All was silent in the void about her.

Where am I?

Then... dazzling flickers pierced the dark, bursting alight to reveal waves of stars overhead. Brilliant swells of astral tide swept across the expanse, illuminating celestial skies.

She was standing alone at the centre of the Circle of Nychthemeron, dressed in her cerulean guardian robes. Surrounding her were the other temporal guardians standing at their places; the eyes of all her sister and brother Hours closed in sleep.

No.

Not all.

The Twenty-fourth Hour was watching her from where he stood beside her sigil, his now twin eyes of night slotted with mirth.

"Welcome home, Twenty-third." Midnight smiled. He gestured with his staff to her place, upon which sat a little girl.

"Mommy!"

The deep tolling of a bell sounded as she felt herself pulled forward.

_____

She awoke with a gasp, her eyes snapping open to the ceiling above.

The blades of the bedroom ceiling fan cast slow, whirring shadows; their movement hypnotic, soothing, in the glow of the streetlamp through the window... or would have been, if not for the jarring rings of the antique phone on the nightstand.

Her clumsy fingers struggled to lift the heavy handset.

She grimaced before pressing the handset to her ear. What was that acrid stench? It stung her nose and eyes and she swallowed back hard. Her mouth was so dry. Her tongue felt like sandpaper.

"H-hello?"

"Maya!" She tensed at the woman's loud voice. "You're sleeping? So then you and Zoe are ok. Where the hell'd you disappear to this afternoon? If it weren't for everything in the city going to shit, I don't think I could've covered for you with the boss. I've been trying to reach you on your cell. The network's down. It's good I know your landline number. Girl, what's going on? What happened? Where'd you go?!"

Before she could form a coherent thought, a faint background voice on the line called out "Gracie?!"

"Coming, Grams!" The woman's shout sounded away from the receiver, then came back strong. "Sorry, Maya. I'm at my grandmother's," the woman rattled on, her barrage of questions seemingly forgotten. "Grams was having all sorts of problems with her alarm system and the power going on and off. I'm using her landline too –hold on– 'Yes, Grams! I'm coming!' Power's back on again. Gotta go. Grams keeps freaking at the news on TV when it comes on. Ok, as long as you and Zoe are alright. You'll have to let me know what the hell happened tomorrow. You should probably clock in early to make good with the boss. 'I'm coming, Grams, I'm com—'". The line clicked.

The woman had hung up.

You should probably clock in early.

Clock?

She dragged her bleary gaze towards the opposite side of the room. The handset crashed to the floor.

The iron clock centred on the wall was smoking. It was stopped right on the cusp of midnight, the last minute stabbed through by a kitchen knife.

The message scrawled on the wall beside it dripped in rivulets of red.

it's in your hands

She sucked in a sharp breath when her left palm suddenly burned and opened her hand to see an angry, gaping slash across it.

The fingers of her right hand were sticky with blood.

Her head shot up at a flapping sound, and she thought she saw the swoop of a shadow in the corner of the bedroom. But when she peered harder into the darkness there, there was nothing more. Without thinking, she rubbed her eyes, remembering too late the state of her hands.  She pulled them away fast only to stare in confusion. The left no longer burned. The cut was gone, the blood from her right fingers too. When she glanced back up, the wall and the clock were back to normal; the time now a quarter to midnight. Upon the nightstand, the handset was back on the phone.

She drew in a slow breath. Only the fresh breeze of the night air through the open window filled the room. There was no more smell of smoke and blood.

Sleepy, she was so very sleepy.

Laying her head back on her pillow, she closed her eyes.

_____

She awoke with a gasp to the soft brush of lips against her forehead.

Daniel's gentle smile greeted her when she opened her eyes.

"Hey, sleepyhead." He kissed the tip of her nose. "I don't recall ever waking up before you. You're always the one who's awake. Were you having a bad dream?"

Dream?

She shook her head, not sure what he was going on about. She'd never dreamed, nor did she ever sleep for real, just for fun.

Maya snuggled against Daniel whose arms pulled her closer. She pressed her cheek against his neck, breathing in his warm scent.

"You sure?"

She raised her head to look at him.

"You kept murmuring something about stopping midnight." Daniel reached up and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Midnight?" She frowned. "What time is it now?"

"It's a quarter to. Was there something you'd planned on doing at the last minute again?" he laughed quietly.

Maya moved her hand to cup the side of Daniel's face illuminated by the streetlamp, and watched a tear splash down on his cheek. She ran her fingers through his soft beard then over his head of curls.

"Why are you crying, Maya?"

"Because you're not really here."

Daniel stroked the back of her head.

"I love you," he said.

What sounded like the flapping of wings distracted her, and a bird-like shadow flew across the wall. A bird? Had one flown in the open window?

"Maya?"

"Hmm?"

"You need to remember all of it now and really wake up." Daniel held her head gently in his hands, his thumbs wiping across her damp cheeks. "You can't wait til the last minute this time. You need to be there for Zoe. Only you can help her. Wake up, Maya. Wake up."

Maya awoke with a gasp. Alone. She stared at the teddy bear she clutched tightly, its face wet from her tears. Zoe had left it on the bed this morning.

This morning...

...this afternoon...

...this night.

Zoe.

Maya jolted upright, her eyes fixed on her Clock.

It was a quarter to midnight, three quarters past the start of her Watch.

She'd truly fallen asleep, and truly dreamed. And now she had almost no time left. She reached out with her magic. The way to the Circle was free and clear.

Midnight was waiting, she could sense it. Zoe, I'm coming. Hold on.

But what could she do? She thought of Eleventh's broken Clock and what she'd dreamt of the blood message and knife. Maya jumped out of bed and ran to her Clock.

Grabbing the minute hand, she gritted her teeth and snapped it off with a pulse of her magic, slicing open her palm in the process. Warm blood dripped between her fingers as she held the minute hand fast. She knew she wasn't powerful enough to stop Midnight outright, but maybe she could buy herself a moment to save Zoe. Send the child back to Earth somewhere. An orphan of time, but alive.

Maya glanced at the bed, where Daniel had just been, in her dream.

Focus. She needed to focus. She knew she would only have the one chance to get it right, to arrive at the exact spot she wanted to arrive. Luckily her Twenty-fourth brother's inflated power was like a beacon.

There was no more time to waste.

Drawing a ragged breath, she raised her arm high, and jumped to the Circle.

_____

A cascading sweep of silver hair and ebony robes filled her view. She'd succeeded. And in her next breath, Maya brought her arm down swift and hard, throwing her magic behind it to stab the pointed end of her Clock's minute hand between Midnight's shoulder blades. It pierced through and sank deep. Yet Midnight did not react.

"Mommy!" Zoe cried out. She was standing on her Twenty-third Hour's sigil.

"Zoe, run!" Maya threw herself sideways to be able to catch her daughter in her arms. Except Zoe stayed where she was. Her little fists pounded against an invisible wall.

"Mommy! I can't get out!" Midnight's magic surrounded the sigil, trapping Zoe upon it.

Maya scrambled to her feet and dashed backwards, for Midnight was now turning slowly towards her, reaching his arm behind him, laughing.

"Run where, Twenty-third?" he chuckled, "off the Circle and into space?"

She watched him feel behind his back and clutch the protruding spike, yanking it out.

"Hmm, you got behind me without my sensing your arrival. Interesting.  Perhaps I should be questioning how that could've happened but I find myself much too amused instead. I will ponder the when, wheres, and hows of all this on the morrow."

He studied the iron piece he held. 

"Is this from your Clock, Twenty-third? It is, isn't it.  You broke your own Clock. Oh, well done, well done."

Then Midnight frowned, his thumb slipping along the piece's wet jagged edge. "Blood?" he murmured. "Acquired a bit of a dramatic flair for theatre over the human centuries, have we, Twenty-third?  Or should I be asking 'Et tu, Brute?' instead?  Too bad gods do not bleed."

He tossed the bloodied metal piece to the ground at his feet.

"Mommy! I can't get out!" Zoe cried again, squatting down with her hands splayed flat against the energy barrier trapping her. Then her voice cut off, the wall made sound-proof after an irritated glare from Midnight.

"That's better." He looked at Maya expectantly. "Well, then. You're not really going to keep us all waiting until the last minute, are you Twenty-third?" he asked with a smile. "Come now. Come join your daughter."

"Go to Hell!" she shouted, continuing to back away as she desperately considered what to do next with her magic useless against him.

Her foot caught on something soft when she reached the Circle's centre. She nearly tripped. A blanket? She ignored it, her attention divided and torn between her daughter, Midnight, and the pale, still figures of all her other sisters and brothers; standing at their places like in her dream. Immobile. Asleep. Trapped in suspended animation. Maya's heart ached as she cast furtive glances to either side of her while she continued to retreat.

First, the intelligence wiped from his brow.

Second, who so adored to imbibe human cultures' food and drink.

Her beautiful, musical Fourth sister, ethereal even in sleep.

The sharp-eyed Twenty-second.

Twentieth, who loved gatherings

The ever-organized Nineteenth.

Quiet and mild-mannered Seventh.

The talkative Eighth who could chat away a century if you let him.

Tenth, who could run faster than the wind.

The philosophical Fifteenth.

Lucky Thirteenth with his gift for making predictions.

And lastly, her eyes fell upon her sweet brother Eleventh, all the warm humour absent from his blank face.

Maya stopped when she backed against Noon's place. The grand, matronly Twelfth Hour who stood directly across from Midnight, grand no longer. If the Hour of the highest point of Day had been unable to stop Midnight, what chance did she have? Maya clenched her fists, her bloody palm on fire. She mustn't give up, even if she were only stalling the inevitable.

"Let my daughter go! What can a child do to you?"

Midnight scoffed.

"Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore," he gave a slight mocking bow, "But this whole affair has thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before."

She thought she recognised the lines he quoted. Poe? Was he quoting Poe to her?

Midnight stood straighter, opening out his arms slightly.

"As Supreme Hour, I take my responsibility very seriously." His gaze swept over all the Hours as he spoke as if addressing them all. "It was, and is, my sacred duty to maintain the sanctity of the Circle. Why be upset? I am returning things to how they should be. How they should have always remained. I have been more than patient, have I not? Allowing all of you to sow your wild oats, so to speak, amongst the humans." Midnight levelled an amused smile at Maya. "Though bravo to you, Twenty-third, for taking that to the literal extreme. Who would have guessed it could be done?"  He leaned against his staff now. "But sanctity must be maintained. That is my sacred duty," he repeated, nodding to himself.

Duty?! "What of your actions, Midnight?" she called out across the Circle to him. "Don't you realise what's happening on Earth? What's happening to the flow of Time? Our duty is, and always has been, to humanity."

Midnight's smile froze on his face. The stars in his eyes flashed with an icy glare.

"Humanity... You've become so corrupted by humanity that you've lost your ability to keep track of your Watch. It's almost time for the Twenty-third Hour of the Circle to hand off the last minute."

Maya felt a tug upon her body. It came and went quickly, then returned again stronger, jerking her forward with a single forced step. Her magic was indeed useless. Midnight wanted to make sure she knew who was in control. She began staggering helplessly forward.

"Come to your sigil and hand me the last minute willingly," Midnight said, his voice cold and hard, "and I will let the child go free."

LIAR! she wanted to scream but didn't. Zoe's stricken face was staring at her through the invisible wall around her sigil. She didn't know if Zoe could hear them and didn't want her to understand the truth in case she could.

Midnight raised his staff high.

The tugs became a crushing hold upon her body and she was dragged upright back across the Circle's centre, her feet skidding painfully against the stone surface as her mortal clothing transformed to her robes whipping in the rising cosmic wind.

She could see Zoe's silent calling out, the child's lips moving and her eyes that matched Daniel's widening as she watched her mother's transformation and approach.

"You will surrender, Twenty-third. You cannot stop me from seizing the final minute from you."

Her body passed through the barrier around her sigil easily.

"Mommy!"

Zoe's arms wrapped tightly about her mother's hips but Maya couldn't embrace her back. Her body was fixed in place, unable to move, unable to speak.

Her sigil grew warm beneath her. It was now the last minute of the day. The end of her Watch was upon them.

Midnight on his sigil extended his hand towards her.

Screaming inwardly, she was helpless to stop her own arm being forced to rise, her bleeding hand extending towards Midnight.

Then Zoe's arms let go of her hips and the little girl grabbed onto her rising arm, pulling it down.

"You can't take it from her!" Zoe shouted at Midnight. "Let go of my mommy!" She pinned Maya's arm between their bodies.

Maya saw Midnight's expression darken. The earlier flash of hate now one of rage. He stormed off his sigil. His staff pounded in time with his footfalls as he approached them.

He was going to wrench them apart. He was going to do something to Zoe. Tears streamed down Maya's face as she looked down at her daughter. "I love you, Zoe," she managed to force out in a hoarse whisper. "And I'm so sorry. Close your eyes, baby. Don't look."

When Midnight reached them, he thrust his hand through the wall towards Zoe's head.

But then the stars went out, and all was plunged into darkness, until the heartbeat of a moment passed and a radiant light erupted from the centre of the Circle.

"What is this?!" Midnight's roar echoed, then fell silent.

_____

Midnight stared aghast at the small hand nestled in his. Zoe smiled up at him as she entwined their fingers.

In her other hand, the little girl held her mother's.

And it was thus that the last minute of the day passed to the child.

He bellowed his rage... and his horror.

Then it was he who could no longer move or speak, struggle as he might. Not even when a brilliant light soared and flashed overhead.

Zoe said something to him but he couldn't make out the words. The pounding of his panicked heart was too loud in his head, for something was beginning to happen to his staff which he couldn't let go of.

Though the child had no such difficulty with his hand.

_____

Maya felt the last minute drawn from her when small, warm fingers clasped her bleeding hand in the dark. When light returned, she found she could move again and her knees nearly buckled. Such was the incredible rush of relief she felt at the sight of her daughter unharmed, albeit smiling up at a motionless, powerless Midnight whose hand she held as well.

Something tumbled past in a gust of wind. The blanket. Maya blinked at the source of light coming from the centre of the Circle. Whatever it was must have been hidden beneath the blanket. 

Wait.

Was that Zoe's projector?

As if it'd been waiting for her to take notice, the projector rose off the surface of the Circle and began shooting beams of radiant colours skywards. It then launched itself into space, exploding in a blinding flash. Within seconds, the heavens were alight once more.

"Now it really is my birthday. I was born at the last minute, you know," Zoe said brightly to Midnight. She let go of his hand.

A strange hum filled the air. It came from Midnight's now vibrating staff. And as one, all the sleeping Hours' eyes snapped open.

Cracks of light appeared in the middle of the staff, splitting into twisted tendrils which rapidly spread from top to bottom, growing wider.  They spread up Midnight's arm and over his entire body, pouring into his open silent screaming mouth and into his nose and into his ears.  When his twin eyes of night imploded into black holes, his tearing robes spread open wing-like, only to disintegrate with his body in a whirl of shredded cloth and stardust.

"Twenty-third!" The First Hour rushed over to a swaying Maya, gripping her shoulders to steady her.

"Maya! Zoe!" Her Eleventh brother raced across the Circle to them, encompassing both in his arms.

Zoe's arms wrapped around her hips again. "It's ok, Mommy. Don't cry. It's my birthday."

Maya dropped to her knees and hugged Zoe tightly to her, at once elated but also nervous about the confused murmurs and exclamations of the other Hours gathering around them. There could be no hiding Zoe now.

"Let me through." First and Eleventh stepped apart to let Noon pass.

When Zoe saw the Twelfth Hour, she reached into her jumper pocket and withdrew the restored cuckoo which she held out.  Noon stared in amazement at both it and the girl.

"Little one, have you called the new day?" Noon asked.

Zoe nodded and laughed cheerfully, her headful of curls bobbing as she smiled at all the Hours. "Yes! It's a new day. It's my birthday and my name is Zoe!"

_____

Back on Earth, in Maya and Zoe's Here and Now, the temporal guardians quickly discovered that the previous day had started over. Maya's Clock was intact, as were each of the other Hours'. Their Watches had reset. Nothing that had happened in the last 24 hours to humanity remained. Everything that had gone wrong never happened. It was the solstice once again.

Maya freely used her magic to block any sound reaching Mrs. Schultz downstairs as the Hours moved about the apartment and talked. Just to be safe though, she set the coffeemaker to brew, so the woman wouldn't become suspicious of it being too quiet.

There were many questions about what to do next. Should they leave the Circle abandoned? As none wished to return there, they decided to continue living in their mortal Here and Nows. Given the new Midnight was a child of both worlds reassured them of their decision.

"I'm the new Midnight?" Zoe had exclaimed.

"The Twenty-Fourth Hour is now you, child, since you called the new day," Noon had declared.

"Can I still have pizza for my birthday?"

The Hours had laughed though Maya could see Noon studying Zoe with burning curiosity. But she was kind to the little girl, showing her how the cuckoo popped out of her Clock to make her laugh. 

Zoe was remarkably unafraid given all that happened and was going on. No worse the wear for learning she was a child of mortal and guardian. She seemed to be taking in joyful stride the many new uncles and aunts she now had.

"A child of two worlds," Eleventh kept saying to Maya, as if he'd known all along. "Both tied to the heavens and to the earth, as it should always have been," he insisted. He ruffled Zoe's hair to make her giggle. First listened in thoughtful silence as he checked Maya's hand where she'd bled then checked over Zoe who was sitting on Eleventh's lap.

Maya was at a loss for words. Zoe, the new Midnight? It was hard to  believe. But whatever tomorrow may bring, she would always be there for her daughter.  Her future was already tied to her anyway.  The setting of one day brought the dawning of the next.

Speaking of dawn, the first rays of morning light streaked across the eastern sky through the kitchen window. The same day may have restarted but the weather had changed.  It was going to be sunny from the beginning this time.

𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

Zoe told her mother she wanted to get one of her books to show Uncle Kanja, and hopped off his lap to get it from her bedroom. Luckily, none of her aunts or other uncles were there. Closing her door, she went to her window.

"But the Raven, sitting lonely," she whispered, looking at the large, stately raven sitting upon a tree branch nearby. It looked back at her. Then its eyes flashed silver and it spread its wings and took flight, chasing the retreating darkness of the passing night.

~ 𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔰 ~

__________

A heartfelt ♥thank you♥ to everyone who kindly voted and patiently stuck with this eccentric, quirky, experimental, gothic, paranormal, fantasy, first-draft-of-a-novella of mine over the last 11 months.  It was my first-ever time writing a novella. There were so many details and ideas I held back to keep the tale short so I now have quite the treasure trove from which I hope to develop the story and expand it into a full-length novel someday. Take care everyone! ~Lisa

I would like to dedicate Midnight Calling to Marie Bisset and lhansenauthor, both of whom have gone above and beyond encouraging me and supporting me in my current writing adventures.