|•I•X•COUNTDOWN•X•I•|

by **Forest** Sun 11 May - 13:55

|•I•X•COUNTDOWN•X•I•|
"Even if I say,
It will be alright,
Still I hear you say,
You want to end your life,
Now and again we try,
To just stay alive,
Maybe we'll turn it around
'Cause it's not too late,
It's never too late."
-Three Days Grace - Never Too Late

Kian turned around and gazed at the house in front of him. It had a rectangular shape, with rounded edges, and a patio that went the full-length around it. White columns rose from the railing around the patio to support the overhang. On the left end of the house, on the second floor, was a circular room, with a pointed roof above it. That was Kian's new room. The house itself was an off-white, with a black roof, the windows and doors outlined with the same color. It was a beautiful looking house, and now it belonged to the Caddogens.

"What do you think?" the eight year old's mother said as she gently touched his light brown hair. He turned and looked up at her with sorrowful yet excited green eyes. "I miss our old house still..." the boy said. He turned his body and wrapped his arms around his mother. Less than a second later, he could feel the warmth and comfort of one of his mother's hugs. "I do too, but you'll have fun in this house! You picked a very nice room to put your bed in" she soothed. Kian stayed silent, and turned his head towards the house. His eyes flew up to his room. He sighed and let go of his mother, and just stared up at his room. He felt an urge to go inside and just rest in that room.

He glanced at his mother, then started walking towards the door of the house. Just then Kian's father walked out of the house. "I got all the furniture up in your room, Kian. Now you go up there and arrange your toys and smaller things how you want" he said. The boy nodded and slipped past his father and inside. Kyler, the family's Irish Setter, barked when she saw Kian step inside the house. The boy bent down on one knee and threw his arms gently around the dog's neck as she approached him. Wet licks landed on Kian's cheek and neck, brushing and tickling. He laughed and fell over to one side, letting his arms fall away from Kyler. Kian then quickly jumped back up to his feet, and ran to the stairs, the red-furred dog at his heels. The pair stopped once they reached Kian's new room.

There it was. His bed was along the fat side of the room, with his clothes dresser at the foot of it. Then there was his desk, against the wall facing away from the door. There were boxes containing Kian's clothes and toys stacked against the wall beside the desk. And finally, a rug with a shamrock pattern on the floor right next to Kian's bed. Kyler pushed past the boy and over to the rug. She spun in three right circles, then lay down, grunting as she did so. After Kian's green eyes had taken in everything, he walked over to the boxes, and peeked inside. Clothes. "Where's the closet...?" he thought aloud, turning around. "There" he said, spotting the door over to his right side. Kian stepped over to it, put his hand on the knob, and slowly opened the door..

It was empty. Kian took a small step inside, still looking around. It seemed just like a normal closet. A bit bigger than the one at Kian's previous home, though. It even had a shelf along the back wall. Kian reached his hand up and felt along the top, since he was too short to see if anything was on top. Just dust. The boy's hand left a clean, white trail as it brushed over the shelf's wooden surface. He was about to lift his hand off when he suddenly felt something cool and metallic. His fingers extended to try and wrap around the object, but to no avail. Kian took his hand off the shelf, and after brushing the dust off, walked over to the pile of boxes. He began searching through them, looking for something long enough to reach whatever he had felt on top of the shelf.

In one of the boxes he found his toy wolf that he had had since he was two. Kian lifted it out of the box and looked it at. The wolf's smiling face looked back at him. "Astro..." The boy whispered his toy's name quietly. Kian took the toy over to his bed and set it gently on his pillow. For a moment, both Kian and Astro were smiling back at each other. Then the boy finally turned away, and resumed his search through the boxes. However, the desired tool refused to be found. Kian sighed and pulled his Slinky out of a box. Well, he could try to get whatever was up on that shelf with the Slinky. Kian walked back into the closet, and sort of chucked the Slinky on top of the shelf, while still holding it in his left hand. There was a clang of two metal objects banging against each other, and Kian reached his hand up, this time grabbing the object and bringing it down to look at it.

It was a silver necklace, with a star and a clock on it. The star was attached before the clock, and had what appeared to be a ruby set in the middle of it. The clock, attached below the star, had a silver outlining, a dark grey ring on the inside where the silver numbers were set, and small, fat hands of the same color. Kian gasped a bit at the sight of what he was holding. He lowered his head to it, closed his eyes, and blew the dust away from it. Kyler, who had been watching, got up and trotted over to Kian, eagerly sniffing the necklace he held. Kian continued to stare at the hands of the clock, which were held still, both pointing at the number twelve. "Noon..." the boy stated quietly to himself and Kyler. 'Or midnight...' his mind added.
Just then he heard noises close by. His parents...he couldn't let them see the necklace he had found! Kian frantically looked around, then ran to his bed and shoved the necklace under his pillow. And just in time, for his mother walked in not even seconds later. "Kian, I have all the bathroom things ready if you want to take a shower and brush your teeth" she said quietly. A nod was all Kian gave in reply, and went over to the box with the clothes in it to find his pajamas. Once he found those, he began searching for his hairbrush, then gathered everything up and walked into the bathroom.

After Kian had finished, he slowly made his way back to his room, where he found his parents. His mother was standing near his bed with Kyler, watching his father put something up above his clothes dresser. Kian's mother turned to face him. "Dad's putting up your clock now" she explained just as the man back away. "Done" he said, smiling. "And, it looks like it's past your bedtime!" Kian glanced at the clock. 8:45. His bedtime had been fifteen minutes ago. He suddenly felt very tired, and after receiving hugs from his parents, climbed into bed, Kyler finding her spot on the rug next to him. "Goodnight" his mother said as she turned off the light and pulled the door almost completely closed.

Kian waited a few seconds. Wait...his night-light. The boy sat up, and looked at his dresser. He thought he remembered seeing it there earlier. And yes, there it was. He grabbed it, and after a while of stumbling around the dark, Kian found an outlet, and plugged it in. Then, now able to see, he crept back to his bed, reached under the pillow, and pulled out the necklace. Kian brought it over to the little light, and looked at it. The boy cocked his head in confusion. The hands had moved from twelve o'clock to 9 o'clock. Almost involuntarily, Kian glanced up at his clock, and was surprised to see that it also read at 9 o'clock. As much as he was curious about this matching clocks, Kian's tiredness overtook his curiosity, and he decided to leave the clock until tomorrow. Perhaps the matching times was just coincidence.