Midnight twelve and all had gone to shit. Gritting my teeth I tried to drag myself to the couch. Only two feet away... might as well be a thousand. If I hadn't spent the first five minutes panicking maybe I would have been able to reach it. Maybe I would have been able to die comfortably.

"Fuck it," I whispered. The floor would do. It's not like I would have to wait long.

Behind me, six more bodies lied dead or dying, all arranged around the clock like fallen petals. Carmel's skeleton was still leaning against the large wooden case, the golden key in his hand. Of course he'd be the first to go, leaving me behind like he always did. God, why are all the cute ones such messed-up fucks? And why was I so stupid? Still recovering from the last two times he broke my heart, and I still followed him in this idiotic scheme.

"I hope you're happy, Carm!" My shout ended-up a little more than a gurgle. "You have your proof now!"

Catch an Hour. He seriously thought he could catch an Hour. Which dark auction did he go to find those damned books? The moment he showed me, I knew they weren't the casual occult shit we were used to. Those things were as hardcore as they came. I should have said no back then. I shouldn't have let him tempt me.

"Time heals all wounds, eh?" It was getting difficult to breathe, but I still wanted to say it. If not for him, then for myself. "Well, you're healed now! Happy?"

Twenty four creatures governing time. Twenty four, and he thought we could catch one? So what if he hired professional demon-snatchers? Did they do any good? All five of them are lying five feet away, their wounds growing by the second. Another twenty ticks of the clock and they'll be dead. If I'm lucky I'll be dead along with them.

[i]Tic Toc Tic Toc[/i]

I looked at the clock, but the sounds were coming from elsewhere. It was the noise the creature made as it walked. Twelve minutes ago I was terrified. Now, I didn't care.

[i]Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic[/i]

It stood above me, its body a series of lines held together by white sand. Somehow, I always pictured an Hour being an automaton made of dials and gears. It wasn't. When it first appeared it didn't even have a human shape, just lines and sand. 

"Kill me," I whispered, begging, pleading, hoping it would. I didn't want more time to think of regrets. I didn't want to keep aging a month every second. Twelve minutes ago I was twenty-three, full of life and stupidity. Now I was eighty. "Just kill me!" My vision was blurry. The room was a mass of grey shapes coming in and out of focus. "Just..."

It struck. I felt a shard of ice pierce through me. Finally! I could smile if I wasn't so weak. Dead at twenty-three of old age in pursuit of time. There probably was an irony in that somewhere. Someone might even find it funny, if it wasn't so terrifying. An entire life erased in twelve minutes. Carmel would have loved that trick. Erase anything or stretch it into eternity — this was the power the Hours had, this was the power we wanted to steal. Well, fuck us! Only thing we got was the privilege to die no more.

[hr]

Endless specks of sand. They were everywhere, swirling around, reaching for infinity in all directions. And in the middle stood I, a single line of time among a legion of others. I could sense all those who had come before me, I knew they could sense me as well. Hundreds, thousands of lines, each a fool who thought they could tame an Hour. Now we were all parts, servants of our master, our jailer. No, I was more than that, I was Twelve now. Midnight had made me one of his lieutenants. I could see past and present, I could make seconds into centuries and centuries into seconds, I could inflict wounds that would grow with every tick of the clock or heal wounds, if I so wished. I was immortal, eternal, incapable of pain or hurt, left with the single hope that maybe some other fool would succeed where I had failed… and free us all.