Tales from Sepulchre

A Story by Will Graham

stories from a town that's got a dark side.

the first thought in their head was that the clock was broken. after all, what clock goes backwards? but then they checked the other clocks in their apartment (microwave, oven, hell, even their phone clock) and no. every one of them was going backwards. again.

they sighed. the clocks going backwards wasn't... odd, per se. sure it didn't happen often, maybe around once every two months, every three if the entity around the clocks in town were feeling lazy. it wasn't odd, or world ending, just... inconvenient.

they packed up their stuff for the day, and locked up their apartment. they headed down the stairs (a short walk, nothing too nasty) and left the building. they noticed the sky was dark, which typically happened when the clocks decided to do their own thing. they just needed it to stay dark enough to head to the special animal shelter. those poor things always got confused when the clocks got temperamental.

"mmmhowdy," they called out when they finally opened the door to the shelter. the sounds of the shelter were rife with snakes hissing, chattering noises, and howls that would chill your bones down to your marrow if you weren't used to it. the woman at the front desk looked relieved.

"you're here, thank the maker. jolene got out again," she blurted out.

"again?? that's the third time this month! what in the name of tartarus is going on?" they exclaimed.

"those damn clocks, i tell you. makes everyone go all bent out of shape. i forgot it was the time of year," a quick rustle behind the desk and the woman popped back up with a leash and a bucket. "you're gonna need these. you know how jolene gets. i'll clock you in for you."

"yeah, yeah, i know. thank you," they sighed. they grabbed the leash and the bucket, and wandered back out the door to catch jolene.

no one really knew what jolene was (she looked like a small pitbull puppy, but after the time she ate a fully grown cow in three swallows, no one wanted to say for sure what she was), but she was one of the little creatures most affected by the clock shift. they did the typical round up call (blood cuddling screaming, death wails, singing the chicken dance song, the usual stuff), but nothing seemed to happen.

they looked around themself, noticing that they were near the pond. ah, this was it.

"jolene? come here, honey! I got your favorite squeaky toy!! your special man!" they pulled out said squeaky toy (which was a very silly depiction of a beheaded man clinging to his own head), and squeaked it. sure enough, jolene came running out from the pond, soaking wet with water, pond scum, and fish guts. jolene let out her very deep bark and reached for her toy. "good girl, jolene! did you get it out of your system, hm? i know the clocks going backwards makes your skin itchy."

"yes. it was very irksome. however, it will right itself soon, yes?" jolene responded, in her very dark and deep voice (a voice that feels like it should either be coming out from the bottom of a well, beckoning you to join it in the dark and damp, or from someone that reads audio books for a living).

"it should go back to the way we're used to in about a week or two," they confirmed. jolene nodded her little doggy head, picked up her squeaky toy, and the two of them wandered back to the shelter.

the trip back was odd in the usual sense. the concrete would periodically spit out grass shoots, dandelions, and fly traps between the cracks and jolene would growl at them if they got too close. once they arrived back at the shelter, they ushered jolene in back to her little cage that was lined with sigils of confinement and closed the gate. They began feeding the other creatures, giving special attention to jeffrey, the sad little hell hound that just couldn't help but chew on his own leg rather than the legs they gave him. after cleaning out the litter boxes, and the food trays, and making sure the gutters were clear of viscera, they glanced at the clock again. they couldn't help but tap on the glass of the analog clock, not flinching at the rumbling and shaking it responded with.

"yeah, yeah, blah blah blah," they waved a hand as if to brush away the clock's irritation. "i woke you up again, how terrible, what a wretched day."

the clock huffed at them. they simply went to sit at the desk, waiting for someone to come along and adopt a lovely dark pet for the family.

who knows? maybe jolene will finally find a family she won't gnaw on.