Closer…

“Wake up!” Madeleine shook a weary Aiden, who was in the middle of a pleasant dream, now somewhat agitated from her rouse. It was quite early in the morning, and the sun gleamed brightly over the azure skies, the robins and thrushes tweeting tunes from the earliest of hours, already ready to begin their day.

“What? What is it,” he said, exhausted. “Come downstairs! Jake and Cynthia found something yesterday,”

“Wha...?”

“Just come down,” Madeleine ushered, making her way downstairs, languid, Aiden followed. The rest of the bunch were already waiting downstairs for them. “Well, you took your time!” Lucia scoffed, Aiden shook his head with a weak grin, “It's been a long journey,” he laughed, “What did you lot find that was so important anyways?”

“Have a look for yourself,” Magnus said, pointing to the far corner of the lounge, away from where they were congregated, Aiden following his directions, “Cynthia and Jake found out that this place belonged to Kieran, if we are going to find him, this is a really good place to start,”

“This house belongs to Kieran?” They all gave a weary nod, especially Jake, who was sitting on the grand piano, half-asleep.

“Does your mother know about this?” Aiden turned to Lucia, “I haven’t called her about it, I don’t want her worrying about me,” She shrugged, she wasn’t too fond about disclosing that information. Aiden approached the door in the corner of the room and peeked into the office, taken aback by the abnormality of it, there were dozens of chronometers, vintage hourglasses and timepieces, which encrusted the interior walls of the office, in the middle of the room was a large wooden desk which was stacked with paperwork, conical flasks and machinery. There was a pen on the desk that was dipped in a glass tube containing ink, as if the writer had just been interrupted from his work, Aiden looked up, to see stairs leading up to a secondary layer of the study, which hadn’t been explored yet. Aiden approached the window, opening it, allowing daylight to enter the room, shining the mahogany and rosewood from within.

“This room reminds me of the library, somewhat,” he said at last, “How so?” The comparison had caught Magnus’s attention, “I don’t really know, it just feels like a place in the library, I can’t put my finger on it though,” Magnus scratched his head, considering this statement. The office was a strange place indeed, and the idea that it might have been the last place Kieran had visited only added to that eccentricity. Aiden was getting cold feet, from even steeping foot in the sanctum of horology, something about it irked him, and he disliked being irked. Aiden took a deeper look at the clocks, slowly ticking away inexorably, he narrowed his eyes, focusing on each one individually.

“They all read different times, what’s up with that?” He whispered, still listening to the ticking of the clocks, this room belonged to the defunct Kieran Fillmore, a man who knew many things, but never said as much. A man with vast knowledge and broad composition. This room must have had some symbolism to it, such idiosyncrasy wouldn’t be here without purpose.

“It's quite a funky looking room, if I do say so myself.” Madeleine hinted, “Have you checked what’s upstairs?” The suggestion alone reminded Aiden about the upper region completely. As he climbed up the stairs in the private study, the rest of the group joined in, all entering the mysterious room, “What do you see up there, Aiden?” Cynthia asked, looking up at the interior balcony, that he was on, “couple more notes and stuff up here, nothing too interesting actually,” Aiden stopped in his tracks, “Actually, there is something really interesting here, Lucia! You might want to come up here,” Aiden admitted, beckoning Lucia up the stairs of the study and into the balcony. It was a fairly large zone, though nowhere near as large as the office, and it overlooked the study from above, it shared similar features, that of which being the abnormally frequent amount of clocks and experiments that laid around. However, the walls of the balcony were lined with strange markings and patterns which all represented concepts that were alien to the duo, the one that caught Lucia’s eye was the sun-eye symbol, which was overlaying the walls the most, it was the exact same symbol that was on Lucia’s eyepatch, instinctively, she started to touch it. Underneath the symbol were some notes, the same calligraphed handwriting that was on the notebook she had received in the first batch of gifts.

“So, this is why I'm here...” She muttered, putting her hand to the wall, gently stroking it. “Oh Kieran, what have you done,” she frowned.

“What did you guys find up there?” Jake asked, walking into the room, seemingly less overtired, but still leaning on the wall.

“There are some really strange symbols on the walls up here, they’re the same ones that Lucia has,” Aiden called out, “How strange... Very strange indeed” Magnus commented, everyone nodding in with similar levels of confusion.

“Is there any words or messages up there that could give us any hints on why we’re here?”

“There is one, yes,” Lucia commented, “I’ll read it out for you,” squinting to get a better look at the message

“The interface to the ‘Otherworld’ Lies in the stars with eyes to see, only those who truly wish it can enter a world that isn’t truly accessed by the body, yet the mind, if this is a message within your comprehension, you are already there...” She recited, as she spoke, she noticed the pin on her eyepatch glow with immense brilliance, dazzling brighter than ever before, so bright, yet it only got brighter, until the room was assimilated in light. Blinding them. The light dimmed once again, after what had felt like an eternity of penetrating fulguration. They had all been hit with the same light, almost knocking out some, while leaving the rest dazed, each of them now had once thing in common, and that was a splitting headache.

“What the hell was that??” Jake bemoaned, rubbing his head and blinking heavily, “We just got flash banged by that pin of yours, dude, not cool...”

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“Don’t blame me for that, I can’t control what it does!” She blustered, ignoring the moans and groans of the party within the study. They all rushed out of the office and into the main lounge, to avoid any other strange events from happening, or worse, Madeleine sat down with her face in her palms, her red hair in disarray, “So is this it then? We’re at a dead end now,” she asked, still with her face in her palms, “I doubt it, there's still something sketchy about that room that I can’t quite put my finger on, we’re not done with that place just yet...” Magnus added, “I suppose it might be worthwhile, returning to the place and doing some more digging,” Jake said, returning to the piano.

“Hey, Lucia, d’ya reckon that the notebook you have was written by Kieran too? If it is, perhaps we can get more clues to his whereabouts,” Magnus asked, a shrug was the reply, Lucia was busy trying to tame her headache to really care about anything.

“Okay... Let's see, we’ll return to this office at 9pm, does that sound good?” Jake suggested, “I wouldn’t mind,” Cynthia said, who appeared to have just recovered from the light, “What should we do until then?”

“We should go to the plaza, I think that the Christmastide festival happens today, I wouldn’t mind attending that!” Magnus pointed out, looking around for approval, getting 5 thumbs ups and smiles from around the room.

(...)

The plaza was an amazing place, it was filled with villagers from the north, southeast and west, all united under the festivities promoted, there were tons of rides and activities, including a Ferris wheel which looked to touch the sky from their position, there were also plenty of markets selling all kinds of delicacies from comically large hotdogs to toothsome pastries and delicacies that made their mouths water. Music was being played over the snowy landscape, playing songs like “Jingle bells” and “Silent Night”.

A tall man wearing a monocle and a long coat approached them, he seemed gregarious and outgoing, “Welcome to the Annual Christmastide Festival!” He started, raising his voice so it could be heard over the loud music, “There’s a lot of things you can indulge in, including a gazillion rides, the BEST food you’ll ever try and an amazing fireworks display that happens towards the end of the festival!” he smiled, “I hear that the firework displays this year is set to be the biggest of the decade, said to light up the night sky from miles out in its colourful glory!” The group were impressed by his credence, perhaps it would be worthwhile, time would tell. “I’ll admit, all folk you see around here have been here before, and I assure you, I'll never forget a face, you lot must be new around here as I'm not too familiar with yours,” the man continued, “Except you,” he pointed to Lucia, “I recognise you, or someone who shares the same eyes, atleast.”

Lucia’s face lit up at the mention of anyone like her, “I have a brother who lives here, actually!” She exclaimed, “Oh, is that so? What was his name?”

“Kieran, Kieran Filmore,”

The man narrowed his eyes, with incertitude, “You are related to Kieran Filmore?” He laughed, scratching his head, still unsure of how to respond, “Kieran was a nice chap! Haha, everybody was fond of him, but he wasn’t fond of everybody... And one day, he quite frankly vanished, I never really heard from the man again,” his smile shifting to a scowl at the thought of it, “I have absolutely no doubt that the man behind that is Colton, he owns an ‘Antique’ shop around the far ends of the town, in a place inaccessible to people without reservation, I could not be any more certain that, that man is behind all of this claptrap!”

“I suspected that it could be Colton who was behind all of this, there are police reports that link to him,” Madeleine added, the man narrowed his eyes again, looking at Madeleine, twisting his head slightly to get a better look. “I recognise you also, do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No, but my mother is Urielle Monet, one of the captains of the A.U Voyager,” she chimed, “Aha! Yes, I do know your mother then, in fact, she has been here before-”

“Has she? How long ago was this?” She asked,

“It was quite a while ago, youngster, about half a decade ago, she was here with her brother for the Christmastide festival, tell her I said hello!” he smiled, he looked at his watch and turned to leave “I should be leaving then! I have some things I need to attend to, but if you find anything else about Kieran or Colton, you know where to find me,” They all nodded as he trekked off. Magnus looked up at the rides, smiling, “Soo guys, which ride do we try out first?”

“The Ferris wheel doesn’t sound too bad!” Madeleine smiled, Jake giving the idea a thumbs up, following her to the ride, Cynthia and Magnus raced towards the food market, trying to get their hands on the cuisine that was for sale, Aiden and Lucia laughed.

(...)

9PM... the group had spent a lot of time frolicking around in the snow at the plaza and playing multiple games and trying several rides. For the first time in their entire trip, they truly felt like they were on a holiday and all the worries that came from their predicament seemed to have dissipated, now returning to the warmth and solidarity of the cottage, they decided that it’d be best to return to the odd study, to continue investigating the mysteries that dwelled beneath the surface. Jake wasn’t so keen on joining at once, as he was more invested in playing “Swan Lake” On the grand piano, which didn’t seem to bother the rest, they all made their way back into the office. Something had changed, and an odd stillness filled the room, a mysterious aura still lingering from their last visit. Aiden analysed the walls once more; he noticed something that made his blood run cold. All the clocks had stopped, showing less life than before, even the sand from within the hourglasses had seemingly stopped in time, immediately, Aiden checked his watch, the hands of which were spinning in a disorderly manner, moving like a pendulum might do. He shook it, trying to fix it, to no avail.

“What the...” He muttered, tapping his phone, Aiden was a person who liked to keep track of the time, and right now, he couldn’t do that. He didn’t like that. Suddenly, the clocks started ticking again, with increasing speed, the ticking becoming increasingly strident and powerful in a chaotic fortissimo. Jake got up to see the commotion, “What in tarnation is going on here?” He said, frustrated by the noise, which seemed to be interrupting his performance. Entering the office and accidentally making the door slam behind him, he rushed towards it to try and open it, evidently unsuccessful, he kicked it defiantly out of anger, hopping around in pain when it didn’t budge.

“Damn it!” He said grimacing, pounding on the door once again, “Oh man, we should have just stayed put in the Plaza,” Magnus sighed, looking up at the now flickering light, that was swaying violently in the ceiling, threating to fall and shatter. If things couldn’t get worse, Lucia’s pin started to glow once more, emitting not a white light, but a deep Amythest, the fair and luminesce of the brooch covered the room in a warm purple. The clocks still spinning, so much so that the hands weren’t visible anymore. It was a light that didn’t blind them, or pierce their skin, but it drained them of their energy, they felt their movement becoming hindered and slow as the glow prevailed, becoming deeper and deeper, until they dropped asleep one by one, comatose, and oblivious to the power of the clocks that ticked around them. The last thing Lucia saw, was the clocks spinning, she could make out an “∞” symbol on each of the chronometers, and a ghastly sound, whispering in her ear, saying...

Go to sleep...