|
It was a school assignment, and it was the best thing I could think of. It's for mythology so we had to take a character from one story and put them in another story. I chose Septimus from Virginia Woolf's book Mrs. Dalloway, and then I plugged him into the Void universe. I had a limit of pages I could write, so I tried to condense as much as I could.
Preface:
Time breeds apathy
and apathy breeds decay.
Entropy’s unwavering hand
robs fruitful bounty.
Everything worth loving
will eventually fall away.
******
Stagnation littered the air
filling his lungs with
frenzied particles.
When he opened his eyes
he saw beached whale bones.
Savage, sinister, and tragic
all at the same time.
He decided they looked
like a cage.
A dewy voice beckoned
urging him to come
edging toward
green and gold light.
She introduced herself
as Nameless Sister.
One of the youngest of the sisters
she had sad doe eyes
clouded by the mist of death.
She explained:
Septimus’ translucent soul slipped down the chain.
By chance, he lingered in the void.
Oh, if only he knew
what nightmares lurk below
this barren tundra.
This void is a pallid canvas.
To live, you must paint
using all of the various shades
of despair.
Decorating woeful skeletons
and gluttonously feasting
on their remains.
Nothing is more precious than color.
It serves as sustenance and strength
and offers
False hope.
It is the source of freedom
and meaning of suffering.
A soul without color is one
that that succumbs to
the greatest death of all:
Absolute death.
Here the dogmatic brothers rule
with the hot iron fist of patriarchy.
Color is their sacrament.
Their most important religious tenant:
Selflessness is an abomination,
all that share must be put to death.
The sisters are weeping sirens.
They are the gateway for color.
To the brothers,
they are murderous heretics.
You must feed them.
They cannot refuse.
******
Septimus sat silently for a while
contemplating the irony.
He remembered his final act of rebellion
jumping out of a window to escape life.
Instead of being greeted by
sweet nothingness,
he just got sent to a more dismal landscape
with more severe jailers.
Nameless Sister took him to her garden
full of ashen withered trees.
Their roots all connected
as if they were one organism.
Septimus felt the colors
they burned through his veins
As if thawing the numbness of death.
With each tree he painted
he felt he lost a piece of his soul.
The trees wore the color
like it was a cheap frock.
They translucently glowed
filling the darkness
with light.
*********
Septimus wandered the void
like a hungry ghost.
Each sister spoke in riddles
hinting that there was
some greater purpose.
He admired the ghastly landscapes
as a child marvels
at the limitless blue sky.
The void was horrific
and it was beautiful.
That fact astounded him.
It was not long
until the brothers appeared.
He heard the abhorrent clanking
as if bone was grinding into metal.
Each brother was an aberration.
Their humanity was indistinguishable.
Their bodies contorted around objects
each revealing the unique way they were tortured.
They had ascended from hell
and the void was their heaven.
Color was their sacrament,
and change was their enemy.
Many welcomed him with open arms
while others offered him disdain.
Still, all offered him a chance to become a brother
as long as he kept the sisters in their place.
********
Septimus pretended to ponder their offer
but in his mind he rejected it outright.
Never, would he become a jailer
Never, would he break the wings of a dove.
Septimus was drawn
to the final unvisited chamber.
It was as if the air rippled around him
like a breaking wave.
He felt he would be swallowed by the tide.
As he opened the door
it was only an apartment.
Yet, he felt a loneliness
It made him feel colder
than the chill of death.
A broken piano sat abandoned
covered by a thick layer of dust.
Books lay scattered in the corner
their stories unread; dead to all.
In the center of a room
sat a wedding dress.
Fabric trailed behind it,
reminding him of a funeral march.
He felt remorseful realizing instead of white,
the dress was a drab light grey.
As if it too was touched by the sullied hands
of The Void.
He quietly crept into the final room
to find a girl sitting on a windowsill.
She gazed into the distance.
She reminded him of a spark
That still burned bright
Despite being surrounded by fog.
Her face was obscured
by wet tears and wedding paint.
Ole was her name.
It was at that point he knew
their fates were inexorably linked.
He finally made sense
of the coy riddles the sisters tossed at him.
A life for a life;
a sacrifice for something great.
He ruthlessly plundered his gardens
until the color engorged in his veins,
and he felt that he was going to fill
to bursting.
Gently, he took her hand,
and led her out to the expansive sky.
He released all of the color
He had in his soul.
She was lifted upwards
Her bonds cut free
Her soul free to ascend.
She carried a seed of life
And the beauty of a supernova.
As the color drained from his body
Septimus felt as if he was being drawn
Into the warm peaceful arms of oblivion.
He tranquilly watched The Void dissolve.
He and The Void were drawn
into a cleansing fire.
The Void thawed as it burned
Releasing the inhabitants from hunger
and releasing them from pain.
Oh, how beautiful it was
to live.
|
