#clocktale

It's been seven years since then. I was twelve when I went past the garden gate of my home, the gate separating the manor grounds from the forest.

... There was something living deep within that forest. It's always been there, maybe even long before the manor was built. And that thing... It was not kind to intruders. And yet it never left its domain - it stayed still, not unlike sundew luring its prey. I cannot recall its appearance. But I do remember its eyes. Many of them, a bright and deep purple.

    I've dreamed of it many times. The exact spot where it lives. The juniper trees twisted beyond recognition. Dead branches forming a garden of thorns. And the thing's preys up on those branches, swaying with the wind.

... I went there to look for someone. Someone I deeply cared about, yet failed to show it when it mattered. And I found him. Just beneath the branch. Swaying back and forth.

   Even now, I dread the times I fall asleep. Often, nightmares greet me with hungry eyes. The same purple eyes that stared at me on that day. But in rare nights, only blissful nothingness awaits me, in the form of a rose garden amidst an empty void. The only times I can rest.

It's been seven years. And it still haunts me.

   ... I'm so sorry, Theo... I failed you. I was such a terrible brother. I don't deserve forgiveness. I think all I can do now, is make sure I don't repeat the same mistake. So long as I have the key with me, the gate to the forest will remain shut.