"damn" Jack mumbled to himself, he could really use a drink right now. He tried not to drink much but this seemed like an appropriate occasion. Jack stopped himself and forced himself to look over at the people around him, if he was going to be stuck with them he should at least be able to recognize them. Jack took his time memorizing the features of everyone around him not trying to hide his studying eyes. There were three women and four men including himself he stopped at each one and gave them a nickname to help him remember. He decided to call the redhead red, the man sitting on the couch smoking he decided to name jittery, the flirtatious one that bummed a smoke he would call josie, the man who asked about the phone first he would call gadget, the other man that hadn't really moved he would call stone, the other female talking about horror films he would call ripper.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">tick tock, tick tock.</span>The sound of the clock was grating on him its ticking acting as a messenger from death saying<span style="font-style: italic">not much time left now</span>the clock seemed to be laughing at him as if it knew some morbid secret and wouldn't tell him. With every tick Jack felt a part of himself fading away and that scared the shit out of him.<br/><br/>"So does anyone know how to shut off that damn clock" Jack barked more than a little irritated he hated feeling like an inanimate object could hold so much control over him.<br/><br/>He turned away to glance down the hallway again but nothing had changed, when a sudden boom echoed through the house. The sudden noise left Jack shaking, he walked over to one of the walls and curled up on the floor against it, slowly rocking himself and weeping. It took him a moment to compose himself and he shakily stood back up and walked back over to the window hoping that the light and the cool air would help calm his fraying nerves. He rested his head against the freezing glass looking out he could barely see what looked like grass through the window. The scene did nothing to make him feel better.