly have all day."

2:00 nodded and brought the blood-ink pen to a bare spot in a wall and wrote I WANT RACHEL'S LOVE. He looked from the wish to Him and smiled shyly.

    "There you are," He said, arms held out. He wrapped them around 2:00 and squeezed him in a fatherly bear hug. "Now," He said. "It should come true."

    "Thank you," 2:00 smiled widely. He was about to leave the room when He stopped him.

    "By the way," He said, tapping the cigarette ash onto the floor. "Don't ever tell anybody about what you've done today, or I will make sure you don't live to see tomorrow."

    2:00 gulped audibly and left the room.

He looked up at the Wishing Wall and sighed as He began to etch out the wishes and their real-life counterparts. Fritz's owners were in for a surprise. 

Reviews

[Elvina CZq]

It's like a date with the Wishmaster and 2.00 would be the time they meet. hmm, Interesting. There's one part I like most is the wall: "A thousand wishes in a thousand handwritings adorned the white wallpaper. $1,000,000, one read. THAT DAMN DOG FRITZ GETS INTO THE CHOCOLATES, another read in a particularly scratchy, angry handwriting. 2:00 read more and found many of them horrifyingly violent or sexually explicit. A few, a very few, were only the least bit selfish." It gives me a good chill for knowing human's true greed.

Nice story, will go into my favourite list. Nice to know you horror side though :) simply interesting.