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| Through Broken Glass; Winter Contest 05 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 16 2006, 09:36 PM (163 Views) | |
| Makokam | Jan 16 2006, 09:36 PM Post #1 |
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Apostate
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Through Broken Glass Winter. People bustle through the streets, motor carts chortle along the wet pavement as black billows of smoke erupt from their mufflers. Children run around the smoking cars, their legs soaked from the half melted snow. Middle aged women sit contently in their small apartments, knitting warm socks for their children while the men return from work in the plants. It is these plants that make London work, as their workers are paid in the products they produce. It is very cold in London. A young women sits in her home, a flickering candle beside a stack of books, reading them intently through a pair of old broken eyeglasses. The world looks different though broken glass. This particular girl is very strange. While everyone else is working in the plants or knitting small and meager bits of clothing, little Rae is hard at work reading her old books and writing odd symbols on bits of old newspaper. She is a very strange girl. An older man walks alone past the remains of Westminster Abbey, past its broken Rose Window. His eyes are worn and hidden by scratched and darkened glasses. He shivers and pulls the long black scarf around his neck and face tighter with one hand and holds his jacket closed with the other. The man hates the cold. He is very much alone. Rae flipped the little sign on the door of the bookshop to “Closed” and stepped into the snow outside. Juggling a stack of books while pulling a scarf around her neck, Rae slid the key into the door and locked it firmly. Sighing, she made her way though the streets, dodging the motor carts returning to their homes. Business was slowly getting worse; people no longer had interest in the words and knowledge of the past. She supposed that it wasn’t entirely unexpected; people ebbed and flowed with the same mistakes throughout time, continuously falling into the same rhythm. There was no helping it; it was just human nature to err the same errs forever. The most she could do is stand against history, hold out against the weakness of humanity and learn from her mistakes, her pain, her memories. She was now almost to the Abbey Ruins; it was often her favorite place to sit and read when she needed a change from the stuffy rooms of the bookstore. It was a quiet place that where no one bothered her, because no one cared enough to seek it out. As she approached the large wooden doors of the southern entrance she glances up at the few remaining shards of glass and smiled, thinking how beautiful it must have been when the sun could shine through the many pieces of colored glass to the great hall inside. Such a time has been lost. Pushing aside the half shattered doors and mounds of accumulated snow, Rae beheld the glistening world inside the Abbey’s broken remains. As she made her way though this frozen hallowed place towards the main hall, she felt short of breath. Something was different today though, something in the air wasn’t the same…something felt wrong. It was the smell, not through the nose but the aura, the soul. The air was metallic and sick, dark and morbid. The air smelt of death. Throwing the doors to the main chapel open, the young girl staggered back. A tall figure clothed in black stood silhouetted against the snow. His long scarf dancing on the breath of the sky, his upturned face exposed to the sky that crept through the hall’s dilapidated roof. Rae was shocked and for some reason irritated by this figures presence. This was her spot, her place, what business did he have here? “Who are you?” she asked. The man turned his head and looked at her for a moment before answering. “My name is Gabriel.” “Well um….what are you doing here?” she asked, her curiosity taking a sharp upturn. Gabriel looked back to the clouded sky before replying. “Romancing the fates.” “But why are you here? No one comes here anymore.” “You do, I do… I think that’s enough to count as someone.” Rae smiled. “I suppose you’re right. My name is Rae, I come here to read, but why are you here?” Gabriel turned to look at her again before replying quite simply, “This is where I speak with the angels. This is where I stand between heaven and hell.” Rae started moving towards Gabriel, entranced by his voice and words. “What do you mean? What do you know of the Old Beliefs?” “What I know….I know absolutely nothing. Just a name and voices…” Worried that the man was mad, Rae asked concernedly, “What do they say to you?” Shivering, a tear ran down Gabriel’s down turned face, “Absolutely nothing.” Pitifully taking him by the hand, Rea spoke softly, “You’re cold, come back to my place to warm up. Besides, it’ll be dark soon, and we don’t want to be out here when the wolves come.” Gabriel looked down at his thick gloved hand against the petite hand of Rae, a faint smile crept behind his scarf as he nodded his head in acknowledgement. Reaching down he picked up a long spear hidden in the snow. “You’re a rogue aren’t you?...You’ve been out here alone for a long time haven’t you?” Gabriel nodded gently. Rae knitted her brow and led him from the Hall. They arrived as the last person shut their door and locked up in preparation for the night. “Here hold these” shoving the stack of books into Gabriel’s arms, Rae pulled her keys out and opened the door to the warmth of the bookstore. “Come in come in” she said hastily as she shoved aside numerous stacks of books and papers as she made her way back to where her living quarters sat. “Just set them down on the desk over there,” she called over her shoulder as she busied herself in the small kitchen brewing some tea. Soon after she sat herself down across from Gabriel at the small table beside the sofa and armchair, sipping the hot drink carefully. Gabriel pulled off the long flowing scarf and Rae let out a little gasp. His face was rough with a half shaven beard yet sculpted and handsome. He sipped his tea contently not noticing Rae’s intent stare towards his visage. “Why don’t you take off those glasses, its already dim in here, you must not be able to see a thing,” she sad reaching for Gabriel’s glasses. He pushed her hand away softly. “I’ll manage,” he said with a little laugh, “I don’t show my eyes to most people.” Rae shook her head and smiled. “Well then I’ll just have to not be like most people!” Gabriel looked away. “…You don’t have a home do you?” Gabriel shook his head, his medium black hair glimmering in the candlelight. “How long have you been out there?” “Longer than time itself it seems. Death is cruel to me. Day after day it refuses to carry me off to sweet slumber, to my eternal peace. Fate seems cast against me, so that I may be forced to live on until my final judgment. I feel that I am doomed to be eternal as this body lives on where my soul dies again and again in an endless dance of suffering. I am…..tired. The angels told me that I would find the answers there, in the church…” Rae was moved. Gabriel sounded crazy, yes, but his pain was so...genuine. What if what he was saying was true? “Tomorrow then,” she proposed, “tomorrow we’ll go back and look for your answers.” Gabriel smiled, “I’d like that….thank you.” With a yawn, “but for now I must sleep…would you mind if…?” “Not at all, let me get you a warm blanket,” Several hours later Rae was still pouring over her books, searching for something relating to the man now sleeping on the couch. Walking over to him quietly, she began examining the glimmer of silver that had caught her attention moments before. Clenched between his hands was a small pendant. She reached down carefully to slide it from his hands but he moved when she drew near and the pendant fell to the floor. She picked it up and retreated slowly as not to wake Gabriel before sliding into the chair of the desk. The pendant was of a silvery white cross with a black serpent wrapped around it, intricately forged and yet breathtakingly simple. Grabbing her book of ancient symbols she flipped through it quickly and found what she was looking for. One the page was a drawing of a pendent identical to the one she now held in her hand. The passage read: Iudicium Mortis – An ancient symbol used to represent the forces of light and dark. Often used in Zoroastrian rituals to represent the passage through death and judgment to heaven or hell. Considered to be neither evil nor good, the Iudicium Mortis is often regarded as a symbol of balance and equality. Rae had no idea what to think at this point, she had a start but no where to go, not tonight at least. Gabriel knew about as much as she did so the only chance they had to find some answers was at the Abbey the next day. Rae awoke with her face plastered to the page of her symbol book. The pendant next to her the night before was gone and Gabriel had taken his spear and had undoubtedly left to the Abbey again. Gathering her things she ran out the door nearly forgetting to lock it. When she arrived at the chapel and pushed open the doors again, Gabriel stood in the same place he had been a day before, face upturned to the sky again. “Hello again Rae, are you ready to search?” Rae nodded and the two began searching. It was not long before Rae found something behind the main alter. Inscribed into the stone floor was a symbol much like the pendant that hung around Gabriel’s neck. She tried to push on it in hopes of doing something but nothing happened; though as soon as Gabriel’s hand came near, the symbol recessed into the ground leaving a small slot. “Here, try putting the pendant in there…” suggested Rae, and sure enough her suspicions were confirmed as it slid perfectly into the hole. When Gabriel turned the exposed end like a key the ground began shaking violently as a ground panel began sliding back to reveal a spiral staircase leading deep underground. Pulling the pendent from the ground and heaving the spear onto his shoulder, Gabriel plunged into the depths of the earth unafraid, a rather skittish Rae in tow. “Aren’t you afraid of the dark?” asked Rae in a rather nervous tone. “I find the same comfort in darkness as I do in light.” “And how much is that?” Gabriel chuckled, “Not much.” The scene that opened before them as they reached the bottom of the staircase erupted into view with the sudden ignition of several torches placed around the walls. Thousands of books lined the innumerable bookshelves seated on the stone floor. Rae, caught in a fit of glee ran to them “Gabriel! This is what we’re looking for! A Secret library! Think of how much there is to learn in here!” “It’s this one,” he said calmly dusting off a thick book, the Iudidicum Mortis burnt into the cover. “Rae,” he called to her, “I can’t read this.” “But I can!” She laughed, dancing cheerfully over to the book. “Well that’s because it’s in Latin, It says, “The Book of the Dead.” Rae pushed the book’s heavy cover open and began reading, slowly though, her Latin was a little rusty. “This place makes me uneasy…I’ll wait above.” “Wait, what? Aren’t you going to help…” but he was already gone. Rae poured over the book for hour it seemed. Most of it contained incantations and rituals related to death, meaningless babble for the task at hand. Soon lighting could be heard above, the patter of rain soon followed. The black scarf whipped in the rushing winds that assaulted the roof of Abbey. Gabriel braced himself against a turret with his spear as he turned his face to the oncoming rain. “Oh Gabriel…” called the wind. “Come to us Gabriel…” roared the lighting. “What do you want of me?” he cried to the sky “What do you ask of me to do so that I might find some answers?” The lighting flashed and a man appeared on the base of a spire. His long black hair was tied in a ponytail that hung past his waist. It framed his thin handsome face, perfectly sculpted goatee and mouth. His long black suit fluttered in the wind. “The girl…” The wind howled and behind Gabriel a flurry of quite feathers. A woman, clad in golden armor, her silvery hair left to blow freely in the wind, slapping at her face. A pair of white wings protruded from her delicate back. “The girl is meddling in things that she should not be.” “How do you expect me to find any answers in this reduced state without help?!” Gabriel asked angrily. The man in black snickered “Do not question us.” The woman in white sneered “We are your Gods, you will do as we say and remove that girl from this world!” Gabriel sneered in anger, this was not right… “So be it,” he grumbled. As if on cue Rae burst from the ladder leading from the hall to the roof. “Gabriel! I figured it out!” Gabriel leveled the end of his spear as Rae’s throat, her shocked face barely visible through the storm. “I’m sorry Rae…” “You’re Death…” she stammered, looking around she saw the man and the woman “And those are…” “I know who we are now…” “Gabriel don’t do this.” “I have to.” He sighed before slamming the butt of the spear into the chest of the woman behind him. “Rae! Go!” “What is this?!” grunted the woman as she pulled a gleaming white blade from her armor. “You must be punished for this insolence Death.” Smirked the man in black before drawing a flaming black sword from his coat. “Insolence? Where must the God of Judgment hail to the Gods of Heaven and Hell? Now I know what this means, what the lack of passion and affection means. You deprived me of the humanity I now love so dearly and therefore you seek to destroy it. You claim to be the final fates, the end of all things; when really you are just the manipulators! You toy and play with the lives of people, strip away their humanity to please your own twisted desires. You force me to pass judgment on them and deem me Death, the final judge. If this is the case I deep you to be unworthy of your existence, of your power, and I will damn you both to chaos and oblivion!” Driving his spear into the ground, Gabriel vaulted himself into the air with inhuman speed, only to slam into the ground near the man. Spear tip was met with flaming sword as Gabriel made swift and deliberate jabs at the man’s face. “Really now, what to you possibly hope to accomplish?” the man laughed. The woman lunged at Gabriel, sword gleaming with holy light. “You cannot take us, we created you, and you will behave as such!” the woman screamed. Rae watched on in terror as Gabriel fought his hardest to hold off the Gods but it was not long before the woman slammed her armored elbow into the back of Gabriel’s head, sending him to the ground. He struggled to rise but an armored foot pressed down on his neck. The woman reached down and grabbed a tuft of hair, pulling Gabriel’s head up to face the general direction of Rae. “See her standing there? Oh wait that’s right.” Her other hand slammed into Gabriel’s face, shattering his glasses. Rae gasped, Gabriel’s eyes were blank and grey, worn and blind. “Too bad he won’t see you die” whispered the man in Rae’s ear as his hand slip over he mouth and the sword through her abdomen. It was at that moment where Gabriel understood what it meant to see. It was not through the eyes of the body, but through the eyes of the soul that Death learned to see. Passion for life found a non existent soul in Death, and it was at that moment, through his broken glasses, that Gabriel saw what he was, and what he loved. Sneering ripped away from the woman, grabbing her petite throat and wrenching her off the ground. “You have interfered for the last time.” He sneered, pulling back his arm he flung the woman like a rag doll against the man, the two slamming into a spire which crumbled upon impact. By the time the two had time to react, they were pulled from the rubble by their throats. Gabriel ascended to the sky, dragging the beaten gods with him. “This will be your Judgment Day.” Turning to the earth Gabriel drug the two shattered figures earthward, smashing though the roof of the Abbey. As they slammed into the ground the earth shook and opened up and the sky seemed to erupt in fire. Emotion. Fate. Pain. Happiness. Light. Dark. Good. Evil. Life. Death. Time stood still as everything that would ever be or ever was, expressed at the exact same moment. Heaven and Hell collapsed upon one another and fell unto the earth into a single moment of eternality. Little Rae sits at home reading her books and running a fine hairbrush through her gossamer hair. She smiles and looks at the pendent laying on the desk next to her. The spear leans against the far wall, the coat on the oak coat rack. They are memoirs of a man who knew it was not her time. She flicks off the electric lamp beside her and stands from her favorite desk. Opening the front door she steps into the cheerful streets, cars bump along the smoothly paved roads, birds chip and sing to the songs of children coming from play in the parks. Rae smiles and looks off into the distance, a figure walking over the hill, silhouetted against the remains of Westminster Abbey, the sun shining through every beautiful facet of its broken Rose window. Her summer had come at last. |
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THIS is my side, THIS is the demiltarized zone, and THAT is your side. "Good and Evil" is too complicated. I prefer, "Us and Them". ![]() Xantarcube: *Throws Makokam down on the bed* Dalmar: Dalmar runs from no man! ... Bees, on the other hand... ![]() Join the Dark Side If you ever wonder what to do in life, ask What Would Jack Bauer Do, because what Jack Bauer would do sure as hell will get things done faster than what Jesus would do. | |
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