“Kinda gloomy here isn’t it?” Whispered Crevan, poking an iron man with a beak on his face. “Hello is anybody in there?”
“Forget him, lets go. The hall is three stairs down.” Kayle persisted, anxiously looking around. Crevan ignored him and began climbing the iron man.
“Wow! He’s got no eyes Kayle! Awesome!” Crevan exclaimed, at once Kayle shushes fervently at him.
“Quiet you! The guards could’ve heard!” Kayle warned though his head told him there is nothing to fear here.
“Kayle there is nothing to fear here!” Crevan replied, Kayle gasped from the de-ja-vu. Crevan said aloud exactly what Kayle had already thought. Crevan noticed it quickly.
“What? Someone’s coming?” Crevan panicked.
“No!” Kayle hurriedly said, “Its nothing. I thought I- I saw something. It’s nothing.” Kayle assured both himself and Crevan. There was no need to get worked up over something tiny. With a sigh of relief Crevan hopped off the iron man, unaware of the inevitable reaction. Kayle watched in horror as the iron structure tilted, fell, and crashed like pots and pans.
“Kayle there is nothing to fear here!” Crevan replied, Kayle gasped ready to scream but caught himself in time. The iron man is intact it never fell. ‘Did this happen?’ Crevan continued inspecting the absent eyes of the iron man and pinched the man’s beak with awe. Kayle blinked and did a once over at the ground beside, exactly where the iron man had crashed. It did not happen, yet he saw it happen.
“Uh Crevan? Would you come down, slowly?” He empathized the word ‘slow’. Crevan grimaced and reluctantly climbed down.
“But a guy could be trapped in there!” Crevan whined.
“No there ain’t, its hollow.” Kayle remembered the crash, how the limbs came apart in pieces without a body in sight. “Let’s go. The guards are coming back.” Crevan grumbled, mumbling about ignoring those in need of rescue for selfish reasons.
The hall leading to the stairs astonished Kayle while Crevan didn’t care and was more interested in picking boogers out of his nose. The hall was richly decorated; tapestries all over the walls, carved furniture exquisitely polished, and shiny yellow metals adorned realistic paintings.
Where could the Elders get these objects? Kayle had never seen them in the city. Could the Elders be hoarding these? How could they? The answer was blurred in his eyes but nonetheless the idea is obvious. There, floating in front of his nose in slanted dark purple smoky letters.
“Greed?” Kayle spoke aloud, glancing at a painting of an old hag bent over grasping coins in her hands.
“This is it!” Crevan squealed jovially. Kayle reached and grasped the nearest doorknob; it was unusually cold, not right. “Well come on now, open it already!” Exasperated with Kayle’s stalling Crevan moved in and opened the door. The air draft was cold with a pinch of something else. It slithered around Kayle’s chest like invisible snakes. They shouldn’t be here. The hall Kayle determined to be the library is empty. Rows of useless shelves lined the walls whispered a taunting tale.
“What’s supposed to be here anyway? I don’t see nothing valuable!” Crevan sniffed, dusting the shelf with a finger.
“There’s supposed to be books here, they’re gone somewhere.” Kayle said without thinking. Thankfully Crevan didn’t hear, instead he was inspecting the shelves for anything left. He abhorred books to death and would no doubt throw a tantrum over the mention of it.
The shelves were coated thickly with one inch of grey dust and underneath it was black dust. It stuck onto Crevan’s hands then pants as he tried to wipe them off.
“They won’t come off,” Crevan mumbled. The black dust covered Crevan’s palms like second skin. His figure blurred, Kayle blinked fast as if it would set things right. The room brightened up, the color melted off the charred black walls and shelves revealing pristine white walls and rich brown shelves full of books. Crevan was nowhere to be found, vanished along with the blackness.
The door behind Kayle opened and Lord Bramblebeet stepped in hauntingly. Kayle stammered without explanation, looking into the Lord’s eyes. Expecting a furious order of consequence, but nothing. Lord Bramblebeet didn’t notice him. The Lord carried a lit torch, his head soaked sweat. Sounds of buildings crashing and tumbling overwhelmed Kayle. He didn’t have much time to think it through as Lord Bramblebeet ignited the shelves and everything on it in flames.
“Kayle! Hey stop playing!” Crevan’s voice echoed. Kayle could sense someone was shaking him but he couldn’t feel or see Crevan doing it.
The flames didn’t burn him; they weren’t scorching hot to him. Only worm on his fingertips and tickling his feet.
Lord Bramblebeet scrambled everywhere, snatching a few books before they burned. He fumbled with one of the books, screaming a few choice words and left it behind. The book was stuck between shelves; the fire ignored it and went for the other books.
Knowing the fire couldn’t hurt him, Kayle reached out for the book. The flames went through his arm and hand like a dream. The book glowed blue against the harsh fire, enchanting. His fingers tingled as it touched the book’s spine. Scripted words flew past his eyes like fine ribbons.
“Kayle!” A hard slap across the face jolted Kayle’s vision and it blurred for only a few seconds, then his senses came back with a final shove from Crevan.
“Hey!” Crevan gasped, his face blotched and red from screaming.
“You look terrible,” Kayle said softly, his mouth felt dry. “What happened to me?”
“You went blue eyed and stared at that thing! You didn’t listen to me when I told you to!” Crevan said exasperatedly.
“Blue eyed?” Kayle mumbled. A slight clatter and a shout startled both of them. They turned their head to the door they came from. For some reason Kayle wasn’t scared, as if whoever is behind the door is somebody he knew. Crevan hesitated for a moment before clenching Kayle’s arm and pulling him up/
“We gotta go, where to now?” Crevan whispered so light Kayle couldn’t hear but instinctively knew. Walking slowly backwards from the door, Kayle led Crevan to where he knew would be risky but safer than where they are now. The shouting started again with the shuffling and banging. Kayle felt a small tug in his stomach, the feeling opposite from the slithering snakes, it felt peaceful like he should go on and open the door. Too late to change his mind, they’ve reached the other exit, a black door. They went in while watching the other door, the shouting becoming indiscernible.
May 14, 2010
Categories: Unfinished Book . . Author: b.l.w. . Comments: 1 Comment
