Dressed to the nines in black Suede shoes, thick wool stockings and black and white headdress with a red veil… I was lead into the confession chamber where Jalaal sat crosslegged on the floor and an old man lie on his back looking up to him…
He cannot hear us and he doesn’t feel me but beware of what you say because he can still read lips…
Thas right Ill HAVE my say before its all said an done with *cackle*
He has chosen you because of your unique sense of emotion… If nothing of note occurs to you this night, then I will Have to explore another means of opening your pores to the light… However, If it does then I suppose you will have enough on your shoulders…please, if you will sit across from me and hold his hand
um…no! I don’t know what kind of ritual is going on here but ill not be taking part…
Ariel, this man is going to die… His last wish is to hold your hand; And I am here to strengthen you
In the back of my mind i could hear Melody singing a song that was from a half remembered dream. And I sat… the veil seemed a comfort at least I wouldn’t have to look at their eyes. I am not sure why I did it…probably because inside I realized that in a bad way I had been needing to hold someones hand too… so we sat like that for a while… the old man gibbering inappropriate comments about what my shape must be like under my dress… and then mid cackle he choked caught his breath, held his hand to his throat and went limp… I looked around, panicking I snapped out of the haze of self pity and confusion…this man had just died…DO YOU KNOW THE HEIMLICK?!
Ariel, do not let go of his hand
and as I thought to myself what a strange request at such an odd time; I felt it. A tingling sensation in my hand a spongy feeling in the back of my eyes, A strange warm wave pulsating around my torso…. And then all over my body came a rush of fear (this is it, this is the end) And I tore away from both men. One moved toward me the other did not…
Ariel, I now feel so sorry that I Did Not warn you…But before I wasnt really takeing his fear of dying into account….Come sit with me, now is not the time to be alone…lets do this together…
I ripped off headdress and veil and I could feel the murderous intent accumulate on my body and with my eyes I pinpointed where on his person I would inflict it…But then I saw a tear in his eyes, his outstretched hands, and faltered for a moment…but only for a moment …As I moved to slap him he caught my hand and I felt an overwhelming sense of calm…peace… It radiated from him…
and now he will confess
Once again I held the old man’s still warm hand and I felt our way through life as he knew it… his shame was my shame and his secret pleasures were my hidden joys, his life, though not glamorous by any means, had been full… he had loved, liked, lost, and found himself a million times through being picked up and let down over the years. and I walked across his lifetime holding his hand feeling the intentions in his mind….. and then as we returned to the place where we had been on the floor
I thought to myself
I’d still like to know whats undah that dress! and with a last cackle he was gone…
I was beyond grief…I couldn’t move I and didn’t care… he was gone… a lifetime he taught me about his world and he left just like that…i sat for a while and then I noticed Jalaal…a transformation had come over him his eyes had gone from half emtpy to completely alive and filled with pain, his tears matched my own…
At first by grief then by extreme shock i was immobilized. the world around me took shape and I bore witness to all the curves and angles of it… my eyes licked the color off of the walls and gained understanding as the pigment was sucked into the black hole of my pupil. I could literally FEEL myself thinking… and as the different processes of my mind bumped into each other i came to the realization that there was indeed another person in the room…
Jalaal, peering around the room and grabbing various objects, focused his attention on dipping his finger into a glass of water. When he seemed to tire of wet fingers he turned his collar up and laughed as the material tickled his skin. while adjusting his clothes and halfway kneeling to stand up he noticed that there was another person in the room…
Im sure his first impression of me was that I was less than graceful, however. what i could not have seen through a dying mans eyes at a hooded figure was now only too clear to me… the shape of his face, the calm he emitted, the way he held his hands just so. I was immediately overcome by the immensity of the force that rocked through my body and I stumbled from the room.
The Exit: confession
16 Thursday Oct 2014
Posted creative writing, Sci-fi, short story
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