CRIMSON ROTH

Chapter 12 - Hectic Heights

They only had a third of the clock more to go. Then they would have to find a way to find Time and talk to him. Hope surged in their hearts, making them feel light. They were both going to be heroes. They were both going to save the world.

And so they climbed.

They climbed like mountain goats scaling a mountain. The magnetic pull they felt was growing stronger as they climbed up. So strong, in fact, that they could almost feel like just letting go, because the pull would lift them up itself.

They reached up, finally pausing under the final ledge. Crimson didn't dare look down, instead reach towards that ledge. She lifted her legs into other cracks, her elbows propped on the ledge. She kicked back, her legs swinging in the air as she clambered on.

Jake was watching her before he climbed on too. Both their faces were flushed from the climb, but they didn't feel tired. Adrenaline was pumped into their bloodstream, as they stood on the tallest monument in Gregorax.

Atop the clock tower, they could see everything around them. Aliens minding their own business, mothers caring for their little babies. It was almost.... Normal. But Crimson knew underneath, something horrible was going on. The shimmer of the force field surrounding this planet she was trapped on confirmed her thoughts.

"Crimson," Jake motioned, hand placed upon the symbol of a clock that jutted out of the smooth surface. The clock looked like it was made of tiny little stars, which started glowing when Jake traced the outer circle. His eyes widened in surprise and he stopped, but the clock didn't stop glowing.

He sat there for a bit, his hair ruffling in the slight breeze. Crimson went over and sat next to him. "Time...." he suddenly murmured, his voice almost lost in the wind that had started to rise.

It buffeted against Crimson, making her jacket flare out behind her. "Jake, we have to move- fast!" she cried out in desperation, feeling the winds starting to quicken. Jake quickly turned the two clock hands facing at the 12th mark. The floor lurched below them but stopped suddenly. It opened from one side slowly, revealing a staircase.

The two jumped in before they fell. As if sensing all the entities were in, the ceiling above then closed again. It was dark. But not like the cell Crimson was in at the start of the day. It was dry and stuffy. Torches winding down the staircase flickered alive, illuminating the path downwards.

"Creepy....." Crimson murmured, peering down. The torches kept spiraling down, into the darkness below. Crimson reached for Jake's hand and gripped it for comfort. "Come on. Let's go down," she spoke, her voice echoing. "Time is probably down there."

They descended.

•••

Crimson wished she had rested longer. Opening the several doors before her, she had found a towering spiral staircase. Crimson groaned, "Seriously, Time? You lock yourself in a tower and before your room you put a 50-foot tall staircase!"' Jake whipped over to look at her and hissed.

"Stay silent! We don't know what's in here," he snapped. "Besides, I'm tired too. You weren't the one who had to shift into a dragon!" He huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Crimson grumbled as she opened yet another door. She swore she had opened thousands of doors already.

"Literally, did they need a staircase? If they're so great, can't they just poof in and out anyway? I mean, time isn't a thing. It's more like a...." Crimson waved her hands wildly. "Ugh, I forgot the word."

"Construct?" Jake suggested, a smirk settling into his face as he saw Crimson getting frustrated over not knowing a word. She glared at him before nodding.

Because she wasn't looking at the toad in front of her, instead focusing her attention to glaring at Jake, she slammed into something. When she righted herself back up, she saw gigantic doors iluminated by the torches that had gone from red to hold. The doors were made of metal, though the intricate details made it look like a trunks of trees has twisted itself to make the doors. Broad leaves of gold were interwoven in the design.

"It's fancy. I'm guessing Time is behind here," Crimson gaped, taking a step back. Jack pressed his palm against the door, the texture truly feeling like wood. Every bump and crevice seemed natural. Every twist and turn even more so. "

"Fancy," Jake commented, letting his hand hang beside him once more. "But, how do we get time to speak to us?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I dunno," Crimson shrugged. "State your name, who it's for and what were doing?" Jake paused before shrugging.

"Time," Jake spoke, his voice ringing in the dead silence that had settled. "We'd like to speak." A few seconds of silence. "We'd like to speak about the doom clock. We want to rewind it."

Before the final word left Jake's mouth, the gates started moving. It was such a great force that everything started trembling. Debris fell from the ceiling, the torches flickered but somehow the two parents had not fallen. As a slit opened in the doors, the two rushed forward, entering the darkness.

•••

It took Crimson a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the place but the brightness of what was in front of them. The whole scenery was... ineffable really. Everything around the two was dark, just inky blackness. Even the door behind them had disappeared in the shadow.

In front of them, it was a whole different story. Like the picture above, there was a clock. A clock made of (at the very least) trillions of stars. Every second, many of them fade away, while others popped into existence. The clock was moving on its own time, the hands sometimes moving quickly before slowing down.

Now, Time wasn't how Crimson expected. That is, Time was exactly how Crimson thought they would look like. It was quite possible that Time looked like what the person seeing them precieved the embodiment of time to look like.

Time's body was humanoid, but if it was smooth. Their body was space itself, with galaxies slowly shifting across their body. Stars exploded and came to life, creating a beautiful fireworks show. Time's body showed the passing of time, life and death. Everything that died was replaced by something new.

Time, like their body, was also constantly shifting. Sometimes they would seem centuries old, much too old to be alive. Other times they'd seem like a newborn baby, fresh and new to the world. They never really changed, actually. Just the air they gave off was different.

However, one thing about them never changed. Their eyes. Blank white eyes that somehow held the knowledge of everything in the universe. The birth of the world, extinction, colonization, a story swirled in the eyes of Time. Crimson could almost catch glimpses of the story hidden under the white slate.

However, there was grief. Much grief. It hung like a cloud along Time's body, the darkness seeping into their soul. It seemed to fill the eyes of time, like a being corrupting the passage. Time was weary. It was plain to see. Horrors unimaginable, things that would sear into Crimson's mind even though she had not seen anything.

It filled Time. It was Time.

"The Doomsday Clock? So soon already?" The voice was a symphony to the ears of any mortal. Different volume, pitches and accents combining into one voice. Like a harmony of many different things. It held deep emotions, like a roller coaster ride. Goosebumps appeared on Crimson's skin.

"Y-yes," she stammered, somehow finding her voice. "We're here to rewind the doom clock. To stop the end of..." She suddenly felt squirmish. She almost proclaimed that Time would die right in front of them. "Yeah..." she squeaked, lowering her head.

"Well, you can stop it," Time spoke once more, a small smile lifted their lips. "All you need to do to find out how, is to complete my challenge."