Clockwork City

Sandra's Secret

If there was one thing Sandra loved more than anything it was clocks. She had loved them since she was a kid. Her father had a shop that sold and repaired clocks and she had so many clocks in the room that went tick tock all through the day that she was mesmerised by them since she was just a baby.

She loved listening to the sound of the clocks and she loved watching her dad fix clocks with his tools. Whenever someone asked her who she wanted to be, she'd say she'd wanted to be a clockmaker.

Sandra loved when customers came to her father's shop called Cosmics to buy clocks. She would wait by the window willing a customer to come into the shop and look at all the clocks on display. She'd look at the customers stopping by the clocks her father made and finally selecting one. 

Sandra loved cuckoo clocks and grandfather's clocks more than anything else. These seemed to be more magical than all the others. She loved to hear the grandfather's clocks in her father's shop chime every hour. She also loved to see different animals pop out of the different cuckoo clocks in her father's, Mr Horus's shop.

Mr Horus was tall, pale and had dark hair. His eyes were dark like raven's feathers. Sandra had never seen her mother. Whenever she asked her dad about her he'd quickly change the topic. There were no pictures of her mom in the house. Sometimes she tried to imagine what her mom might look like. She felt that she could vaguely picture her mother in her head.

One day a strange man walked into Mr Horus's shop. He was tall, thin, and had a long silvery beard. He looked around at the clocks on the shelves. He walked about the shop. He came to the counter and took out a card and gave it to Mr Horus.

Then as Sandra watched the man faded and disappeared into thin air. Sandra looked at where the man stood and there was no one there. She rushed up to the counter to her dad. Her dad was reading a card.

"Who was that? Where did he go?" she asked looking around the shop once more to make sure she hadn't imagined the whole thing.

"Well, it's time I told you something. I am Horus," said Sandra's dad.

Sandra laughed. "Dad, I know that you are Horus. That's your name."

"Yes but I am not just Mr Horus, I am The Horus! I am the time lord, keeper of time."

Sandra gulped. "You mean like that Egyptian god?" She remembered reading a book on Egypt and reading about a god named Horus.

"Yes, I have been summoned to the council of gods," said Mr Horus, showing Sandra the card he had been given.

"So all these gods we read about in stories? Are they real?" asked Sandra, looking at the card Mr Horus was holding in his hand. It was golden and had strange symbols on it.

"Yes, more or less. Every story has some truth to them. It's up to us to choose what is and what is not. Now I must prepare to leave. I will call someone to take care of this place and keep the shop going."

Sandra didn't like the idea of her dad going away. "Can't I come with you?" asked Sandra, as her dad drew blinds across the shop windows and turned the open board to the side which said closed.

"Sandra, I would love to take you, but the thing is it will be dangerous."

"Why? I will be with you. Even if something does happen, at least we will be together."

"But I don't want anything happening to you," said Mr Horus, as he and Sandra walked towards the backdoor of the shop.

There was a small car parked outside. Mr Horus opened the door and got onto the driver's seat while Sandra sat on the passenger's seat. The car drove past shops and houses. It turned to a street with houses on both sides and came to a stop at a gate.