The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Time Stand Still
by Kim Richards

Time Stand Still by Rush played in Daiya’s mind. It was an endless loop of words and guitar sounds with drumbeats which matched her heartbeat. She had let her skin get too thin but not in the proverbial way of the song.

Literally, she spent too much time outside of her hourglass. Now a light wind picked up granules of her skin and whisked them away.  She knew it was time to return and still hesitated. She liked it here—beneath the bright full moon on a warm spring night. It would cost her to tarry but sometimes moments of time which cannot be recaptured are worth the price. She stared up at the starry sky and walked beneath the outstretched tree branches. She listened to the cicadas thrumming and hummed along with them.

She carried her hourglass in one hand. It was carved of wood when the world was new and the glass blown by the fiery breath of God. It’s sand was her birthplace and where she would go to renew herself. The breeze swirled around her, taking threads of her pink dress with it.

Daiya  never saw him coming. One moment she strolled across soft grass and the next she lay face down in it. Her hourglass flew from her grasp.

She rolled onto her back and saw the man who slammed her to the ground. He stood with his long legs in a wide stance and his fists on his hips. His tattered shoes and jeans had seen better days. She looked up beyond his dirty T-shirt and into his face. Dark eyes glittered as his mouth twisted in a cruel grin.

She held up one hand as if to ward him off. “Please don’t hurt me.”

He laughed and then said, “I won’t if you’ll give me what I want.”

Trembling, she asked, “What do you want?”

“A little of your time.”

“M…my hourglass. I need my hourglass first.”

He looked around for it and, upon locating it, kicked it across the grass in her direction.

As her fingers closed around it, the upper half of the glass glowed with a silvery light.  It brightened when she lifted the glass to eye level.

“What kind of time are you looking for?” she asked him. Before he could answer, she added, “You didn’t have to jump me. You could’ve just asked and I’d give you my time.”

“I couldn’t risk you running away.”

“Well, I’m not running.”

“I just need a few days…for my dad.”

Daiya nodded. “So, there is a cost. I can give your dad a few days but must take them away from you.”

“Kinda figured as much.”

She caressed the hourglass base with her fingertips. “Is he far?”

“Just the far side of town. I can take you.”

“Yes you must take me. I need to refresh myself inside my hourglass. I can do that while you carry us to him.”

“Okay.”

She handed him the hourglass. Then she cupped the upper glass portion in her hands and allowed herself to dissolve into it.

As he walked with the hourglass in hand, he heard her humming from inside the sand.  It was a familiar Rush song.

Fiction © Copyright Kim Richards
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

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