It was not just the normal ticking of any clock which pushed Adrian Tempcroft toward the brink of madness, it was the fact that this particular dark and grimy rather ugly looking old clock contained no mechanism with which to enable it to tick off the seconds of time, and this was indeed a strange mystery to Adrian, who had sold clocks for all of twenty years and in all those years he most certainly had never encountered a clock as bizarre and weird as this one before. He had pulled the old thing to pieces several times exhuming its innards but still he could find no damn pendulum or any other form of mechanics within which could possibly enable it to tick.

   He also hated the look of the clock, hideous monstrosity was the only description that sprung to his mind, and this mixed with the annoyance of its mind numbing incessant ticking, drove him on desperately to try and sell it as quickly as possible, and at any price, he had even tried to give it away but still no one wanted it, unfortunately he seemed to be cursed with the damn thing. And that damn incessant tick-tock tick-tock was really starting to get inside his head, even at night when rapped in his quilt, curled up contentedly for another night, emerging stealthily, slithering out of the darkness, from within the shop below, came that same familiar mind twisting tick-tock tick- tock whose totally individual sound in some strange deplorable way seemed to stand out from all the other clocks, the sound just seemed to be able to travel such long distances, it really did confound him.

   After many a sleepless night he finally decided that he had had enough, really had enough, he was not getting any sleep, and this situation really was getting beyond the joke, so he decided that he would dispose of the clock in the bin out the back. He went down stairs into the gloomy clock shop and he entered the darkest most well hidden part of his shop where he kept the hideous clock, he stared down at its ugly face, and sneered cursing under his breath at the ugly thing, he reached out for it, and to his shock and horror as his groping hands approached its ugly countenance, the tick-tock grew into a piercing scream which emanated from within its ugly face, the scream was so loud that Adrian had to desperately cover his ears to block it out, but still the scream came, and in his panic and pain Adrian kicked out at the clock with his foot ,knocking it to the floor. On impact with the floor the clock instantly reverted back to its normal tick–tock tick-tock which was still pretty unbearable to Adrian, but not half as unbearable as that weird shrieking which had emanated from the damn thing seconds before .Adrian just stood there now, staring down wide eyed and dumbfounded at this weird monstrosity of a clock that lay before him.

   After a short time Adrian began to recover his wits, and a fiery anger began to build within him "right you bastard, you die," and with this, in a blind rage Adrian left the shop and rushed for his tool shed still with the tick tock knocking at the inside of his head, pummelling his brain and giving him a splitting head ache.

   After much digging around in his cluttered tool shed he produced from inside his hammer," smash the bugger to bits, that’s what I’ll do, bloody had enough of this".

   And with his trusty hammer under his arm, Adrian stormed back into the shop, and to his disbelief the clock had gone, it was nowhere to be seen, it had somehow miraculously moved itself from where it had fallen, it has disappeared into thin air. Ice slowly began to bleed into Adrian’s bloodstream, for now this was really starting to freak him out, "stuff of bloody nightmares this is" he thought to himself, "where the hell is the little bugger". He searched for hour upon hour still with the tick tock resonating through his mind but now unable to pin point exactly where the swine of a thing was, and after much tiresome searching he reluctantly gave up, he had, had enough of this for one night, and he would continue the search when fresh again in the morning, when he would find the damn thing and trash it. But what about it disappearing from the floor all by itself?? and what about that weird screaming?? , these dark thoughts gently crawled into his mind, and he forced them out quickly by saying aloud" Must have been my tired mind, lack of sleep, that’s what I put it down to". But still an uneasy feeling hung around the neck of Adrian Tempcroft and like a noose it was tightening and tightening all the time, and even as he turned out the light in his shop he was forced to leave with much haste for he could feel the cool breath of fear breathing on the nape of his neck, and as he fled up his stairs to the sanctuary of his bedroom he could not and would not dare to take one look behind himself for fear of what may have been lurking or chasing him silently through the darkness.

   Adrian entered his warm bedroom and stepping over to his bed he drew back his covers and at that moment his heart felt like it had been shrouded with ice, for in the centre of his bed just ticking away like usual was the damn clock, but the site that was even more horrifying to Adrian was the repulsive site of the hundreds of fat black spiders who delicately paraded around the surface of the clock, exploring its every nook and cranny. At this site once again Adrian was spurred into action by the heat of anger, and thus automatically, instinctively he reached out for the hideous object hoping to dispose of it through his bedroom window, in one swift movement, but again a piercing shriek did emanate from the clock, and this time it didn’t even stop when Adrian swiftly pulled away, instead it continued spiralling into a cacophony of sound, like a chorus of shrill demon angels, a sound with which Adrian spun around both in fear and anger and fled back down his stairs into the dark shop to retrieve his hammer, but as he entered the normally sepulchre silent like shop the event that finally sent Adrian’s sanity plunging into the abyss of insanity ,were the hideous sounds of the screaming and talking and shouting of each and every one of the clocks in the shop."Noooooooooo,"Adrian screamed as he began a crazed assault on all the clocks, smashing, pulverizing, stamping on the pieces, priceless clocks, beautiful clocks, smashing them all sending them all to hell he thought crazily to himself, hysterically he laughed as he drove his hammer into the beautifully created faces of the clocks, destroying each and everyone, for unfortunately something had finally snapped within the fragile mind of Adrian Tempcroft, and further more still to his exasperation and disbelief the pieces of the smashed clocks that now lay all around him carried on all conversations, chatting away to each other as if nothing had happened,shrieking up into his face as if they were living beings which had been mortally wounded ,but Adrian now did at least feel a miniscule better,mainly because he had taken out some of his nervous energy smashing the bastard clocks to kingdom come.

   "Right it’s your turn" he said aloud to himself, and with a sick slathering grin on his lips he began to stomp up his stairs once again, for now it was "party time" for that bastard clock which lay in his bed.

   He entered the room quietly so as not to set of that damn thing screaming again, and gently, sweating profusely; he tiptoed over to the bed with saliva dripping from his smiling lips in anticipation of what was to come. And with three gently spoken words "its party time" he brought the hammer crashing down onto the face of the spider ridden clock.

   And simultaneously on impact of the hammer Adrian and the clocks own face both exploded, Adrian’s face sending whirls and twirls of blood and snot and smashed bone into the air, as a searing pain raked through his pulped face, and as he toppled onto the broken up face of the clock, the clocks tick tock stopped instantly, in time with the ceasing of the beating of Adrian’s heart for the massive blow to his face had destroyed his brain thus sending a huge shock to his heart paralysing it forever.

   There he lay, sprawled in a bloody heap his brains coating the covers of his bed, and his thick blood turning his tangled sheets into a crimson mess.

   Silence now at last reigned forever for one Adrian Tempcroft, the antique clock dealer.

* * * * * * *

   On the investigation of the police several days later Adrian Tempcroft was found dead lying alone in his blood soaked bed, with his face destroyed and a bloody hammer in hand. There had been no sign of disturbance in his shop below, no sign of any break in, or any struggle, really there was nothing unusual about his death, to the police this scene was a typical suicide, and was dually noted as such, said probably to have been brought about by a turn down in trade resulting in possible financial difficulties.

   The only thing that was noted as slightly strange by the police was that of an, and I quote "an ugly looking silent clock, which lay in a pristine condition on the pillow next to the mortally wounded head of one Adrian Tempcroft."