The Clock Struck Twelve

The Clock Struck Twelve.
The hour chimed
Feebly.

The old iron pendulum
Slowed down
and fell.

Silence echoed
Through the wodden halls.

I knew the apparition would appear,
But when it did
– The faint face growing in my eyes,
The stern presence in the depths
Of the corridor –

I couldn't help
but gasp
Inside.

My breath didn't waver though.
Not and inch in me could fidget,
Nor blink, nor move.

I just had to stare
At the white lady approaching,
See in the corner of my eye
The still clock turning.

The sight before me grew
And grew,
Still ever such a haze
As to confuse me.
The halls seemed to tremble
And moan
And lurch into me
As everything beat
Out of my mind.

I could feel the cold of the white
Flow of the whisps
Of thought
Or pure horror
In the regal robes she wore.
The face grew blades,
The eyes about to bite
Into me.

At last I lost it and blinked.

And the sight was gone.

All of it gone.

I gasped at last and breathed,
And breathed and breathed,
Collapsed down unto the floor
From the chair where
I had waited.

I heard the clock begin to tick again,
The old pendulum sway
As if it had never happened.

Still my breath was uneasy.
Still my eyes looked down,
Burried in my hands.

Pain seared in them.

But at last I calmed
And letn my eyes open,
The color of day shown through.

Then I rose my head,
Uncertain of what I'd see.
A darkness flashed over me.

In a spark the night realm exploded
Back into my mind,
And the ghost-terror was on me.

The fangs, hundreds, at my throat,
The eyes hit as flames,
The hands grappling me like a surpent,
I screaned.
But the scream was eaten
By the phantom
As I died.

For many monthes I lived in chains,
Tied by the white jacket
To the bed they had put me in.

They told me I must drink this
Or swallow that,
And I refused.

I'd rather believe in ghosts.

At last the lawyers won their case,
And I was unfettered
And sent home.

My apartment was rank
From the dishes I left behind.
Maggots filled the drain.

I had no one to wait for me.
They'd all been taken,
By the White Lady,
And I knew it.

I waited watching the stars
That night.

When it finally came,
The clouds covered everything,
The black sky,
The haze of city lights,
The glint of rainy
Asphalt below.

And I breathed in the darkness.

And stepped into the world
It revealed.

Sounds I heard
From all over time,
Shaking.

I saw spirits
Just as blurry lumps
In the black canvas
Pressing on
Through the piercing wind.

I walked as them,
As the groan of the void
Blasted away my skin,
My hair,
My eyes,
My bones –
I just had to cross,
Had to understand.

The final steps I took
Took me to where I'd waited,
The old and dark room,
The grandfather clock,
That stood still,
The hall lined with dust,
And old paintings
Where she'd stood.

It was all gone,
The house
For a hundred years
Had been there,
Now gone.

I must have been the last.

Rain fell on the torn up lumber,
Thumped on the leaves of the trees.

I turned around to leave.
A girl stood before me.

A red raincoat,
A shivered look,
THe young woman
Stood.

Startled, I immediately asked
If she needede any help.
She just looked down,
And wept.

I put my coat around her,
And she touched my hand,
And together we walked
Below the iron-gray sky.

I was sneezing when we got in.
My place was still a mess.
I threw everything off the couch,
So she could lay on it.

I offered blankets and food,
Told her where the bathroom was,
And the shower,
If she needed them.

She just sat, half laying
Quietly.

"Take your time" – I said,
And plopped on my own bed,
Soon asleep.

When I woke up,
My lamp still burning,
But it was dark.

And I heard her voice
Singing softly.

I just listened.

And the night swirled around her.
The apartment room
Was flying through a void.

I walked to the window,
The screen door of the porch.
She just lay where she was
Without notice,
Half asleep,
Half entranced.

I saw faint in the shadows,
The light of a city
Floating in the distance.

Boats wandered to and from,
Some nearer us,
Some away,
And the waves
Rippled here and there,
As we moved.

I poured out a glass
Of cold water
And sat at my litte desk
By the void.

I had no clock in my home,
But took out my phone,
And watched it a while,
Not blink, not change
A single digit
From the 0:00.

The girl
– A woman maybe,
But she seemed just a girl –
Grew silent.
She seemed to wake
And looked nervously
At me.

We saw the White Lady
In the threshold of the room,
Just a blur
Like static
In the fog.

But the presence consumed.
A cold air filled the room,
Skin turned pale,
As it crumbled.

The face drew near,
Not toward me,
But toward her.

I saw her terror,
Red in her eyes,
Choking out her
Silient breath.

The ghost approached,
And I shot out
Of the prison of time
To hold her.

The apartment creaked
As the spirit touched us.
The whole world flew up
Over us,
And cascaded down.

Several pieces hit me.
I passed out over her,
but awoke sometime later
In the rubble.

We were taken to the hospital.
There had been an earthquake,
They said.

I was the more injured.
My head throbbed for days,
But she stayed by me,
Sometimes talking,
Sometimes quietly.

She started saying we were dating,
Just to avoid more explanation
To the doctors
And nurses

We smiled as we talked
Though we said little
That we thought,
The questions,
Where to now?

"Let's travel together,"
– I told her one night,
"To wherever,
I still have a car.

"Ok"
– She promiced,
"I'd like that

My last night in the hospital,
She came to wait with me.
She brought flowers.

I looked out the windows,
And watched the clouds burn away.

We held hands as the clock hit twelve.
The stillness in the air
Felt fragile now.
The dark room,
Felt small.

We stared at each other,
Sqeezed the hands we held,
When the presence was over us,
Her vague smile and sharp eyes,
Her teeth, her cold touch,
Shivered us,
But couldn't break our skin.

An aura surrounded us,
Held us like an angles grace.
A candle light
Blasting away the void

The beast faded away,
Her face in terror.
The darkness is week,
Though it's vast.

The window by the bed
Shook violently.
The tools around the room
Fell and clanged.

The creature filled the small space,
Tried to evelope us,
But the shield couldn't budge,
And her thrusts just hurt her.

The wall seemed to be cracking over us.
The ceiling begun to spew dust.
Air vents banged and popped
From the fires that filled them.

At last it all but the bed
Where I lay and the stool
Where she sat by me
Vanished into dust,
And we floated in the void,
Watching the ashes drift away.

The pressence was dissapated.
Into the ether of our thoughts,
Whatever molcules that comnprised it
No more.

And we drifted along
Through the night
Till we woke in a field
Some miles away.

We made love for the first time
Hiding in an old gazebo
In a small and overgrown park
By the entrance to a trail,
While it rained.

We had nothing then,
But our bare skin,
And our heartbeats
To share.

We stayed there for a while,
Just watching the rain,
And listening to summer sounds
While we held each other.
Our clothes had gotten soaked,
And we didn't really have,
Any others.

But I had a blanket
In the station wagon,
That we wrapped up in,
After the humid air
Started feeling cold.

Nobody ever did find out
Where we'd gone.
The police searched
But couldn't find us.
No one really knew us.

We drove on through the country,
Staying always in the mountains
Out of town,
Not ever really knowing
Where we were.

Never were we happier
Than then.

We got married in the fall,
Just the two of us,
Under the gold and silver leaves
By a mountain brook.

Later we emerged in a town,
To do the paperwork,
And start a new life.

We bought an old home
Half run down
With the money I had left
From my writing.

And we found some way
To get on with it.

The night we moved in,
Before we'd done anything
About all that need repairs,
The walls were still bare
And in some places
Torn apart,

We slept just on a mattress
In the musky living room,
And the cool airs crept in
Through the cracks in the glass
Of the windows.

I woke while she was still sleeping.
It was dark,
And I worried I'd heard
Some animal.

Instead I saw faintly,
As I looked around
At the play of the moonlight,
Countless spirits
Of lives before us.

They swayed, and stood,
Worked, or rested,
Cleaning, cooking, playing,
All that is life –
In the shadows
I felt around me.

I looked at my phone for the time.
It stood still again on the hour,
But I didn't feel it there,
Not that night

She was close to me,
Still holding me,
And that's all that mattered.

But I knew it couldn't last long,
That the White Lady would come,
And that I must face her,
Or forever run away.

"She's not here now."
– My wife told me,
Rowsed from her sleep,
"Don't worry."

But is now all that matters?
– I thought.