Connection Contest

[[deleted user]]

In this contest, I will provide a setting, character, and object. Your job is too write a short story or poem connecting all three.

Setting:

Character:

Object:

Deadline: September 13th

[[deleted user]]

Participating:
Me
Travis
Amber

[Travis]

I'll be in it.

[Amber]

I'm in!

[Travis]

Mine's in.

THE TIMELY CURSE

(view spoiler)[Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

No matter how fast he ran, he knew he could not outrace the clock. Time was coming for him and he knew it would catch him sooner or later.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

The ancient time piece became the bane of his existence, when he stole it from Oddities, the musty-smelling antique shop off North Road. The shop owner, a decrepit man with white hair that shot out like floppy rabbit’s ears, had warned him about touching the various knick-knacks that he exhibited in their fancy showcases, but, being the boy that he was, Harry Hogan never listened to the important things.

“Be wary, boy, or you might do yourself a mischief.” The shop-keeper’s croaky, old tone cautioned, as his buck-teeth appeared from his white whiskers, which had hidden his hideous mouth. “Any of these items, if ill-gotten, will haunt you for the rest of your life… if not, kill you.” He waved a gnarled bony finger at the boy. “You’d do well to listen.”

Of course, Harry did not listen and stole the pocket watch anyway.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

“You’re late! Run, boy! You’re late!” The wind howled behind him.

This was the first time, in a long time, that Harry actually did as instructed. He inhaled and exhaled as frantically as the visions that plagued his mind. The visions only depicted pain, suffering and death. Young Harry Hogan’s mind could not fathom why at first, but eventually he found out… and it was too late by then.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

The ancient time piece was the pride of his ill-gotten collection, but its incessant ticking had got to Harry over the past couple of days. He dug through the box of goodies and scooped out the pocket watch. He could not understand how such an old watch could keep ticking, even though he had not wound it once since he collected it two days ago. He was sure that it had not been ticking in the shop, but he had dashed out so quickly that he did not really have time to check.

“Maybe it’s because things were made to last back then.” He told himself, even if it was only to make him feel better about the curious ticking.

In all honesty, even though honesty was not one of Harry’s strong points, the boy was scared. He remembered the old man’s warning. He remembered the gnarled finger that pointed accusingly at him, even though he had done nothing wrong at that point in time. And then, there was always the ticking…

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

“You’re late!” The whispering wind seemed to be further away, as Harry sprinted across the field towards the woods. Either that or the boy’s heart beat so fast that it overpowered the wind’s constant torment with its own insidious beat. However nothing could overcome the ticking of the pocket watch.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

“Shut up!” Harry screamed, as he threw the damned pocket watch into the river. He had assumed that that would be the end of it. Of course, the silly boy was wrong – Harry had watched enough adult horror movies to know that when a strange-looking old man in an antique shop warns you about a possible life-long curse you should really listen, because he probably knows more than what he is letting on. But as we established at the start, Harry Hogan was not really big on the listening part.

As he raced away from the river, believing his troubles over, Harry was thrust to the ground by a sudden THWACK to his back. It took almost a minute for the boy to hoist himself up to a sitting position in order to check his surroundings and find the culprit who had pushed him over. But there was nobody in sight, other than the car that sped over the bridge 100 metres up river.

“AGH!” Harry shouted, as he lifted himself to his feet. There was something lodged between his shoulder blades. He reached his hand over his shoulder and groped at the object. His fingers came into contact with a chain. He yanked at it. “AHHHH!”

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

His feet made contact with the ground and then leaped off again. As he raced for the tree-line, Harry was glad for this new spring in his step. The way he was going, he would make it to the woods in no time and the pesky wind that haunted him would be left in his wake.

“Keep running, Harry!” His mind spurred him forward, “You can make it!”

“You’re late!” A sudden gust of wind whooshed up behind him, “You’re very, very late!”

Harry screamed as he leaped past the tree-line of the woods and began dodging the trees and bushes that came his way. His fear drove him further into the woods; he didn’t even have time to scratch the itch around his nose.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

“Just take it back, idiot.” His sister, Alice, had said to him after he told her about the pocket watch. “I don’t even know why you would have taken it in the first place.”

“I’ve tried getting rid of it!” Harry shouted angrily, “I’ve thrown it away, left it in different places, even wrapped it up and thrown it in the rubbish bin, just before the garbage truck came to pick it up… but it always returns! It always comes back to me…”

“Well take it back to the shop, stupid,” Alice stated impatiently, as she rose from the armchair and turned off the television. “Ugh! I’ve got to get going. Tell Mum and Dad that I’m meeting Dinah at the café.”

“But what about the…”

“Harry, I don’t care about the pocket watch you stole!” Alice stressed to her brother, “You were stupid enough to take it, now you have to deal with your actions. That’s my advice!” With that, she walked briskly up the stairs to her bedroom to get ready.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!

Harry leaped through one last bush and it took him into a clearing. He sniffed the air – everything seemed to be so much clearer. The smell of the purple flowers in front of him, the smell of the pine trees around him… everything was… Harry looked around and gasped – bigger! The grass came up to greet him and the huge pines that were tall enough before, appeared to loom over him like monolithic green and brown sentinels.

“This isn’t right,” thought Harry. “What is this place?”

Tick! Tick…

“You’re late… you’re late…” The wind howled through the trees, even though Harry could not feel the breeze at all.

“What’s going on?” Harry questioned out aloud. It was then that he noticed that the ticking pocket watch seemed to have stopped. He put one hand into his pocket and came up with the watch. “AGH!” He yelled, dropping the watch. It dangled from its chain in silence. “What’s happening to me?” He screamed, as he inspected his hand, which was now a small fluffy white paw. He examined his other hand – it was the same… a fluffy white paw. He checked the rest of his body – Harry was, for all intents and purposes, a rabbit… a fluffy, white rabbit in beige pants and a red T-shirt, with a gold pocket watch dangling from one of his pockets.

“You’re late… you’re late…”

Harry whirled around in response to the wind announcing his tardiness to the woods around him. In fact, the boy in rabbit form had spun around so quickly that he felt dizzy. The ground beneath him spun and then opened up. Before Harry could jump to safety, he found himself tumbling down the hole.

Minutes later, Alice raced into the clearing.

“Alice! Where are you?”

“I’m over here, Dinah!” Alice called back. She scanned the clearing and noticed a rabbit hole next to a fallen tree.

“Where is it?” Dinah questioned, as she joined her friend.

“I’m sure I saw it come over here,” she pointed at the rabbit hole, “Probably over there.”

“How curious to see a white rabbit dressed in clothes and with a pocket watch?” Dinah said out loud.

Alice walked over to the rabbit hole, got down on her knees and inspected it. “Curious doesn’t begin to describe it. This hole looks like it goes on forever!” That was when Alice slipped and fell down the rabbit hole… but that’s another story. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Wonderful Travis

[Travis]

Anybody still interested in joining this competition? I'll give it a few more days for responses and then we'll close it down or extend the closing date.