The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
The Keeper
by Elizabeth H. Smith
This old keeper of eons ages as all things do. All turns with the motion of a broken hand. It barely holds on, clicking one second after another with the agony of metal against metal. It squeaks and screeches, tooth by tooth connecting in a steady rhythm. This machine may never halt, may never falter; for if time stops, so does life. All beings under the sun and beyond depend on the linear nature of existence. Time is motion, and without forward passage, all must be still. As stars are born and die, galaxies form and steadily blink out of existence, this ancient mechanism drives its way to its own doom, and that of all life.
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Fiction © Copyright Elizabeth H. Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay
More About Elizabeth H. Smith:
Elizabeth H. Smith is a storyteller who writes while trying to keep her cat, Luna off the keyboard. The musical group, Rasputina is her muse. She was born in the state of New York and would never feel at home anywhere else.
Through Clouded Eyes: A Zombie’s Point of View
Through Clouded Eyes: A Zombie’s Point of View: a collection of twelve stories told from the Zombie’s perspective.
They’re shambling toward you, feet dragging on the broken roadway. Arms outstretched, faces slack, they move as if they’re tracking your scent on the wind. You want to run, but you know there’s nowhere to hide.
Aware of their insatiable hunger, fear paralyzes you. These things were once human, people someone loved. Is there anything left inside them – some sliver of humanity that may save you from this nightmare? Your mind doesn’t want to accept the inevitable, a single thought consumes you: what are they thinking?
With your chance of escape dwindling, you snap out of it and run like hell knowing there is little to no hope; fate is coming for you. Soon you will see what they see Through Clouded Eyes…
Featuring stories from Maynard Blackoak, Calvin Demmer, Paul M. Feeney, Stacy Fileccia, Trevor Firetog, DH Hanni, Shannon Lawrence, Josh MacLeod, Zachary O’Shea, Neal Privett, Mark Steinwachs, and Alex Woolf
Spreading the Writer's Word 
Where is the story?
From what I get out of it, the ‘Keeper of Time’ is the keeper of all existence. It’s a bit beat-up and scratched, but has no choice but to keep going, else all things will fail. If you read it from that perspective, it describes a tired, aging mechanism that keeps everything else in motion. My impression is that it would like to stop, but can’t. But everything is interpretive. ❤
Thanks, Nina. I “get” it — very subtle.
Oof, I felt it – the subliminal ticking of mortality – I think this piece wires straight into the reader’s subconscious 🙂