The Hourglass

The Girl sat quietly in the Hourglass. For the past seventy-nine years, all she had done was sit quietly in the Hourglass, for she was Time. She was the latest edition of the woman burdened with being Time. Her sadness kept the humans' clocks in order, so that’s what she had to be. She was nothing but a tool for them that they didn’t even know about. The Girl had never been given a name out of fear that it would make her “too human”, despite the fact that the only difference she had from one of them was that she couldn’t die. Being immortal wasn’t as fun as it had once seemed. Especially when all she could do was sit in the Hourglass and feel the effects of starvation wearing away at her bones, but never being granted the sweet taste of a meal, or the sweet release of death. She wished for death more times than a three hundred and twenty-nine year old should, especially an immortal one. But that was the purpose of Time anyway.

Linus was very different. He’d escaped from the Witches Realm, after deciding magic studies weren’t his style. He had come to the Human Realm, in hopes of becoming a hero there and breaking the tension that had settled between the two species since the war. Linus had always thought himself a hero. Every time he vacationed in the hidden hotel of the Human Realm, he would knock the waiters into the pool and save them before they drowned. They were always grateful for his help and gave him free stuff to show it. Even getting to the Human Realm, he secretly set one of the Portal Guards on fire, and made sure they knew who saved them. They were so appreciative that they let him through immediately, not even bothering to check if he was authorised to leave. He’d always thought being a hero was pretty fun.

After a few weeks in the realm, Linus had made one friend, Orion. They became friends one day after Linus arrived. He was stumbling around markets trying to find someone to save. He ended up tripping over a crate of oranges and right into them, and the two of them just connected. Since then, Orion had shown him most of the attractions in the realm. The pool, the hidden forest with the hotel (even though Linus had already seen it, he still went along with it) and the housing block. The only thing they hadn’t visited together was the Hourglass. He had seen pictures of it, and it had been beautiful, but for some reason he felt as if there was something the photo wasn't showing him.

He and Orion walked side by side as they made their way to the Square, where the Hourglass was located. It was right in the centre of the realm, with a street leading towards it from every direction. When they arrived there, Linus’s senses were flooded. There were bright flower bushes and colourful wooden benches covering every centimetre of the outskirts. The ground was a bright grey concrete, with chalk drawings all over it. The ground around the ‘Glass, however, was nothing but lucious, green grass. He had the urge to roll around in it. The Hourglass was something else entirely. Not fit for this realm or any other. It was beautiful. It was about three metres tall, with three wooden posts arranged in a triangle formation to hold it up. Above and below, the ‘Glass was secured with a circle block of wood. The whole structure had gold lining the wood.

It would have been the perfect place, had there not been a girl sitting in the confinements of the glass.

He covered his mouth with one hand, using the other to point at the girl. “Ori, do you see that?”

“Yeah, dude. That’s the Hourglass. Pretty cool, huh?” They responded, seeming to have no knowledge of the girl.

“What’s inside of it?” Linus prompted.

“Uh, sand? Are you okay, dude?”

So apparently they couldn’t see the girl. By the looks of it, no one could. No one except him.

*****

The only reasonable option for Linus was to sneak out of Orion’s house that night, and investigate. The Hourglass was only guarded during the day, because the humans were apparently trustworthy enough to not do anything terrible at night. That’s brave. He had covered himself with a cloak, for no other reason than he thought it looked cool and he wanted to look cool. Although, he probably looked like some kind of criminal. He made his way closer to the Hourglass, blatantly ignoring the boundaries on the floor. He saw the girl, huddled up with her knees to her chest, head in her hands. She had dark skin, only covered by a white, almost hospital-like dress. Her brown hair was in a painful looking bun.

He knocked lightly on the glass, and she immediately looked up. He found that she had one green eye and one blue eye. He thought it was beautiful.

“Hello.” He whispered.

The girl went through many visible emotions at once. Fear, confusion, surprise, excitement. It was clear she was a very expressive person.

“Y- You can see me?” She asked, mouth still wide open. All he did was nod. “Humans can’t see me, though.”

“Lucky I’m not a human then, right?” He laughed at his own joke. The girl did not laugh, barely considering it a joke. She just thought he was a little bit of a moron.

“Ah well, what are you? Who are you? Why are you here?”

“I am Linus, and I’m here to save you. And as for the whole ‘what am I’ thing,” he pulled off his hood, revealing pointy ears.

The girl had no visible reaction. “You do that like I would have any idea what it means. I’ve been sheltered from everything my whole life, so I literally have no clue what your ears have to do with this.”

“Oh,” he let out a nervous chuckle, “I’m a witch.”

“Why are you even in the Human Realm? This place sucks.”

“There weren’t enough worthy people for me to save. I mean there was this one guy at school who I set on fire, but he didn’t know it was me, and then I rescued him from the fire and he was so happy that he gave me his lunch money and the answers to this test I didn’t study for.” Linus smiled at himself, playing the fond memories in his head again. That had been one of the most eventful days of his life.

“So basically, you did the bare minimum to help someone after literally almost killing them? Even I know that’s kind of psycho.”

“Well, I mean, it wasn’t the bare minimum. I jumped out of a window to save him! That’s so cool and awesome.”

“And so unnecessary.” She chuckled. “I mean, I don’t know anything, but you sure don’t sound like a hero.”

“Whatever.” He leaned against the glass and slid down until he was sitting, his back to the Girl. “Tell me about you.”

They talked for hours that night. Linus found out that the girl was over three-hundred years old, which blew his mind. He found out that she was spawned and raised in the bunker underneath the wood she was sitting on, and that she was trained to be constantly sad for years. He learned the small part of how it all came to be. He told her a lot of stuff too. He told her about his love for studying Swedish and tinkering with the computers he stole from the Human Realm. For the first time, he felt really connected to someone. Linus found himself genuinely caring for another person, and the Girl found herself genuinely feeling happy. But happy wasn’t sad, and anything other than sad meant her feelings weren’t in check.

*****

Right across town, an old woman sat in her chair at the table, drinking tea with her wife, Mary. They shouldn’t have been up at this hour, but they were counting down the minutes until Mary’s birthday. It was five minutes until midnight. The clock would strike twelve, they would hug and have a slice of cake and go to bed. It’s how it was for both of their birthdays.

They looked away, knowing that time always seemed slower when they watched it. They didn’t realise how fast it would go once they turned their heads, though. A few seconds later, they snuck a peek at the clock and it read 12:11.

Time was speeding up.

*****

It happened too fast to remember. First two women arrived in the square and started yelling at him, blaming him for making them miss midnight, for some reason. Then the whole square filled up. Before he knew it, he was whispering a pained goodbye to the Girl and being dragged by Orion back to their place. He had tried to tell them he didn’t do anything to deserve it, to no avail.

He was on the verge of being banished, and what he wanted to do would get him thrown out of the realm for good.

Orion passed his room on their way to theirs.

“What did you do, dude?”

“I did nothing. I was just talking to the-” he cut himself off, remembering that no one could see her. They’d just think he was insane.

“Talking to who?”

He sighed, the worst that could happen was that they didn’t believe him. “The girl in the Hourglass.”

Orion just scoffed. “You’re crazy. That thing’s just filled with sand.”

Linus was in no mood to argue, and honestly he liked being the only one to know her. He just shrugged and turned over in the bed. Maybe he was a little bit crazy.

*****

He snuck out early that morning, which didn’t come as fast as he’d hoped. The Girl had obviously become sad since their conversation. Maybe for the best.

He’d spent a frustratingly long amount of time trying to find something sharp. An axe, a hammer, something he could use. Digging through a big bucket in the tight shed of Orion’s house, he found something perfect. A huge crowbar.

He really wished he’d worked out a little more often back home, because he could barely lift the thing.

He dragged it along behind him as he made his way to the square, checking around him to make sure no one could see, before knocking on the glass. This had better work.

He knocked on the glass, just like he’d done the night before. She looked up and smiled immediately at his presence, before confusion took over her face.

“Why do you have a large, scary looking piece of metal?”

“To get you out! Watch out.” He heaved the crowbar over his shoulder, before slamming into the glass. It made a small crack, but nothing more. He did it a few more times, but found he wasn’t strong enough to get the momentum he needed to smash it.

“Hey!” Came a gruff voice from a few metres behind him. “What d’you think you’re doing, boy?”

The Girl hugged her torso, obviously scared. Suddenly, the man slowed down. It was like he was running in slow motion. Everyone flooding the Square was in slow motion, everyone except Linus. Well, that’s fortunate.

He started to ram his bar into the glass, which worked. The others were slowed down, but they were still fast enough to catch up to him when the glass was about to break. There were hands on him as he ran in one more time. He fell into the crowd, swallowed by the hungry jaws of their fear.

The glass smashed, raining down around Linus’s ankles and letting out a deafening crashing sound. The Girl sat, frozen for a few seconds. She’d never seen the outside this clearly before. She’d seen dulled down versions of the colours through the tainted glass, but she'd never seen the bright colours of the place she’d known her whole life. She watched as Linus was sucked into the crowd. That snapped her into focus.

Something inexplicably took control of her brain as she jumped up, taking a few seconds to steady herself. She hadn’t walked in years, but it was something she still knew how to do. She pushed her way through the crowd, not-so-accidentally knocking people over. Linus was the only friend she had ever had, apart from her roses. She had an unfamiliar strength as she forced them all away from him and pulled him up.

Linus was unharmed, the humans only wanted to coerce him away from the Hourglass so he would stop ‘messing up time’. If the Girl had known that, she probably wouldn’t have been so violent, but it was too late now anyway.

She grabbed his hand and took off running. She had no idea where they were going, but she let Linus lead the way. He led her through the woods, to a massive wall that seemed to circle around the whole realm. Right in front of them was a big, hollow, metal cylinder. Inside of it, colours swirled around, like a portal.

There were only really guards at the portal when it came to entering the Human Realm, after witches infiltrated the realm and started the war all those years ago, just before the Girl began her serve as Time. Since then, the entrances were heavily protected, but leaving was no issue. There was only one person there, to make sure they had a safe trip. They didn’t even need authorisation to leave.

They stepped into the mostly purple swirl of colours and found themselves in a small metal room, big enough to fit maybe five people, with a person dressed in a navy blue polo shirt and black pants sitting at a desk, looking bored out of their mind. The Girl was constantly amazed by the new colours and people and experiences she never saw while in her cage, and she was honestly angered that she was ever in that predicament at all. It could safely be said that she hated humans.

“Names and reason for leaving?” The person said in a monotone voice.

“Uh, Linus, and this is my friend, uh,” He paused for a few seconds, the cogs evidently turning in his brain, “Tiddles. We’re just going back home to the Witches Realm.”

The guard just smiled, pressing some buttons on the desk making the empty portal in front of them roar to life. “Be safe, kids. They’ll be coming for you soon.”