• ~*~

    Time

    ~*~

    The clock rung 11 o’ clock, as gentle snores rocked the room. Moonlight streamed through the curtains, casting a silvery light across the locked, wooden cupboard. Inside the enclosed space, a broken soul stood tall challenging the future.

    ~*~

    It had been a long time ago since she had been caressed, held in the hands of a little girl and squeezed so tightly it had made her stomach crack.

    She had long forgotten her given name, after being withdrawn into the toy cupboard and left there as dust coated her dainty china features. Now, as the years grew on, it was hard to imagine the little girl; the little girl that once adored her only to later abandon her into the depths of the cupboard.

    Was it really the little girl’s fault? Was it a crime for the little girl to leave her like she had done so and push open the arching doors of reality? She stubbornly replied yes to these plaguing queries, pushing them far out of her hallow thoughts.

    No matter, these questions didn’t need answers. She already knew response. She wanted the reason.

    That little girl had grown up. From childish innocence to rebellious spunk who kept her room a mess and splattered the walls with colorful paint when angry… whether it was with her family or with the rules of society.

    The previously little girl was a growing teen, nearing the brink where one leaves childhood and goes on to become a woman. Troubling as it was, she had to understand those precious reminiscences were over.

    It was only time when she would be tossed like any old rag into a box and sold for money. Just like the rest of her kin. It was only the matter of time she would accept it.

    Her eyes had drifted to a close. Her stiff body slipping slowly to the side, nearly toppling the other dolls that had already taken their final glimpse and breathe of living. The pitiful feeling she had once felt for them vanished as the sense of awareness sunk in. Their time had been over, and they had known.

    She knew now of what must come, and what must go.

    The grandfather clock outside her prison rang with eerily quiet ticks. Even the alive dolls had silenced their silly gossip to peer stonily at her, waiting for her choice.

    Her time was over.

    ~*~

    The clock struck midnight, heavy breathing pulsing. The full moon hid behind the shadowy shapes of gray clouds, obscuring the room in a dark aura. The woman in bed stirred, the sheets wrapping around her as feverish dreams haunted her of the broken past.

    ~*~

    E N D