Tempus Fugit [All done!]

[HephaestusOS]

9.

Nobody came to get him until late; Dave didn’t even know what time it was. Katherine entered the police station, exchanged a few quiet words with the officers and watched as they unlocked his cell and got him out. She glared at the men and they looked stricken with fear as she and Dave left the station.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner. I only realized how long you’d been gone at about six. Then I had to wait for the girls to go to sleep and track you down,” Katherine explained. “For a small town, it sure is difficult to find someone.” Dave smiled and laughed a little.
“Thanks for coming to get me.”
“You know I would anytime,” Katherine replied. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life hanging around alone with your kids.” They continued walking towards the hotel.
“Wouldn’t you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, nothing. It’s just that you seem to get along with them really well.”
“Maybe I just pretend to,” she said. He looked at her skeptically. “Maybe I’m just using them to get to you.” They stopped walking and he continued looking at her oddly. Her straight face soon erupted into a fit of giggles, spreading to Dave as well.
“Oh, I couldn’t keep that in for long,” she said between laughs.
“I was waiting for you to give it up,” he replied. They laughed and continued walking towards the hotel, their giggles dying off after a few minutes.
They reached the hotel and went up to their floor, stopping at the door to Dave’s room.
“I’ll see you, tomorrow, Dave,” Katherine said.
“Well,” he began. She stopped walking and turned to him, awaiting the question. “Can I at least walk you to your door?” he asked. She smiled and he laughed and they walked the ten feet to her door.
“Well, here we are,” she said.
“And I had no idea we lived so close,” Dave replied. They laughed and he started to go.
“Dave?” Katherine called.
“Yeah?” he asked, turning back to her. She hesitated before speaking, trying to choose the right words.
“Good night,” she whispered. He smiled to her.
“Good night,” he whispered back. He walked backwards to his door and went in, never breaking eye contact with her until he had crossed the threshold.
She smiled to herself and entered her own room, closing the door behind her.  

[HephaestusOS]

10.

Glancing at the clock, Dave saw that it was 12:05. He took off his jacket and laid it over the back of a chair before stretching and sitting on his bed. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt very happy. An aura of sunshine flitted around him, drifting him away on a surreal cloud. It was late, but he had no desire to sleep.
A thought occurred to him and he furrowed his brow. It was late. He glanced at the clock again. 12:07. He tried to focus, but he couldn’t remember the clock tower chiming. He’d heard it at eleven o’clock, but…
Dave rose from the bed and quietly knocked on the adjoining door. Katherine promptly answered, revealing herself in a blue bathrobe.
“Did you notice if the clock tower struck midnight?” he asked. She scowled in thought for a moment then slowly shook her head.
“No, why?”
Glancing at the girls to make sure they were asleep, Dave pushed his way into Katherine’s room and closed the door.
“Meg was telling me about the clock-tower. Somehow she’s been awake at midnight every night enough to know that it doesn’t strike midnight.” Katherine shrugged and shook her head.
“So? It’s got to be broken.” Dave shook his head.
“No. It can’t be. A clock that’s broken so that it won’t strike midnight? How would you even do that?
“Think logically, Dave,” she said. “The cog on the clock that fits in at midnight could be missing. There could be something wrong with the chimer itself. There’s all kinds of reasons. And it’s not like there’s some mystical thing going on.” Dave thought back to his encounter at the mayor’s office and his mind flicked on.
“Or, it could be,” he mumbled to himself.
“What?” Katherine asked.
“The mayor’s office, today!” he said, not entirely finishing his sentence.
“Yeah, you never did tell me exactly how that went,” Katherine said. She walked over and sat on the bed, smoothing out her bathrobe.
“That man,” Dave said to himself. Katherine looked at him incredulously.
“Oh, yes,” she said sarcastically. “That man. Yeah, I know him. Nice guy. Throws great parties.” Dave gave an exasperated sigh and began pacing.
“What am I supposed to say?” Katherine asked. “I come get you from jail, you don’t tell me what happened, and then you just say ‘that man.’”
“In the mayor’s office. I went in to go see him. The secretary said he was in the middle of a meeting but I saw him in there doing nothing. So I went into his office.”
“And that’s why you got put in jail? Weird town…”
“And there was a guy sitting in there with him.” Katherine made a mock-scared face and waved her hands next to her face.
“At least, he was a guy afterwards. When I first walked in he wasn’t…” Dave trailed off.
“What, was he a pig?”
“No, he was this…this…like a Grim Reaper.” Katherine reacted a lot better than Dave had expected.
“A Grim Reaper?” she asked. He could see the gears turning in her head as she thought this through. He could see the belief in he eyes as she ran that thought through her brain. She opened her mouth to speak, then stopped.
”You’re crazy,” she said.
“What?”
“You’re crazy. There’s no such thing as the Grim Reaper.” He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“He’s just as real as the Easter Bunny or Santa,” Katherine continued. Dave chuckled.
“Don’t let them hear you say that,” he said, gesturing towards Meg and Lizzie in the other room. She laughed and put her hands on his shoulder.
”You’re making a bigger deal out of this than there is. You barged into a normal meeting, you got sent to a normal jail, by normal security guards, and you were gotten out by your normal friend.” He nodded and sighed, heading back towards his room. As he was about to go through the door, Katherine stopped him.
“You said he was a guy, but not at first?” she asked. Dave nodded.
“Yeah. He was that reaper guy and then he sort of exploded in a puff of smoke. And then he was a normal guy.” Katherine nodded in thought.
“You’re not starting to believe me, are you?” She gave a quick laugh and shook her head.
“No,” she said. “It’s just weird is all.” Dave nodded and stood in the doorway for a moment.
“Well, good night,” he said.
“Good night.” He left and closed the door, and it wasn’t until Katherine knew he was asleep that she picked up the room phone and quickly dialed a number.
“Hello?” she whispered into the phone. “Yes. This is Katherine. I’m going to need some help pretty soon. It looks like a subject 36 has shown up.” She listened to the response on the other end, then hung up. Checking to make sure that she hadn’t awoken Dave through the wall, she turned off her lights and got in bed.