The Rude Awakening I

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. With every audible sound the antique grandfather clock made, the more sinister the night seemed. Darkness swept across the small town like a curtain, almost suffocating everything that lived. Only one set of eyes was open that night. One frail hand, pressed against her chest. One look of terror that masked her face. One loud, quickening heartbeat, that increased and echoed in her ears with every tick, every tock.

It hadn't always been this way. As she remembered, the town was always safe. It was the safest for miles because of the gate around it's walls. The town had rules, solid ones. Rules that everyone, even the small mischeivous children, needed to follow. Jacksonville, that was what the town was called. Everybody loved living in it. It seemed as though everyone who lived there was happy. But when the town decided to elect a council, power threatened to overthrow the town. That was when the mistake began.

Sharp, painful breaths escaped the young womans lips. She was the one who had made the mistake, who had caused the deep darkness that had now swallowed the town whole. The mistake that caused the deaths of many, the mistake that would soon cause her own fatal death.