TIME

PART ONE

“Lizzie, you are going to be late,” Elizabeth’s mother yelled from the second floor hallway, “again!” It was a typical morning for the King family- Elizabeth getting ready for work at her first real, full-time job, and her Mother already awake and doing the usual chores. Elizabeth frantically grabbed her purse. “Keys, keys, where are my keys?” She sang to herself as she rummaged through her purse. “Found ‘em!” She looked up the carpeted stairs from the dimly lit foyer and exclaimed, “MOM, I know! I am 22 years old! I am just living here until I can find my own place…not a child.” Suddenly, Elizabeth’s Mom looked over the banister, down to her daughter, who was standing there glaring at her, as if annoyed. “Well, act like an adult and get to work on time!” Elizabeth rolled her eyes and rushed out the door.

It was Monday, 6:56 am, a brisk autumn day. The sun was slowly rising, giving off an aura of pink, purple and orange, radiating the sky. Some of the leaves from the trees had fallen, covering the ground in yellow, orange, and red. You could smell fall in the air with a hint of roasted peanuts from the local peanut butter factory.

Elizabeth hurried to her green Honda Accord. She had that car since she was 16 years old, and cherished it through college. A couple of scratches and dents here and there but it had served it’s purpose. She stopped right up to the driver’s side door and turned to look at her house, a traditional two-story, built in the 1970’s. All the windows facing the front were dark, except the one window upstairs where her mother was cleaning. The window gleamed a golden light, in contrast with the eerie morning sky, as if symbolic. “I am going to prove you wrong, Mom,” Elizabeth mumbled to herself as she turned around and got into her car. She put the keys in the ignition while checking her wavy brown hair and a bit of makeup in the mirror, then zoomed out of the driveway, onto to the street. Off to work!

With tension building, Elizabeth pressed on the gas pedal. She was now in a state of panic, barely stopping at stop signs and red lights. She arrived to the last light before turning onto the last street. Suddenly, bells, alarms, and heartbeats blasted from her radio causing her to jump and yell expletives. It was Pink Floyd’s “Time.” How uncanny. “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day. Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way. Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town. Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.” Elizabeth looks down at her radio quizzically, “what a haunting song.” “Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain. You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.”

She turns onto the street she worked on, paying no attention to what was in front of her. She looks up and suddenly slams on her brakes, yelling, “What the hell?!” Standing in front of her car is what appeared to be a woman. Elizabeth sat there stunned.

She was frail. Old ragged clothes hung from her skeletal frame. Her hair: long, stringy, and wet, as if she had been standing out in the rain. But it had not rained. Her face was the creepiest part. Dark ominous eyes sank down into their sockets. She had almost no nose and shriveled lips with brown, narrow, pointy teeth. Her cheekbones, gaunt. Elizabeth’s first thought was that she was a homeless lady on drugs. The woman slowly approached the driver side of Elizabeth’s car, dragging her long ragged coat. Elizabeth froze in fear, and her eyes grew large, eyebrows raised, as she was trying to take this all in. “Pardon me…I don’t mean to scare you, but do you have the time?” In a sullen, worn tone, the woman asked. It took a moment for Elizabeth to absorb and comprehend the woman’s question. Then she looked at her radio clock and replied, “It’s 7:07am.” The woman started breathing heavily with aggressive, bottomless breaths as if the time had provoked her. Elizabeth started to shake, “What is this woman doing?” She thinks to herself. “She is going to attack me. I must go,” she processes and convinces her frozen body to act. The woman notices Elizabeth trying to take off, so she grabs her arm abruptly. Elizabeth jumps and yelps! In a throaty, croaky tone the woman whispers closely to her, “It’s late.” Elizabeth pulls away from the woman and speeds off, looking back in her rear view mirror. The woman crouched over and twisted towards Elizabeth’s car in an unnatural movement, then convulsed with laughter. All Elizabeth wanted was to get to work.

“Elizabeth! Hurry in here! Angie has been asking where you are!” It was now 7:27am and Elizabeth’s co-worker, Nicole, greeted Elizabeth with a warning. “She seems frustrated and wants you to see her immediately as soon as you get here. So go!” Elizabeth threw her bag in her chair, sighed, and looked up at Nicole, “Thanks Nicole, wish me luck.”

“Good Luck!”

Knock. Knock.

“Come in!”

Elizabeth opens Angie’s door, poking her head in the doorway, “You wanted to see me?” Angie looked up from a file on her desk and said sternly, “Yes I do. We need to have a quick chat.” Elizabeth slowly walked in and shut the door to her boss’s office. She sat down in the cold chair, glancing at the file on Angie’s desk. “Elizabeth King, great. Ugh. She has my file,” Elizabeth thought reluctantly. “You have been clocking in late, quite a bit. Our records show you have been late 3 times already this month. We can’t have that. You do excellent work, Elizabeth, but punctuality is a must.” “I know I am so sorry. It’s because I—” Elizabeth stammered, but couldn’t finish before Angie interrupted, calmly, “I don’t want to hear any excuses at this point. Just don’t let it happen again or I will be forced to let you go. Now get to work, you are already 45 minutes behind.” “Yes Angie,” Elizabeth cowered her head and fought back tears. She rushed out of the office before Angie could see her cry. Elizabeth hurried to the women’s restroom, making her way into a stall. Tears began to overflow onto her cheeks. “Maybe I am not so adult after all,” she sobbed, sitting on the toilet.

Suddenly, she could hear humming and slow footsteps. Elizabeth didn’t want anyone to know she was in the stall so she lifted her feet up. Whoever it was, walked into the women’s restroom, humming. Elizabeth shivered cold, and goosebumps crawled down her arms and legs. The florescent lights began to flicker. The footsteps became louder, closer and closer. They sounded like slow, muffled, stomps. Elizabeth’s tears came to a halt, and self pity turned into terror. She looked under the stall, holding on to the walls, so she didn’t touch the ground and give herself away. She saw bare feet! Old, pale feet with yellow pointy toe nails. And a long brown ragged coat, dragging. Quivering in horror, Elizabeth pulled her knees tightly to her chest, held her breath, and shut her eyes. She thought, “It won’t know I am in here.” The footsteps and humming got louder and louder, then stopped. There was a long silence. Elizabeth opened her eyes and looked down. The old, pale feet with yellow pointy toenails faced her stall door. Seconds felt like a lifetime. Elizabeth was trying to keep it together, still holding her breath and shivering. Her legs began to fall asleep, needles prickling. Stunned with fear, her eyes couldn’t shut.

The throaty, worn voice began to sing in a whisper, “Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines. Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way. The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say.”

With the sickening crack of an electrical surge, “zzzzzcrack”, the lights had gone out. Darkness enveloped the room. The woman or thing began to shriek with laughter, like a witch. Elizabeth was now shaking. She squeezed her eyes shut, tightly, crying. “What do you want from me,” her voice, trembled.

Silence.

Elizabeth opened her eyes slowly, one at a time. The lights were back on, and it was gone.

“I have got to get out of here! Or this thing is going to kill me!”

To be continued…