One detail unknown to anyone is that the clock's curse is only activated when there are victims around to hear it. Although the curse cannot penetrate the walls of the room it is stored in, it emits a sort of magical aura that can. This aura acts as a sort of tripwire, allowing the clock to know when to use some of its power to lure in an unsuspecting victim to his or her eminent doom. The clock will choose a victim at random typically, and entice them to come searching for it. This is how, on this particular day with a hotel full of guests, it chose to target 8 year old Brad, who was there with his family on their way back from vacation. Brad's life was about to change, if the clock could get him within the confines of its prison.
Brad was forced to share a room with his older brother, while his parents took the room adjacent to it. He had begged his parent to let him bunk with them, as they did have 2 full size beds, but they refused. Now he'd be stuck with Alex, who was ecstatic at the chance to torment his dorky little bro without the chance of getting caught. He'd already planned a few pranks in advance, waiting for the chance to pounce. Unfortunately he hadn't gotten the chance to set up before nightfall, when the clock decided it was time to reel in its prey.
Brad was sitting in the lobby trying to stay clear of his shared room for as long as he could, when suddenly he heard a faint ticking noise, which seemed to be coming from all directions all at once. Turning his head this way and that, looking for the cause, he found that the noise was more concentrated towards the left hallway. Bored, he approached the hall and noticed there was no sign of anything that could be the cause of the now slightly louder noise. Curious, he walked past door after door, placing his ear up against each one and only hearing silence, or the muffled sounds of its occupants. Stranger, he realized the closer he got to the end of the hall, the louder the ticking got. By the time he'd gotten to the end, the noise was nearly ear piercing.
Covering his ears, he looked right and left, seeing only another hall, but the sound was clearly coming from the door right in front of him. He noticed people walking down the halls as if nothing were happening, which was strange as how could anyone ignore this ear splitting ticking! But when he asked an employee, the man just scoffed and told him to go back to his room. Annoyed, he jiggled the knob to the door clearly marked "Do Not Enter" fully expecting for it to be locked, but was surprised when the door cracked open an inch or two. The noise stopped suddenly, and extremely curious, Brad entered the dark room, closing the door behind him so he wouldn't get caught.
Inside he found a room that looked nothing like the other rooms he'd seen. The furniture was all outdated, dusty and showed signs of being ill taken care of. The wooden nightstands showed stained rings from years of people putting their water glasses down without coasters. The beds where disgusting, sheets that obviously hadn't been cleaned in years, a mattress that looked warped and over used, and a comforter that looked as if it'd been there for centuries as you could not tell what color it should be through the dull grey filth covering it. The carpet was also a wreck, stained with dirt, clear signs of spills and burn marks left from when smoking in a hotel was legal. The curtains on the one window were moth eaten and torn from being handled roughly. But to Brad's surprise, there was a single piece of furniture that seemed to sparkle slightly in the far corner. Standing at just over 6 feet tall, made of rich dark polished wood with intricate hand carved embellishments and gold inlay, was a Grandfather clock that looked as if it belonged in a Victorian mansion, not some rundown hotel room. The clock face was made of what looked like polished ivory with all manner of gems set in to mark the numbers and time increments. The hands were gold, with a few gems set in for elegance. Looking down below, there were the inner working of a clock clearly made in a time when craftsmanship was everything. The weights were beautifully decorated; even the chains seemed to have been hand carved to match.
The only thing Brad could see wrong was that the pendulum was stuck to the far left as if frozen in mid swing, and the clock face itself was not moving. There was no sound like the ticking he'd heard in the halls, which was strange, because it had to be this clock. There was no other explanation. But why had it stopped? Brad gently opened the glass paned door to get a better look inside, jiggling the pendulum stem softly as to not break it. But it would not budge. It was jammed up tight. Closing the door and pulling up a chair, he stood up and tried to move the hands of the clock, but found they were also hopelessly stuck in place. Thinking back to when he'd visited his grandma's house, she had shown him how to get a clock similar to this started. She had said that clocks like this were mechanical, not battery powered, and sometimes needed a little push or a turn of the spring to get going. He remembered her opening up the clock face just like the door protecting the weights, and giving the gears inside a good tap, before turning a key. Figuring this to be the same, Brad opened this clock's face, and was shocked to see that even the inner gears were adorned with carvings, gems and designs. Thinking briefly that he shouldn't touch it anymore, as it was obviously very expensive, curiosity got the best of him, and he tapped the gears, then looked down and turned the key like his grandma had. Still, nothing happened and disappointed, he closed up the clock and pushed the chair away. Nearly ready to leave, there was a single loud click, then a muffed whirring noise as the gears started turning and the pendulum swung heavily back and forth. Brad smiled and looked up at the clock face just in time to see that it was about to hit 1 o'clock.
He stood for a second and waited for the big hand to land on 12, and as it did, there was an enormous loud deep chime that rattled everything in the room, Brad had felt it in his chest, his heart racing from fright. The chime echoed in the room for a few seconds before it stopped, silent again, and the clock froze once again. Feeling like he'd be caught any second after that noise rang out, he bolted to the door and raced back to his room to find his brother already fast asleep on the king sized bed. Brad looked at the time, it was 1am! He'd been in that moldy old room for 4 hours! But that couldn't be right.. it only felt like maybe 15 minutes or so. Feeling quite tired himself, and grumbling to himself that Alex had taken the already made bed, Bad pulled out the twin bed from the loveseat, stripped down to his tank top and briefs and passed out cold. He was in for a big surprise when he wakes up, the curse of the clock already taking hold on his tiny 8 year old body.