Urban Legends and Creepy Stories

It wasn't the clock

When I was young my granddad used to have this giant grand-father clock at the end of the hallway. I remember it being made of this smooth, dark colored wood and its face was made of metal and not plastic like clocks today.

As a child I was so afraid of this clock, every time I would come over I would lay in the guest bed and be woken up every hour by its loud announcement of the time. GONG, GONG, GONG! It would say at three in the morning. But there was one, horrible time I can never forget.

One day, I think it was in November, I was staying the night with granddad after we went to see a movie together. That night I tucked myself under the covers of his queen sized guest bed, and turned off the lamb beside me. Then there was the clock telling me the hour; I listened as the machine rang ten times. Just in time for bed I thought.

I suddenly got a chill, but not the one most people get. I knew that my granddad had an old house and sometimes the cold night air would seep in, but this wasn’t that type of chill. It was the type of chill you get when you’re afraid, like when your body tells you something’s watching you behind your back.

I sat up quickly, the hair on the back of my neck tingling… but I saw nothing. There was nothing in my room, just an old clothes dresser in the corner and a pile of dusty books. I shook my head and told myself it’s just my brain playing tricks on me and I laid back down. I had almost fallen asleep when the clock went off: GONG… GONG… GONG…

I wearily opened my eyes, and I noticed something. I sat up, my body still almost asleep, as the truth dawned on me. The old dresser had moved. It now rested around the center of the room, the light from the window casting a dark shadow in the corner. I got up to investigate. But in the carpet there was no indication that the dresser had been moved, but that wasn’t what confused me. What confused me was that in the corner there were four little imprints of the dresser’s legs.

My young mind whirled with confusion. ‘How could it have moved? It’s like someone picked it up, and placed it back down again without me noticing! Was someone in here?’
I was about to go get granddad when the clock went off again. GONG… GONG… GONG… it went. I was confused, hadn’t the clock just went off a few minutes ago? GONG… GONG… GONG… the clock went, and went, and went. It just kept going!
I was so scared, ‘I need granddad!’ I thought as I went to the door to go get him. I grabbed the handle but the door wouldn’t budge. I tried ramming it but my small frame wasn’t enough to take down the old wooden door. “Granddad!” I remember shouting as I began to break into tears. GONG… GONG… G…

The clock just stopped, like someone had pulled the plug. I wiped a tear from my face as I placed my hand tenderly on the doorknob. This time it opened and I remember going into the hallway. I felt safe… then I looked down the hall.

My heart dropped as all my reflexes and senses became alert to the man… the thing that stood in front of the grandfather clock. To this day I still can’t remember what he looked like, but I can remember one thing. His eyes, his pale white eyes seeped into my soul like cold air, crushing my poor young soul with just one glance. As he stared at me my ears began to ring and my head began to throb “GET AWAY!” I shouted. “GET AWAY!”
Instead of getting away he got closer, quickly almost gliding down the hall as the clock began to ring again. GONG! “Granddad!” GONG!

“Granddad, help!” GONG!

“GRANDDAD HELP ME!”
The thing stood in front of me, watching me as I cried. It began to make a sharp ringing noise as it bent down towards me, it’s horrible eyes growing closer. It whispered something to me, a poem I still can’t forget to this day no matter how hard I try.

It whispered:
‘Once around the corner,
twice around the bend.
And as you surely know,
this game shall shortly end.’

Then everything stopped, it was gone! The clock stopped ringing and my head stopped throbbing. That’s when granddad came into the hallway in a panic. “What’s wrong?” He said. “Are you alright?”

I cried as I hugged him, finally feeling safe. “There was this man- there was this horrible, horrible thing and the clock wouldn’t stop ringing!”

“The clock wouldn’t stop?” He repeated.

“Yes, it just… it just wouldn’t stop!” I cried.

“It couldn’t have been.” He said, hugging me tightly. “That clock has been broken for a week.”