Unum Annum

You're not alone

Opening up the door, all the lights in the house were off. And there was a light, once again coming from the closet. You were very hesitant to open the closet, but was there really another choice? Approaching the closet, opening the door, a spiral appears. The trench coat song is playing, along with the ticking. No Unus or Annus to be seen. But you looked into the closet further and saw something new, a floating timer. It had "363:12:30:21" , counting down second by second. Between a blink something was now holding this timer. It was Unus & Annus? Wait ? No it wasn't. Its body consisted of a static sound and black & white, except it was Spiralled & muddled. It's speech was nothing but noise. It muttered a single legible word - "REDACTED".  You took this as its name as there were no other leads to go on. You couldn't understand what else it was trying to say. All you knew was, you were not alone. With every blink you made, it was slowly coming closer, without you being aware. In one more blink, all of a sudden, it was in front of you, inches away from your face. Panicking, you slammed the door shut as fast as possible. Was it coming after you?  You opened up the closet, one last time, nothing. It was all gone.

     You hadn't seen Unus or Annus yet this morning. This was particularly unusual. You had seen shadows earlier on the walk, but was it them? Or was it the timer holding figure? Spending the rest of the day at home, you caught up on some sleep and binge watching. Nothing the rest of the day. It seems as if on a normal day, there was usually only one strange occurrence. Hopefully it would stay that way as who knows what it'd be like for 24 hours straight.

    One week had passed, the usual events had kept happening; Spiral dreams, appearing & disappearing hourglass and this timer figure showing up for brief moments. Unus or Annus hadn't been seen for the entire week, which was peculiar. Were they hiding somewhere else away from the timer? Did they know the timer was with you in the house? You needed to find a way to get Unus Annus back so you came up with a plan. You were going to catch the timer and the shadowy figure with it, by any means. It was decided the only way this would be possible, was to jump into the spiral closet with it, and hope for the best. You did your best to research everything you could about paranormal, closet monsters and of course the Unus Annus timer. You found online, a passage about clocks becoming alive with souls and controlling their own time it read:

     " A timer's soul may rise upon itself in its fate, overriding its true purpose. From there, it will be able to become aware, and justify its own actions. Most inanimate objects that begin possessing their own souls, often seek vengeance upon those who set the time. The only way to take back the soul, is to rewind said clock to the time it was meant to end its fate."

     You decided to go buy some supplies for what was to come, but you felt like you were being watched, everywhere you went. You got some rope, a net and a spirit box reader. (You figured that if it was gonna talk only in noise, maybe it was worth taking) . Setting back on the venture to home, you catch something in your back seat. It was Unus & Annus. They looked quite alert and before you could say a word, they spoke in unison. "Sorry for the delay, the timer has been watching you." You proceed to drive home and tell them about the plan to catch this timer. It was the only way to have everything return to normal, without waiting a full year to pass. You already sounded crazy, you didn't need this to continue any longer. Unus spoke, " Time is relative, going after it could result in much worse" Annus chimed in, " only if you are fully preparing should you go after it. It has a weakness but no one quite knows what. " You mentioned the passage you found to them and that seemed to quell the worry. They agreed to let you try, but we're still against the plan.

     You arrive home, turn towards the back seat to find they are gone, once again. (These two were like modern day Houdini's). Stepping inside the house brought you a cold chill, which was quite strange since the house had great heating. You closed the front door to then hear a swish behind you. Turning around, the timer alongside its maker was standing a foot away. Without any hesitation you gripped the net in your hand and swung at it. This was a setback... the net went right through it, it was unscathed. It started ticking louder and louder, to the point you had to cover your ears. At that moment, you were now suddenly floating? No not exactly, it had you pinned up in the air with its arm like figure. Was this the end? Had you already lost to this thing? Then, a flash, Unus & Annus appeared for a brief moment, catching the eye of the figure. There was your chance. You kicked into its body and it hit. It lets go, letting you fall to your knees. Turning its head back to you, and then reaffixing on Unus Annus, they were gone. Then in that instant, you looked up to see it disappeared as well. It was certain that you didn't want to go to sleep that night.