Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26479861-20150421122327

John was walking to the shopping centre, because his car was broken down in the repair shop. He should have just waited until morning to go shopping. He shouldn't have been outside this late at night. He wasn't even sure if the shopping centre was open. He didn't live far, but that didn't ease his fears. He kept hearing sounds behind him, but whenever he turned to look, nobody was there. He wanted to go home, but whatever was following him might pounce. At least, he thought something was following him.

He made it to the shopping centre, and it was mostly open, except the video games store, but he didn't come here for games. He really needed a new knife. He'd had to throw one of his old knives out, after it broke on a lamb bone. It was cheap anyway. He went and got a new knife, and left the store, having almost forgotten the sounds he had heard.

As he was leaving, he saw a man standing by the door. He looked homeless. John asked the man about this and the man said "Yes, I have no house, nor home." John offered for the man to stay with him for the night, since he lived in a big house. The man agreed, and they started to walk home.

John asked the man his name, and he said it was Garry. John realised he was tightly gripping his knife, which he had taken the packet off when he bought it. Garry was looking at his hand curiously, and John loosened his grip slightly. Then he started hearing those sounds again. They were still behind him this time, and he asked Garry if he could hear them. He said yes, and they started walking faster, eventually running.

They made it home, and John locked the door with a deadbolt. "Okay, I think we're safe now." He said. He gave Garry some clothes to get changed into, and sent him to have a shower, because he stunk. He put the knife in his drawer, and sat down to watch T.V. Garry came down to join him an hour later, when they heard a bang on the window.

They looked at each other with scared expressions, and went to check the window. They saw what looked like a child's bloody handprint, and some illegible words below it, also in blood. They heard another bang from a different window and went to investigate there too. On this window was the other handprint, with what looked to be the same words, but more readable this time. They said "It's time to die". After reading it, they heard a bang from the window on the door, and Garry, being taller than John , read what was on it, "Tick Tock times up". They went back to the first window, realising the message there might be different to what they thought. Instead of having the same message as the second window, as they first thought, it said "Check the clock at midnight". It looked like whatever was written before had been rubbed out, as there was a big smudge around the words.

Garry said " Ummm... Maybe we should go upstairs. It might be safer?" John agreed, and they went upstairs to the game room. And then John saw a clock on the wall and saw it was 11:56. He told Garry to keep an eye on the clock and tell him when it was 30 seconds to midnight, while he barricaded the door.

About three minutes later, Garry told him it was nearly midnight. They both stared at the clock anxiously, waiting to see what happened. Time seemed to go incredibly slow, yet fast at the same time. When the clock finally ticked round to 12:00, they heard a loud, constant banging on the door. John had barricaded the door with a pool table and a few chairs, and locked it, but he was still worried it would give way, and whoever - or whatever - was out there would get in.

John realised he had unconsciously grabbed his new knife out of his drawer, and held it up now as defense. Garry grabbed a pool stick, and held it up like a sword. The banging stopped suddenly. Then they heard a voice speak, in the most sickly sweet, blood curdling voice of any child they'd ever heard.

"Jooohhhnnn! Times up John! Garrryyy, can you send John out? I want to play!" "H-how does it know our names?" Garry whispered, then said louder, "How do you know our names!" "You told me, sillies. You told me everything about you, last time. Don't you remember?" John yelled "We've never met before! We just met 2 hours ago!" And it was true. At least in their minds.

"That's what youuu think!" The voice said, in a taunting tone. "You think you just met, but I know better!" "Wh-what do you mean?" John replied, getting more afraid by the second. He looked up at the clock and realised it was frozen at midnight. "Why tell you what I mean, when you already know?" And then she started banging the door again "let me in, your time is up, you can't stop me!" Garry and John looked at each other, and all the memories came back. All the time they'd spent together. They were best friends. But they were more than friends. They remembered when John had proposed to Garry, and both looked down at their hands, seeing the identical rings there for the first time. John realised why he had clothes that fitted perfectly on Garry when he was bigger than John.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the voice saying, "Well, it seems time is not up yet. I'll be back when you forget each other again." And she just left, without another word.

But they never forgot anything after that night. They knew they were always being watched, but they just ignored it, and got on with their lives. They heard about people with Alzheimer's and other memory problems being killed in their homes, always at midnight. But they never forgot anything. Especially that night, when the little girl came knocking. And she still watches, waiting for two words.

"I forgot." 