An Abandoned Village

The time on the clock read 7:45pm, and judging by the position of the sun, it was accurate. Cealene would easily enough find a hitching post for her horse among the overgrowth in front of the tavern where the forest had begun to reclaim the land.

Upon glancing upwards towards the sky, Cealene would see some dark clouds approaching, and the calm breeze of wind from before had begun growing in strength. Very soon, it would start raining.

Shelter would be necessary soon, that much was obvious. Only darkness could be seen through the broken windows of the tavern, the light of dusk being unable to penetrate very far into the dark interior. Right under the sign, Cealene would find an old wooden door that hung on one of it's hinges crookedly, hidden behind some of the overgrowth. It appeared to be the main entrance of the tavern.

The door would creak loudly, protesting against its own opening after so many years of disuse. A bit more of a push and the door completely fell off it's last hinge, the mechanism having almost completely rusted away. With a crash and a cloud of dust the wooden door fell onto the ground.

The interior was obscured by a cloud of dust initially but as it cleared more and more of the interior was revealed. First, Cealene would see an overturned table nearby, and a few stools that seemed to have been knocked over. Vegetation had begun growing through the cracks in the floor boards as well, in some places even completely uprooting some of the flooring. 

And as she walked in further, and lit more of the room, overturned tables and dust and upturned floorboards began to mingle with bones, and Cealene would become aquainted with the village's denizens. At the bar, stood a skeleton, seemingly ready to take your order. The skeleton wore clothing faded with age and crumbling. Across from that skeleton sat another at the bar, and yet another skeleton sat at a table at the far end of the room.

Did these three skeletons die as they were now, in the midst of their daily lives, leaving for eternity this macabre scene, or did someone place them here? 

A sudden large crash would come from behind Cealene then from where one of the former patrons sat, the sound of clattering bones echoing throughout the room. It seemed the skeleton that had fallen was propped up so precariously on its stool that it fell over upon even being disturbed in the slightest by Cealene's entry. Silence would soon fall over the dark and musty tavern again, though, and nothing moved once more. 

The first droplets of rain began to fall, pattering against the old broken windows and the rickety ceiling above. The winds picked up as well, whistling through broken windows and causing the old building's distintegrating timber to creak and groan. It was almost completely dark outside now, and as the last bit of sunlight fell below the horizon a flash of lightning bolted across the sky above, and the ensuing thunder shook the rotting wooden structure with its volume. 

And as the rain began to pour down much harder, the clock tower's bell tolled, it's eerie sound piercing through the rain. The sound of the bell seemed to reverberate almost endlessly, the vibration's intensity multiplying with each ring of the bell until Cealene's could feel the sound in her own bones as it rang once, twice... eight times in total, marking the time at 8pm. 

By the eighth ring, Cealene might even feel a little light headed, and find her vision to be somewhat narrowed for a few moments until the sound of the ringing bell finally faded.

The marble clock tower stood imposingly over Cealene as she approached. The tower was of an odd construction, to say the least. The tower’s exterior seemed to be a single piece of marble, smooth and polished meticulously. It stood at least 25 meters tall and tapered slightly as it rose higher. Near the top, embedded in the stone was the clock face, and far down below that on the ground, the entrance.

The entrance into the large clocktower was the only other imperfection in its surface, and even then it was an unmarked door made of the same marble. The door was large, standing about 3 meters tall, yet it swung in easily on well-oiled hinges when Cealene pushed on it.

The interior of the clock tower was unlit, and Cealene’s torch only pierced the darkness so far. She could see smooth marble flooring, however, and the beginning of a staircase.

There would be no answer as Cealene called out, save for her own voice echoing back at her as they bounced off the stone walls. It was quiet enough that even her own footsteps echoed throughout the dark tower as she ascended its pristine steps.

A short walk, and Cealene would reach the top. A dim flash of lightning would occasionally light the square shaped room at the top of the tower, through the mostly opaque white glass that made up the clock face. Cealene could see the numbers embedded in the glass as well, backwards as she viewed them from behind. The strange thing, however, is that the mechanisms one would usually find within a clock tower were absent. It was as if the clock hands outside moved on their own accord. 

The bell Cealene heard earlier was hanging from the high vaulted ceiling in the center of the room above. As she looked at it, it would begin ringing again. Had an hour passed already? Cealene wouldn't have much time to consider this question as the sound of the bell's ringing filled the room. With each strike of the bell's tongue, Cealene would feel her bones rattle with the reverberations, feel it in the ground beneath her feet even as each ring of the bell built upon the last. As the bell rung, its true nature revealed itself only briefly as ancient runes etched into its rim seemed to shimmer with each reverberation, growing brighter as the sound's intensity increased. 


By the ninth ring the effects of the bell's sounds would mostly likely render Cealene unconscious.

An unspecified amount of time late... Cealene would awaken. She would feel immediately the warmness and softness of cloth surrounding her. She would find herself in a small, sparsely furnished room. 

Morning light shone dimly through a window above her, illuminating the small space. Down below, she could hear several voices filtering through the floorboards. The room seemed to be one that would typically be found in an inn, or tavern of some sort, since it contained only a bed, and an empty trunk. Upon looking out the window, she would see several villagers going about their business - children chasing one after the other, an older woman drawing a bucket of water up from a well...

Wherever Cealene was now, it was completely different from where she had found herself before falling unconscious. However, the more she looked around, and perhaps when she decided to walk down the stairs, she would begin to realize just how alike this village was in some ways to the ruined one she had been in just before, though the clock-tower was nowhere in sight.