The figure

[Qw3rty]

The figure was seated on what appeared to be a surgical stool, a flat, circular, cool metal base held a conical stand from which the seat protruded. Some of the light from the room danced and glittered off of the highly polished surface, sending little splashes of white orbiting onto the surrounding darkly painted walls, the effect, akin to that of a disco glitter ball, gave an almost hypnotic, star-field look to the room. Occasionally, as a streak of light illuminated the walls, faded stains could be made out even against the already near-black bricks. The room itself was of an ample size, looking like it could once have been a basement office or a good sized wine cellar, with four wide brick arches, shallow at the apex, and a recessed chute in the middle of the right hand wall. The chute’s old cast iron cover and the ladder rungs protruding from behind were dull with rust and caked in dust covered grease, the large locking mechanism beneath the cover looked as though it hadn’t been used in years. The single light source in the room was provided by a lone bulb hanging 2 feet down from the centre of the undulating ceiling, casting a mosaic of shadow that could be glanced whenever one looked up. With just one light in the room the brightness was insufficient to dispel the inherent darkness from the corners, making the effect of the reflected sparkles all the more poignant. The light had a short chain draped down the side of the glass bulb and occasionally there were sufficient currents of air to stir some movement, creating a hypnotically rhythmic tapping noise, a clinking with a hollow cadence as the sounds reverberated off of the mostly bare walls.

There were horizontal slits in the masonry at the top reaches of the right hand wall, about shoulder width but very slim, similar to those on a rampart or wartime pillbox. Although high up in the wall it wasn’t clear whether they were ground level windows, or slits into a light well, all that mattered was that they had been covered with a black material and battened closed. Although these were closed however, there was a breeze invading the room from somewhere, and whilst the space was cold and felt damp, there was just sufficient air to keep the expected slight odour of must and decay at bay.

The room in itself would have been quite unremarkable but for the strange array of industrial equipment bunched around and in front of a pair of metal cabinets. There was a small metal workers lathe, chains, pulleys, hydraulic tubing and some other machinery in various states of repair, whilst strewn amongst them was the occasional tool. Up from the floor and in between the cabinets, at intermittent heights and widths, could be seen an assortment of chain rings hanging on fixings within the mortar. These were oddly out of place when compared to the rest of the native fixtures within the room, not dull and rusting but gleaming under what scant light feebly managed to reach them, newly shined they all rested facing down, bowing towards the figure atop the stool.

Motionless, back to the door, the figure was hunched on the stool, shoulders squared towards the wall with the head tilted slightly to one side, unchanged from this position for several hours now they just sat staring, it would seem, towards the collection of equipment at the far wall. Dressed in blue surgeons garments, white plastic boots, a head dress and face mask the individual seemed so remarkably out of place as to be comical, yet there was something in the air, an indeterminate marker to the atmosphere that was keeping this surreal image from becoming just that.
Slowly then a noise, barely audible, began to emanate from the person. Just a slight whimper at first, increasing in level until a soft cry could be heard. The shoulders began a slow, laborious shaking motion choreographed to rise and fall with the, by now obvious, sobbing. The anguished cries began to grow louder, interspersed by fits of sobbing, seemingly fuelled by a bitter battle raging within.

“Why?” The cry pierces the monotony of the sobbing and weeping, a high pitched, primordial sound that reverberates around the room with the power of ten thousand years of evolutionary aggression.

“Never!” Though still a loud noise, the subsequent scream lacked the bite and commitment that was so apparent in the first, sounding through clenched teeth and from a contracted stomach, the owner of the vocal chords whose excitement was the source of the din, was beginning to tire now.

After several more minutes of the ever-weakening crying fit, the figure on the stool was beginning to sag. Across the back of the shoulders the blue over garment was starting to slip, the tie string at the neck had worked loose during the crying and the robe was now, slowly, parting across the upper torso. Like a giant balloon with a slow puncture, the once solid person began to list to the side of the stool, first one way then, overcompensating to the other, tittering on the edge of the inevitable as their deflating form sank lower and lower towards the floor. When the final drop happened it was like an old sackcloth bag of potatoes falling off of a kitchen work top, the cold, hard thud of the body giving out to gravity and hitting the floor was only punctuated by the hollow noise that resounded as the head struck the bare stone. The robe had become fully loosened as the semi-conscious body slid beneath from its perch, opening out as the air currents disturbed by the falling weight rushed up to meet it. Then, as if as an afterthought, the blue overall began to settle gradually over the crumpled form of the body upon the floor, like a makeshift death shroud the robe finally came to rest over the person laying exposed and silent in the centre of the room.

[heinzs]

Cool! (long time no see, q-) I'd suggest double spacing between paragraphs since there is no "indent" feature. It will break it up a bit more visually for impact.

H.

[thief of dreams]

this was absolutley viually stunning...
you have a wonderful way of words Q... fan-damn-tastic!

[gordy]

wonder whatever happened to qwerty