Time

All night she lay awake, her skin tingling, her legs restless. She was trapped in an uncontrollable, inescapable fear.Immobilised by anxiety. She found herself dreading the inevitable arrival of the dawn. She envisaged herself pushing, pushing, pushing against a moving wall of daylight, trying to hold it back. But day after day the harsh sunlight invaded her room and the little red clock on her bedside table shrieked at her mercilessly. She hated marking time. She hated the way instruments that were designed to do exactly that were scattered across every surface in her room. Clocks, watches, timetables dominated her life. Even in here: her only refuge. And the bedside clock, the little daemon that heralded the coming of the dawn was the worst of them all. An evil despot. The king of all clocks. Time is the greatest dictator of all.