1 The Sudden Descent

"I am quite fond of clocks you see, how intricate a device they are just to tell us time. Look, I have one right here" said a man with a cheery voice, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small pocket watch.

"This is one of my favorites for it tells a time that no one knows, not even me. How mysterious...but today it seems to have finally changed! A little picture of the sun is usually on the bottom half, yet lately it has been slowly being consumed by the darkness. Now...there is nothing left..."

The man gave a sad sigh, before he looked at his companion below him with a questioning look.

"Hey...are you listening? You wasted my time making me come all the way out here...the least you could do is listen to my story, you know?"

All he got in response, however, was a gurgling sound followed by a lurch of the body as if trying to escape some kind of great danger.

"Oh yeah, sorry...I forgot that you cant quite answer me with my ruler lodged in your throat. How about I take it out so you can speak?"

The 'companion' of the clock loving man's eyes refocused ever so slightly, before looking upon the face of the one before him and widening in shock and terror.

He thrashed about madly, left and right, trying to free himself from his dire situation. Alas, escape was impossible for a man without any limbs.

"Hey....the more you move the faster you will bleed out you know. I even went through so much trouble to cauterize your wounds using the fireplace over there..."

The man sighed, disappointed at the lack of response from his dear companion.

He looked around the room he was in, or perhaps a more apt description would be the rubble around him. His eyes, as dark as the abyss itself, saw naught but charred corpses and dismembered limbs...nothing but lifeless husks.

"How dull....how boring...now what" thought the man aloud as he ran his hair through his silvery white hair.

"I feel like I came here for a specific reason...but for the life of me I cannot remember, how odd. Hmm, maybe you can help me remember."

The man bent over and grabbed the metal ruler that was in the neck of the 'companion' that was laying on the ground. Despite the weak struggle, look of fear and silent cries for mercy, he continued to pull nevertheless.

"Yo...u...monster" cried the man on the ground, his aged skin quickly losing the luster of life.

"W...e...just wanted the....money. Sister....never would...hurt..her...WHY!!! Bazel....you MONSTER!!!"

With the mans dying breath, the one he had saved for so long, rang out his final cry before he fell into the embrace of death.

"Sister...? Sister...I have a sister? Yes... I do, that is why I came here...to save my sister" mumbled the man, now revealed to be Bazel.

A look of joy appeared on his face, even tearing up as he looked at now lifeless corpse on the ground.

"Thank you so much kind sir! I had almost forgotten, I will never forget this kind deed" said Bazel, bowing to the corpse as he turned around and sped off in search of his sister.

Of course, there was nothing alive anywhere near him.

"She is not here...where did she go?" muttered Bazel, who was sat down on a pile of charred remains.

"Where could she be. Ah, what a silly girl always getting into trouble that I have to clean up. I remember when we were kids and she hid inside the orphanage basement, took me hours to find he-"

Bazel lept to his feet, realization dawning upon him.

"The basement, yeah...she was being held there!"

Running along the length of the mostly crumbled walls, he searched desperately for a hatch to a lower floor...almost giving up several times before he finally found what he was looking for.

Opening the hatch, he climbed down the ladder into the darkness without any hesitation.

"Lily, where are you! This is no time to be playing hide and seek!" shouted Bazel, acting as if he were in the midst of a game.

Looking left and right, he saw nothing under the small light that his phone created in the damp darkness of this small basement area.

Eventually his light shined across metal bars. Catching his attention, he neared them while shining the light through them to cast away the darkness which concealed whatever lay within.

"There you are!" said Bazel, his tone of glee and joy and his face mirroring this all too well.

Laying down on a thin blanket was none other than his little sister Lily, whose skin was as white as snow yet her hair as bright as the morning sun with its lush golden locks. Her school uniform was frayed and torn, but still in tact much to the relief of Bazel. Peaceful she lay, perfectly still all the while. Perfectly still, far too perfect for a living and breathing person in fact.

The smile on Bazels face slowly darkened with each passing second, going from happiness to sadness...then to nothing.

"Lily?" asked a trembling voice.

His hands wrapping around the bars of the cell, he shook them whilst calling out his beloved little sister's name again and again. With each call his face turned from a blankness to one of wrath, constantly switching to and fro.

Memories of the two sibling's time together surfaced in Bazel's mind, of how they were united at a young age where both were isolated from the others at the orphanage due to their unique traits.

Of keeping one another company during the dark nights, keeping away the whispers of the dark and scaring off the monsters under the bed with their numerical superiority.

Sharing meals when the food supply was low, sharing blankets when the night was cold, and sharing woes when the mental burden became too high.

Inseparable was what those who knew them said...inseparable by all, except by the cruelty of death.

"LILY!!" cried Bazel one last time, and with one last shake of the bars they broke off completely in his hands.

Not even giving a single thought to the superhuman feat he had just accomplished, Bazel rushed towards his sister and grabbed her hand whilst crying.

Crying...and laughing. Switching between madness and despair every other second, all the while his hair went from silvery white to snow white and his pupils began to turn red.

His beloved pocket watch that hung at his side, the one that told no time, slowly turned again causing a red outline to appear from the darkness of the long consumed sun.

All of this was interrupted by one thing: A cough.

Such a basic thing, a simple thing, yet in that moment it was the most beautiful thing that Bazel had ever heard.

He leaned in closer, putting his ear to her chest...a faint heartbeat was starting up.

Thump.......thump..........thump..........thump...thump..thump.

First slow, far and few in between, but quickly speeding up as Lily returned from the brink of death. Bazel watched closely, daring not to even breath. For he feared accidentally blowing out the small flame of life in front of him.

Her chest raised and fell, her limbs twitched ever so slightly, and then finally her eyes fluttered open with much difficulty.

"Br...bro? Is that you?" started Lily, having some difficulty forming words.

"What are you doing here...did they get you too?"

Bazel finally took a breath, one that he had delayed for several minutes, feeling nothing but relief wash over him.

"You idiot, how could I be captured by such fiends? Come now, let me carry you out of here. Everything is fine now, everything is fine..."

Bazel picked up his sister, who fell back asleep the moment she was within his familiar embrace. This shocked Bazel for a moment, but he could feel her every breath and rhythmic beat of her heart which in that moment was the best and most comforting melody he had ever heard.

Out he walked and up the ladder, which he had thought would give him some trouble at first but he quickly found out that he could easily climb the ladder with just one hand.

"When did I become so strong?" wondered Bazel as he exited the basement completely, now back onto the main floor.

"Uwah, what happened up here? It looks like an explosion went off from the inside, good thing Lily wasn't harmed...are those...corpses? So many of them..." thought Bazel in shock as he took in the sight around him, his stomach threatening to unleash its contents at the sight but his duty to get his sister home safe and sound kept him going

Breaking into a run, he ran faster than he had ever before to flee the hellish scene of charred corpses and dismembered bodies. Trying his best to flee before whatever did that returned.

Several miles away from the scene of the crime, or so he thought in his head, his favorite pocket watch vibrated for a moment.

"It can do that?" wondered Bazel, resting on a grassy riverbank hidden from sight of any late night onlookers.

Letting Lily rest on his lap, he pulled out the watch from his pocket and opened it.

"Same old same old, a picture of a sun that never changes...huh, do I have more silver in my hair than before?"

Bazel looked at his reflection from the top half of the pocket watch, looking at his plain black hair in curiosity as it appeared to him that there was more silver highlights in it than before.

"Whatever, I need to hurry home. I can barely think with how tired I am."

Picking up his tired body, and Lily in his arms, he struggled with every step to walk in the direction of their home.

To safety, rest, and respite.