The Infinidex - Part 2

I awoke on the floor again. It must have been weeks now. Weeks of continuous confusion at what was happening. The additional books besides the nice shelves of empty books that Locks gave me served their purpose of imparting the vast plethora of information. But despite having every field from agriculture to zoology, none was any better at edifying me of what was happening to me. The frontyard ornament called Lock was hardly of any help too. Frontyard ornament because he seemed to be perpetually patrolling and minding his business outside. His business would include the moving of his chairs from one table to another, for no apparent reason and reward. If he was not wasting his energy doing seemingly mindless exercise, he would just be sitting on any chair with his eyes fixated on the door of this house, awaiting time to pass.

Of course I did attempt to communicate with him, but besides giving replies that revealed absolutely nothing, there was just the incoherent statements that hardly seem to have any use. I mean, telling me that a kettle does not boil, but rather, the kettle must first have fire underneath, seems to have useful rating of absolutely zero, coupled with the fact that there is no kettle here either.

But to be fair, at least he was the bearer of my daily needs, bringing me my day's meal everyday, without fail, with the punctuality so close to the second that it seemed as if the huge grandfather clock was actually following his timing and not working independently like any normal clock. That was however, all that was happening. Daily I just woke up and wondered what was going on here, while waiting for my three daily meals, then return to sleep after I have wondered enough, and awake the next day to the exact same routine.

Of course, amidst the wondering, I have always wondered where does Locks get all these food from? Does he have some sort of food storage? Maybe a place where someone passes the food over to him? Unfortunately, asking him was like flipping through the zoology book in search of information regarding the reason why people made chairs with four legs. An utter waste of time to put it simply, given the blank stare that Lock uses as a good reply at least in his opinion.

Well today, I have had enough. According to the research that I have done in my spare time (which I incidentally have a lot of) Lock would disappear for the grand total of 3 minutes walking away from the rear of the house I am in. Therefore, the safest plan for my grand escape would be to leave exactly 5 seconds past 12.57 p.m and go far into the direction opposite to that taken by Locks and just keep running and running. I would be far enough that catching up to me would be impossible when he comes back to the house at 1.00pm. Who cares about the wild things that lurk around in the forest? A chance at freedom and to understand what is happening is definitely better then just bading my time here. Furthermore, getting torn apart by wild things does seem also like freedom too. I smiled as i realised how crazy I was becoming.

Time was 12.55 p.m. In another 2 minutes, I would finally be free from this home/prison/cell/well furnished cage. I glanced around to see if there was anything useful i should be bringing with me. In the end, I concluded that besides the glass ball, there was nothing worth taking with me. Of course having the sense of time would be useful, but i figured it would be rather troublesome to carry a grandfather clock with me. Furthermore the movement of me running would probably mess up the oscillation of the pendulum.

As I peeked out of the door, I could see Locks getting up and making his way to the side of the barn and disappearing as he passed the narrow vision range that I could achieve using the tiny door crack. I counted silently 5 more seconds as my heart rate started to accelerate in anticipation of my escape. I pushed open the door ever so slightly and slipped out and ran.


I made a final glance back at the house as I ran past the table and chairs arrangement that have never seemed properly arranged since the day I found myself here. Indeed, the dirt ground soon gave way to pricking wet grass that pricked irritatingly at my ankles. "The feeling of freedom sure seems rather painful." I thought to myself as perspiration trickled along my eyebrows.

I believe I had made a great distance as I counted up to 1 minute and I had already lost sight of the house. The forest however, was getting darker as the thick overhead canopy blocked out day and i could hardly make out the silhouette of the tree trunks. Glancing around however, proved to be my undoing, as I suddenly slammed hard into something in front and fell backwards onto the wet but disgusting grassy ground.

As I met the ground, the glass ball that i carried rolled out of my pocket. Amazingly, I had not realised that it was glowing pretty brightly in my haste. Horrifically, I did not expect a wrinkled hand to reach down and pick up the glass ball. As he lifted up the glass ball to his face level, never would I have expected it to be Locks! This must have been a long dream, I thought to myself knowing that it was impossible for Locks to be there when he was clearly walking away from the house in the opposite direction. As my glance passed by the tray of food held by Locks that was supposed to be my dinner, I blacked out.