The Time for Truth by Mikaela Miyamoto

Mikaela is writing a bunch of short stories for 13 Days 13 Shorts this year! To check out more stuff from Mikaela, visit www.mikaelamiyamoto.com

The Time for Truth by Mikaela Miyamoto

I’ve told you a lot of stories about my family and our past, but it’s time I tell you a story about the present. I’m getting scared. Genuinely, truly, afraid. It feels like something’s not right. And we never leave my grandmother’s house. We all stay here, no work or school or even grocery shopping. The food is just always there? I know my family is a little odd, we always have been, but it just seems like the behavior gets stranger and stranger as each day passes. One day this large grandfather clock just appeared in the hallway, next to my grandmother’s bookshelf. And every hour it makes this horrible creaking sound, like an old rusty door is being opened and shut. I asked my grandmother about it and she told me I must’ve remembered incorrectly because it’s always been there. It’s been passed down through decades of our family living in this house. She pulled out an old album and showed me proof that it’s been here for a while. But it’s not the fact that it appeared out of no where or that it makes that horrible noise, the worst part is I don’t think it fully works. I’ve been sitting, just watching the clock for what I assume has been a few hours. The minute hand moves all the way around the clock but when it’s time for the hour hand to move it gets stuck. That’s where the noise is coming from. The hour hand looks like it’s fighting to move to the next hour and it just can’t. I’ve been here all day and I haven’t seen the hour hand move past 3 o’clock. It feels like time is standing still and I’m going insane. And when I left my post to search for another clock to see what time it actually was, I couldn’t find any. I don’t know what to do. I dragged my mom over right when the time was supposed to change and she just looked at me concerned. She said she’d let my grandmother know that the hand wasn’t moving, but that I needed to relax. She suggested maybe I go outside for a bit, pick some fruit in the garden and soak in a little sun. I nodded and after she left sat right back down in front of the clock. Something’s not right here and it’s time I get to the bottom of it. I’ll let you know what I find out.