Short Story: Clockwork.

A short story, written in place of a school assignment. It’s a shorter version of a long novel I’ve plotted out.

Clockwork.

Humming over the large bridge, a small old car drives slowly through the crammed in traffic. Inside sits a woman and a snoozing teenager. Suddenly, the boy thrusts up and hits his head on the small ceiling of the car. Whining, he lies back down and tries to doze off once again.

The woman whispers, “Calm down, we’ll be there soon.”

Eventually, the car pulls into town; people are walking around happily, small animals scurry around in the grass, and this town just seems too lively. The family of two looks by through the sights, not much to see, but then again there’s more. A small cathedral, a cluster of stores. A spec of even more buildings, and a gathering of houses. More buildings. They all lack of interest though.

The car pulls into a driveway that’s connected to a moderately-sized home. In front of them are large trucks filled with furniture and décor, large men are unloading the items into the home.

“Isn’t it lovely?” she smiles.

He gets up slowly, stumbling onto the concrete and looks up.

“Aiden, either help unload our stuff or venture out downtown. Just don’t do anything.” A sigh.

“Fine, Fine.”

He stumbles around for a little, before reaching the sidewalk that leads outwards into the town. His shoe laces drag along the surface, ignoring the mother’s rule of keeping your shoes tied. Walking past groups of people, probably around his own age, Aiden gets stares from them. Was it because he’s new? Or was it because of the way he looked? Either way, he really didn’t care. He kept on his way, passing by a small café that filled the air with an interesting aroma. Sniffing the air, he tempted to check out what the scent was, but he realized he brought no cash with him. A sigh escaped from his mouth and he continued on his way.
It was getting much warmer, but Aiden still refused to take off his hoodie, or his hood for that matter. He felt he didn’t need to attract attention to himself, for this seemed like the type of town where everyone would know everyone and just one little disruption would put everyone in a frenzy. Passing by different shops, one settled out besides the rest. The building looked older, somewhat Victorian. It had a mysterious, inviting aura about it, and a few people were already coming out of it. He looked around the building suspiciously until he found a clue. This was a clock shop, there was a sign, and décor like it was made for a steam-punk fantasy.

Aiden had looked around as he walked towards the entrance and had carefully twisted the doorknob open. Inside were of course, clocks. A countless amount of clocks. Displayed was anything from shining pocket watches, Grandfather clocks, or even a coo-coo clock. Nothing was something found in your modern house though. Nothing even close to a digital clock. The walls were wood, furnished with what looked to be spare gears that seemed to be working to tick a hand that didn’t time anything.

While leaning over the counter, Aiden found there was someone working. A man. Long dark hair fell over his shoulders, glasses rested on the bridge of his nose, and he dressed in a oldern style. Also something that seemed from the Victorian era. A vest, worn over a classy shirt, had a chain coming from its breast pocket. A pocket watch maybe? Aiden found the man was even wearing suspenders, though the straps weren’t worn, leaving them to fall next to his legs. Strange guy, Aiden thought. The man had looked up from working on the visible gears of the contraption, and looked towards Aiden.

“Can I help you?” the man spoke.

Aiden woke from his trance of watching this man, and was astonished for a second, unknowing of what to say. “U-uh, I’m sorry, am I intruding? I was just looking around.”

“If you have no business, please excuse yourself. I’m busy.” He looked back down to his work, picking up the tools again.

“Jeez.” Aiden murmured to himself and began to make his way out. While talking to the man, he heard a soft ticking sound. Of course, he was in a clock shop, but this noise was different. Softer, with a faster pace. It sounded more like a heartbeat, oddly enough.

Walking out, walking away, Aiden went off to find something else to do. Then, a thud. Aiden found himself on the ground, kissing the asphalt.

A voice softly came out from under him. “H-huh… Oh! I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

Aiden got up slowly and groggily, “Just fine.” He huffed.

It was a boy, around his age. His hair was matted around his face which was showing concern as he helped Aiden and himself off the ground.

Aiden sighed, “It’s really alright. I should have been more alert of where I was going I guess.”

The boy smiled, “That’s okay then. I’m Dimitri.”

---

“So you’re new. This town isn’t really exciting, but I can show you what’s around…”

“That’d be nice I guess. I really don’t care.” Aiden sighed.

“U-uh…” Dimitri stumbled over his words, unsure of what to say, “I noticed you had come out of the ol’ clock shop before tripping over me.”

“Hmm? Yeah?”

“Have you ever heard of the man with a clockwork heart?”

“Excuse me?”

“Clockwork heart. It’s a legend floating around this town… did you see the man that worked there?” Dimitri questioned.

“The one with an attitude? Yeah.” Aiden reminisced about how he was rudely chased out of the shop.

“They say his name is Elijah. No one really knows much about him. People say he’s never even aged since he’s been here-and no one really knows how long he’s been here too. They said something happened to him, a long time ago, before any of us was even born.

“He was a young man, working in the early industrial era. He had owned a clock shop, rumored to be the same exact one he’s in now. He fell in love with a woman. She would have always come into his shop, everyday, bringing him lunch or something of the sort. He truly thought they were going to be together. He made her something, to purpose with, I guess. From what I heard, it was beautiful, but no one was quite sure what it was.

“The day he was ready to pop the question after weeks of building this, she didn’t come into the shop. He questioned this, and soon found out, she was preparing for a wedding of her own. She was marrying some fancy rich man. And apparently, his heart was torn in two, literally. His shop closed for weeks, it seemed dead, but during that, it was rumored to be that he was building something else. A new heart, a heart made up with pieces of your average clock, ticking, not beating…

“Pretty crazy huh? It’s a real strange rumor, I don’t believe it but it’s pretty fun to fantasize, right?” Dimitri smiled.

Aiden was silent for a moment, remembering the soft ticking he heard while at the shop. He looked up and smiled curiously, “Yeah, I guess. This town doesn’t seem as bad as I thought anymore.”