In the light of a candle - The Clock

A Story by D.Y.Petkova

Hello and welcome. It has been a while, has it not ? My mistake. Let me make it up to you. Tonight I will tell you the story of a place not famous or really interesting, but …strange. So come and sit around the table. Tonight the power is out so I have already lit the candle. Oh, worry not. Nothing haunts here… Nothing but me.

Once upon a time there was a hotel… No. This is not right. It is not supposed to go like this. Let me try again.

If you decide to visit Mount Desert Island, Maine, you would need a lot of early preparations and money to find a decent spot to stay �" not that they are bad, there just are not a lot of them. One of the good offers is a small hotel right downtown in the biggest town on the Island. The prices are good, it offers all the things you would need if you are on hiking holiday. Sure, you have to book early, but it is like this everywhere. Nothing surprising . Oh, I should have mentioned. It was like this years ago. Now it is abandoned and teenagers use it to escape from their parents and be on the holiday they actually want.

Why am I telling you about this place, you would ask. Because there is only one peculiar thing about it �" people, sleeping there, do not dream. They think they simply can not remember their dreams, but it is not true. They just wake up well rested and go on with their lives. Nowadays, the building has a more…sinister vibe. So let me give you a tour.

Once you enter the doors, they shut behind you. Even after years of neglect the thick glass is whole and insulates the hotel from the outside noise. After the door closes, you feel like you have walked into a different world simply because you can not hear the cars or people outside and there is nobody inside. So it is quiet. No, not simply quiet. It is like the deep breath of the earth before the first lighting hits, marking the beginning of a terrible storm. It is like the heartbeat before the car crashes, like the blink before the bullet hits. It is the moment of terrible waiting, the half second that stretches in eternity, the pressure of the air when the time is frozen around you and you can not even twitch. You can only wait.

Entering this place feels like this �" like the expectation of something terrible, the knowledge that the spark will light the sky and burn the ground, and helplessness , born of the fact that you can not change it. The worst thing ? You do not know when. When it will happen, what it will hit. So you wait. Spending time in this building is like this �" constant nagging in the back of your brain that something horrible will happen and frustration that your own mind is trying to sabotage you. Because it is just an old building, slightly creepy, but then aren’t all of them like this ?
Once you get in the hallway you see traces of beauty. Old quilts hand on the walls and heavy brocade furniture hint that there has been life. Opposed to that are the rooms �" nothing particularly interesting, no personal belongings, no forgotten clothes, not even the obligatory old doll with fallen hair, one eye and broken face. Nothing. Just dust and the furniture �" beds, desks, chairs. Lamps. That’s all there is . Your eyes tell you everything is fine, there is nothing to fear, but your mind insists that you should get out of here. And yet, you decide to stay. Night is falling and the beds are not that uncomfortable. You have looked into every room, but one. Room 19 looks just like every other , but its window is towards the park. This is when you notice it. It is the only thing that breaks the pattern. It is a little pocket watch, hanging from the lamp over one of the beds. It is not working, of course, but still. So you pick the other bed. It has been a long day and you need your rest. Yes, you do…

Suddenly you hear a quiet, rhythmic sound. You have almost fallen asleep and this feels more like a lucid dream than an actual awakening. Yet you unlock your phone and check the room. Nothing. Only the little watch is spinning. Wind, you think. The window is open and the chain is thin. And then you see it �" the hands are spinning. The sound you hear is the watch ticking. Before you manage to process that, you fall asleep again. And in the morning you have forgotten about it. When you leave the building, you feel a little tired but it is normal �" you have just spent the night on an unfamiliar bed in a creepy old room. Or course you would not feel good. And you know, you just know , that you did not dream last night. So you just go on your way and tell your friends about this place where they can go and actually rest. Because that’s what you remember later �" quit room, no dreams, feeling well rested. And no strange furniture or jewelry.

But let me tell you something �" there is a different way to experience the hotel. If you have nightmares and want to take a break from them this might sound like the perfect holiday. No charge. But people with nightmares spent the night in another way. When they enter, all they could feel is that someone wants them to leave. Just go. Run. The hostile presence doesn’t show itself but it is clear that there is something and it does not like the visitor. Some of the braver souls have the courage to stay and spend the night even after this kind of greeting. And they dream. In their sleep they see their worst fears, their most horrible images, their biggest pain. In the morning, if they go and check room 19, the watch would still be there, but the glass would be more cracked than before. And the hands would have stopped in the second the person fell asleep. And maybe, if they take the time to look around, the building would look a little more rundown, a little more abandoned.

Have a warm and cozy night. And remember, a clock never starts by itself.