The Clock

Silence except for a quiet ticking. The beautiful clock hung on the wall opposite her bed. Its face was set on a gorgeous, chestnut colour wood which was bordered with bronze. The clock had an incredibly strong catch on its face which was almost impossible to open. Around the face were roman numerals and the intricately detailed hands pointed to the XII and the III. It was quarter past twelve in the morning when they came to take her away. The clock chimed once for quarter past the hour and for a second she was alone.
Then the guards knocked the thin, wooden door down and seized her roughly by her wrists. She jumped up from her desk and started trying to break free of them. Her diary fell open at the 8th February revealing all those thoughts and fears of those fifteen minutes when she had been alone. She struggled fruitlessly, trying to break their tight hold on her. As soon as she let her guard down to take a breath, one of the five guards brought out a piece of paper from behind his back. At the sight of it she jumped and tried to push his hand away, sobbing. He read it out to her and she reached for her death warrant. She snatched it from him and started to rip it up. They grabbed her arms and the guard that had given it to her grabbed it back and nodded at the rest of them to drag her away. She knew that her number was up and there was no point fighting them. When this reality caught up with her, she let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Time seemed to freeze for a split second and then everything happened very fast. The catch on the clock’s face gave out and it sprung open releasing a cold wind which blew everything out of place. She stopped struggling and her eyes went blank, with no sign of life in them. She rose a few inches and the guards dropped her arms and cowered against the wall. The clock chimed again for half past the hour and she became limp and dropped to the ground. The catch snapped shut and the cold air died down. The guards seemed afraid to touch her but then she stood up and allowed herself to be handcuffed. She seemed completely unaware of what had just taken place. Still shaking, the guards dragged her away.