Till The Clock Strikes Gone

38 | oblivion

William's eyes opened and he found himself lying down; everything around him was gone. He was in an empty, dark place and the floor was cold. He slowly pulled himself up and to his surprise, his headache had disappeared too.

He looked at his clothes and his eyes widened in shock to find himself dressed in the clothes that he had been wearing the day he had travelled through time except, they weren't torn but intact. That wasn't what he was wearing. He remembered; he remembered jumping into the fire to save the letters. After that, he had fainted in Eliza's arms and he wondered where he was now.

He stood up and the cold floor underneath his feet made him take a look and he found himself without shoes. He placed a hand on his chest. The fire had caught him when he had gone to open the drawer and he had to tear his shirt to get rid of it but he was hurt, not anything major but he had felt the pain of the burn.

Now, he was perfect. In fact, he was more than perfect and alone. He looked around but there was nothing that he could see or hear apart from himself. Suddenly, as if hearing all his wishes, a faint white light glimmered through the floor. It was like someone had lighted up a bulb underneath his feet but the only thing that mattered was that William could see around him.

Yet, there was nothing or no-one. He walked with heavy steps and called out.

"Hello?"

No response.

"Eliza?"

Again, no response.

"Mr Scott?" he shouted with all his might.

When he got no response again, his heartbeat grew faster and anxiety gripped him from everywhere.

"Dad? Mom? Eliza?" He was running now, shouting their names over and over again.

"Eliza!" he kept calling but still, there was no response.

He ran his hands through his hair and wondered if this was what Harvey had warned him about.

Oblivion.

This was it. This must be oblivion. He had lost. He had lost his Eliza and himself. He was gone. He knelt on the ground and screamed with his head in between his hands.

"ELIZA!"

He began to cry. He sobbed like a baby. A baby whose mother had forgotten to feed him.

"Eliza, why did you do this?" he said between sobs. "I loved you so much. Why would you do something like this to me? I just wanted to go home. I wanted you."

He kept calling her name but it did him no good for there was no way Eliza was coming back. She was gone and he was lost. His cries stopped abruptly when he heard a noise like the creak of a door. The sound came from the back but before he could turn around, the sound turned to a loud drag and it slowed down after a thud. The ground underneath him shook.

He lowered his body to prevent himself from falling. The sound stopped and everything was silent again. He turned around and saw the source of the noise.

There was a door a few feet away from him. It was a plain black door but it was as high as the Eiffel Tower. It was huge. William noticed the little knob attached to the door and felt himself sweat in fear.

He hesitated before dragging one step towards the metal door but then retreated. He was scared. He felt like he was living in one of his stories.

'...and then the boy was swallowed by the Ghost of Time.'

He was the boy. He had always been that boy. He just never knew. He swallowed a huge gulp of his saliva as he recalled the story.

It was the story of a little boy who goes to stay in a new villa with his parents. There is a door that he finds locked and despite his parents' warning, he opens it and a ghost introduces itself to him. The ghost calls itself 'Ghost of Time.' The boy laughs at the ghost and mocks it but soon the ghost and the boy form a devastating bond which leads to the death of the boy.

That story had crept into his mind one day when he was seventeen. He didn't know why he wrote a story where time was the ghost but he knew.

'Ghosts don't lie.' He had written.

Neither does time.

Time doesn't wait. Time is a ghost. A ghost that no-one fears until they are breathing their last. A ghost that feeds on us our entire life and yet we pay no heed to it. We pass it, waste it, make fun of it but in the end, it wins. It always wins because it is the only truthful thing in this world. Time is honest and that is something that William could never be. He could be honest with anyone but himself.

William struggled hard to think about what he should do. A part of him was begging him to open the door but another part was fearing that if he opened it, he would be lost for good. There might still be a chance. He might still live, still survive, still return home and opening the door would either make those very things possible or swallow him whole.

He debated with his conflicting thoughts. If only Eliza was here. She would have known what was to be done. She would have shown him the way. She always did. She was always there for him.

'and all you have to do is never leave my view'

Eliza loved him. How could he not trust her? He wasn't lost yet. Eliza would never let me lose. He was her pride. He wouldn't disappoint her nor would she disappoint him. He would return and if he had to cross a bloody, strange door into oblivion to return to her, he would. He would cross an ocean of fire to return to her and this damn door was nothing.

He closed his eyes and remembered Eliza's face. Her bewitching eyes and that smile.

"I will make it back to you, I promise," he whispered to himself and with a deep exhale, opened his eyes and proceeded towards the door.

When he reached it, he held the small silver knob on the left of the door. It was as cold as ice. He waited for any sign at all. Any sign to prove that he would survive but when he didn't get any, he closed his eyes again and with one swift turn of the knob, he pushed the door open and was engulfed by a white light.

'and all you have to do is never leave my view.'

He opened his eyes and for a second, his vision was blurry. He tried to make out where he was but he couldn't. He tried to make out the outline of a familiar ceiling but couldn't. Slowly, his vision cleared and he could see the face that was looking down at him with an excited smile on her lips. He stared at her, amazed.

"Good morning, Moonshine!"