Read the whole story at mayorofdonutville.com/time-machine-chronicles/

Part 10 - The end

“There’s that voice again. The clock.”

Mayor had landed under a spotlight in an otherwise black room. He looked down at his hands. They were drawings. His arms were too, and his feet. He followed the sound of the voice out of the spotlight and into the darkness.

Walking in the darkness, he listened to the sound of his shoes on an unseen surface. It sounded like asphalt. A very thin line of purple appeared, flickering in the distance. He turned and walked more directly toward it, speeding his steps. Now it sounded like there were leaves under his feet. The voice was getting closer, and closer, but the line of light seemed to stay the same distance away from him. He started running, listening to the sounds of the leaves crunching. In a flash, he could see his bed - then back to darkness. The voices were very close now. Full sprint, and in another flash he could see the door to his coat closet. Darkness again.

“Is it working?” he shouted, as he continued running. He looked up at the purple light, to see if it was any closer. SLAM. He collided with something.

“Ouch!” shouted a voice in the darkness.

The mayor clipped his nose on whatever - whoever it was and he could only see stars and red flashes of pain now.

“Clock, is that you? Who’s there?!” he shouted, holding his nose.

He heard another voice: “Did you find him?”

“Yeah, he plowed right into me!”

“Who is it? I can’t see you!” the mayor shouted.

“Hold on,” said the voice, and the mayor heard a shuffling noise.

A purple glow suddenly bloomed from nowhere, illuminating the illustrated faces of Onias and Jupiter.

“Geez, I really slammed into you,” the mayor said to Onias. “Your face is all bloody.”

“Pretty sure that’s just graphite,” said Onias. “I’m totally fine.”

Mayor wiped his nose. “Are you...am I…? Are you here to rescue me? I’m lost. I can’t get back. I lost the relic like, 200 years ago on the ceiling of my great grandmother’s house somehow, and I’ve been falling or floating, or turning into a drawing ever since. I fell through a mirror a while back and when I looked in it, I had a mustache. A talking grandfather clock has been following me”

Onias tilted his head as he looked at the mayor: “A mustache?”

“Yes, we are here to rescue you,” said Jupiter.

“Thank goodness! What did I do wrong? How did it go so badly?” the mayor asked.

“It’s possible,” said Onias, “that you spent too much time looking back, and forgot to ever turn around.”

The mayor nodded solemnly, in the purple glow.

“Or,” added Jupiter lightly, “the relic might have been broken or something. Who knows? Let’s go home, it’s spooky here!”

“Quick, grab hold,” said Onias, holding out his arm.

Jupiter pulled out one of the silver cubes, and looked at Onias. “I hope those boys got the scroll fixed.”

Mayor pointed behind the wizards: “Here comes that clock again!”

Jupiter dropped the cube.

POOF!

As the cloud of smoke cleared, Henrik, Ferdinand, Olav and Mrs. Busbee could see the forms of the two wizards, standing more or less exactly where they were when they left. But no mayor.

Jupiter looked under the table, and then up at the ceiling. “Did you let go of him?”

Onias, wide-eyed, lifted the scroll from the table as if the mayor might be under it. He looked back at Jupiter, who had once again pulled a calculator out of his cloak and was double-checking numbers.

Then they heard a thump, and the clamor of falling bottles in the basement. The basement door popped open, and the mayor stumbled up onto the kitchen floor.

“You got him!” shouted Henrik, as he and Ferdinand rushed over to help the mayor up to a chair.

Olav put the kettle on to make some coffee. The party of 7 stayed in the mayor’s house until the sun was starting to rise, listening to his story and telling him all that had happened while he was gone. In the morning, the town celebrated the return of their mayor, the wizards went on their way, Olav and Mrs. Busbee took the day off from their shops, Henrik and Ferdinand went home, and the mayor, after removing a grandfather clock from his foyer, laid down and took a long nap.