Tick-Tock
Tick-Tock.
Tick-Tock.
It was an endless sound, constant and unchanging. If one had been here long enough the sound would first drive them mad and very long after that they would be able to tune out the sound all together. “Tik Tok, goes the clock.” Of course no one should have been in such a confusing place to begin with. For one such man what had begun as a nightmare had molded into an endless dream, accepting a fate that was meant for no one. “…What rhymes with clock? Ballcock, knock, dock, walk, sock, small talk, sweet talk…”
The man fell silent for a moment, standing in the middle of pure confusion. There didn’t seem to be any walkway under his feet but there he stood with twisted and ticking clocks slowly moving around him. Everything from the red and black buckled hat on top of his black hair down to the large, buckled boots he wore seemed to match the place he was in. There was a faint red tint in his eyes but he had long forgotten if perhaps he had been born with it or if it was a result of living here for… However long it was he had been here. In fact he couldn’t remember if he had been born here or not, or even what his name was. “Sweet talk, no one to sweet talk to me. It would be nice if someone would. Talk, play and be gay. How nice to have a friend… Why do I not have a friend?”
Tick-Tock.
Tick-Tock.
Tick-Tock.
“If I am to have a friend then I must have a name. What name should I have? Did I ever have a name?... So many questions today. Or is it night?” Raising one leg the man started walking forward once more, steps falling in time with the ticking and the toking. It wasn’t that he was trapped in this place, not truly anyway. Time didn’t matter here so he was free to travel as far as the birth of the earth to its death if he so wished, but the problem laid in he could watch events unfold and even so change them in he wished but no one could see him, talk to him, hear him. That kind of loneliness could twist anyone’s mind.
Sometimes though someone did fall into the place he was in and for a few minutes he had another to talk too, but they never stayed long. They didn’t care about the place he was in, they never wanted to travel through time with him, they never even asked for his name… If he did have one that is. No, they always screamed at him to return them at once and so he did and no sooner than he placed them safely in their beds did they believe they had a wild and crazy dream with some madman in it.
He was mad, not heartless… Well that was not true but he would not force another to walk with him, talk with him, stay with him. Every time he was forced to return yet another human to their time it broke his heart further, the pain so great that after a while he finally had enough of the hurt and had removed his heart. It was in a safe place… He thought. He couldn’t remember where he had placed it or what time but surely if someone had found it he would know. Maybe.
Tick-Tock.
Tick-Tock.
Tick-Tock.
“If I should have a friend I should have a name. For they will surely ask for my name in return for theirs and how rude would it be if I told them ‘I do not have a name’. And then they shall ask ‘Why do you not have a name?’ and I shall say ‘Because it is lost with my heart’. And then we shall begin talking about why I do not have a heart either and that is boring to talk about as who wants to hear about another’s woe’s and foe’s?” The man stopped once more, one leg still raised to take another step. “Though I do not have a foe.” He lowered his leg and returned to walking once more. “If I am to have a name then what name should it be I wonder? Perhaps Clock?” He turned his head to look at the twisted clock beside him, the hands turning wildly going backward. “No, that won’t do at all. Perhaps Tik Tok? Ack, no no. There is too much of that already.” The man placed a hand on his chin and tilted his head to the side, becoming so still one would have thought he was a statue. Suddenly his eyes brightened, a smile came to his lips and he threw his hands up high. “I know! I shall be called ‘Heartless’, because that is what I am.”
Very pleased with himself, Heartless returned to his stroll among the madness, hands placed behind his back and a smile still on his lips. “Tik Tok, goes the clock…”