Photo Credit: Riccardo Cuppini via Compfight

 

It feels like every trembling step takes me closer to an unseen, unknown enemy. I felt like a butterfly in a spider’s web. A melody in a lonely silence.

A lone light in the jeering darkness of which I was forced to go.

Every hunk of old furniture seemed broken or tattered in some way. Splintered oak tables lay still like bloodied soldiers, their proud and elegant  engravings slashed away. Rotten, moldy  food made the air thick with  sickly sweet stenches. There were split vases and thin shards of glass strewn all over. Everywhere I looked, pieces of material lay, still and broken. It was the aftermath of a  battle; The fastidiously-made furnishings against the merciless, fearless monster.

It was obvious who had won.

Nothing in the mysterious cavern was beautiful anymore. Every intrinsic detail that had been carefully placed within the material had been shredded to dust. It was as if the Phantom was jealous of all the beautiful things in the theater. Even the candles were burned to low, gooey stubs. A pile of some fuzzy grey stuff looked hastily shoved into a corner. I picked my way over, clutching my skirts as to not let them touch the wall.

The silence was deafening. It is chilling how still everything was. Again I was reminded of how much of an outsider I was. I lightly stepped over a crumpled chair, curious. As I came closer, I could see the thin, grey coating of mold. But the shadows were still, too thick to see. What was it? Closer I crept, leaping over a battered table. Now I could catch a glimpse of something silver and shiny. But there still wasn’t enough light. What was it?Something in my brain flashed red sirens and something wrote DANGER all over the softly-glowing pile but my burning curiosity blotted it out. Perhaps if I touched it? No one would notice. I stretched my arm, closer and closer. Almost there! I could almost feel it. Just inches away, no centimeters…

OH MY GOD IT MOVED!

The moment my fingers brushed the slimy, pulsing mass, all the lights went out. I was in inky blackness. Still, it didn’t matter. My goodness, I had touched it! I had touched that-that thing–

I couldn’t stop shuddering like I was being electrocuted. After Christine became at peace, I had decided to come here to clean it out but I never expected anything so-so-so…

What?

Slowly, I struck a match and lit my candle. The flames danced and flickered and twisted but I could finally get a good look at it-whatever it was. Slowly, trembling, I lifted the candle to reveal the thing. In the darkness it looked like some kind of slimy, pulsing glob. My right hand was shaking uncontrollably so I used my left to steady it. I bent my candle forward a  bit to see it better. And at that moment, the second I was going to reveal it, I considered the thing didn’t have to be an it.

That it could be a he.

 

Photo Credit: Riccardo Cuppini via Compfight