Clad in Embers Chapter 2 (Forgive my spelling)
Howard shook slightly as he stood nude in the crampt shower compartment. He kept his eyes trained on the showerhead and it's monotonous drip, drip, drip as well as what he swore was a continually spreading black rust. He diddnt move, save fore occasionally lifting his hand to brush aside his wet bangs. He felt his chest shudder with every breath, his skin pricked by the cold and his own sense of detachment with everything. The dim light-blue light panel set into the ceiling above him added a feeling of surreality to his already misty view of himself. He watched the next drop plummet to the floor of the shower, watched it as it sailed through the air downward and impacted harshly on the marble tile. He focused on the drop as it struck the floor, noticing that it sent a massive surge of water around him, filling the slightly depressed shower floor up to his heel. He looked up and followed the next, with the same effect. He smiled and watched yet another, his grin disappearing when it froze meer inches from the quickly filling puddle at his feet. He watched it and began to entertain the want to touch it, when he saw the water at his feet begin to swirl and turn a pitch black. He lifted his feet and saw they had been tainted by the inky substance but made no move to leave, instead he watched in his amused state for a bit longer. The drop above the water began to lengthen and elongate at it's center, the water becoming a thin dresslike sheet separating the narrow top from the rounded bottom. The drop began to spin and twirl, changing a strange pink from its center. It was then that Howard realized that the droplet was dancing, and that it had become a miniature dancer, small and graceful above a massive sea of black. He reached back to feel the wall of the shower and saw that it was gone, and that he was standing alone in the center of a massive black lake, with grassy shores on all sides. He shrugged off his suprise and watched the droplet intently as it continued to move, and even fancied he heard a small tune emerging in his head. As the dancer continued to move, the song in his head became louder and more understandable, and he couldnt help humming along with the famiiar lyrics, "So fancy me a petty lad and save yourself a cry, for nothing lasts beyond this point, the Gods all foolish cads." The dancer spun and twirled faster and faster, becoming taller and taller, more defined, gaining apendages and even some facial features. "Say ye not to be accused, of loss of love and degrade my heart, for foolish children know of this place, and Men shall never stray." The dancer began to bound this way and that, her legs becoming sinewy and more alive, her face showing sides of a sly smile. Howard yearned to grasp her, to hold her, to feel her, she was the exact opposite of his world within the sterile prison that he called home, she was vibrant and alive, she was beautiful and different. He brought his leg forward and saw it liquidate as it came into contact with the air. He collapsed in a screaming mess onto his knees, realizing that any movement would come with the same exact result. He kept his eyes trained on the dancer none the less and cried out to her, "Please, Tell me your name!" the dancer let out a soft, musical sigh and continued dancing. Howard lifted himself, straining his muscles and saw even more of himself deteriorate to nothingness. He thrust his arm forward to halt himself from plummeting into the degrading fluid. He looked at the dancer and watched in sadness as she continued to dance in her carefree way. At this time he noticed long tendrils of the black fluid rising from the water, dancing as she was, yet keeping their inhuman appearance. He shouted, "Love, Watch yourself!" but to no avail. She spun in the center of the gathering crowd and ignored the daemonic forms. Howard Cried out in pain and threw himself forward, loosing himself and landing flat on the right side of his face, and as he writhed in his own helpless sorrow, he saw the forms close in around the dancer, their arms linking, their mouths opening and revealing fanged maws that grew larger and larger in anticipation of their meal. Howard Shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to make something happen, but to no avail. As the forms all surrounded the dancer completely, he saw a new singular being rise from their center, a being not wholy of substance. What seemed like her hair was flowing like a dark violet river from a beautifuly shaped head of luminescent light with only a pair of serious and piercing eyes of radiant Gold with specks of the lightest brown throughout. Her slender from was draped in robes of radiant, changing color that continually ran like fresh paint on a new canvas. Her eyes locked on Howard and narrowed, showing contempt mixed with a slight hinting of pity and sorrow. She uttered no words but instead sank back into the huddled crowd of dark beings that had enveloped Howard's beautiful and oblivious dancer. As the last of her shape disapeared, the beings separated and revealed the dancer yet again, but she was no longer that childish hue of pink, now she was drenched in the darkest shroud of red. To Howard's horror she was disemboweled, with her flesh removed from below her breasts to the bottom of her feet. She continued her dance, though now it was more macab then divine, and her eyes opened to reveal that they as well were absent. Howard Shut his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to drown out the song which was still playing in his mind, the final verse too unbearable to listen to, "Be gone, from me, you see my faults, and thus you no longer hold with me, a look, meant to, entrance and subdue, your body a plaything and your spirit never gone." He tried to move, any way possible, but found himself still entrapped by the thickening fluid around him. The dancer began to bound towards him, but now in her current state she was no longer a being of attained beauty, she was now a creature of slaughtered wholesomeness, and therefore repulsed rather than entranced Howard. The dancer halted on a single foot, holding in place like a music-box's figurine, and began to slowly lean forward towards Howard, whispering something at a tone so low that Howard was forced to allow her to come close enough that he could see her skin rotting in place. The dancer paused and smiled, her teeth still perfectly white, then spoke in a voice that belonged to a demon rather than a dancer, "Your desires are no longer yours, they are the wants of a being seeking your destruction." at these final words she began to laugh loudly and bounded about on the lake yet again, her flesh slipping free and her bones snapping and shattering. Howard continued to shout at this being, trying to do something in his utter helplesness.
And then, he awoke. Howard looked about him and found that he was slumped against the freezing wall of one of the shower compartments he had occupied at the start of his nightmare. He stood and slowly let himself out of the isolated compartment and looked at his surroundings. The Showers of the Eastern wing of the hospital were massive, at 200 feet long by 100 feet wide, there was enough room for hundreds of people to bathe and still have room to move about. The entire Southern and western walls of the hall were made up of shower compartments like his, while the floorspace of the center of the hall and the norhtern and eastern walls were made up of underground baths and lockers. He walked weakly to his effects locker and dressed slowly, trying to avoid making himself collapse, and crept out into the main hall after he had completed changing. Howard sullenly walked back towards his chambers and looked out a large window at the setting sun. He placed one hand on the thick glass and watched the sun slowly descend, it's light retreating like a beaten army and the darkness quickly filling it's place. Howard grinned and looked towards the sky for the stars. There were none.
WOW, really long time you guys, sorry hah. I should be continuing this story soon, Ive just been extremely busy with personal matters and the like.
Next installment will be twice as long, and will fully introduce the Unknown figure mentioned earlier. Not the dancer, the other one.
Late.
Ex's and Oh's, Emopuppy.
Topic: Clad In Embers. (Read 2181 times)