https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLQzaLr1enE
He simply had to see something else, to be somewhere else. The quiet, desolation of the castle, once so comforting to him, was now stifling him, bringing on a kind of claustrophobia. He knew of the outside world, having been sent to learn with other children. But that had been so sanitised, so institutionalised, so devoid of any real life. The closest he had seen was the microcosm of the playground. Yet this was merely the children intuiting the reality of what lay ahead of them, the real world, out there…
He knew his guardians would disapprove, perhaps severely, yet he was resolved. He had to see something else. All it would take would be a lighted fire, a handful of powder, and a verbalised destination. So off he went.
The alleyway stretched on before him, old rickety buildings on either side enclosing the sea of people wandering in and out of them. The sun was low in the sky and thus the alley had begun to fall into shadow. He took a breath, and then launched himself into the fray.
Caught up in the stream of people, he was swept along with the current as they all proceeded down the alley. Looking about him as he walked, he searched for what he had come for, although he wasn’t sure what it might look like. The din of voices and the sea of moving bodies around him oddly felt far less claustrophobic than the empty desolation back in the castle. These people were simply going about their business, and yet this inspired a certain fascination in him.
Then, in the distance, he saw it. Over in one shadowy corner, another passage disappeared off in another direction. He felt drawn to this darker passage, despite the feeling of foreboding it gave him. He made his way over to it, having to detach himself from the stream of people in the main alley, and, once there, gazed down the passage.
This alley was completely in shadow, as if the sun feared to shine there, the buildings all seemed to be made of black brick rather than the vivid red of the previous alley, and the people he saw down here filled him with a morbid kind of wonder. Decaying, decrepit, hag-like witches, wizened old wizards hobbling along in the gutters, filthy street children dashing about, but also the occasional very well-dressed, tall and elegant person parting the crowds with their iron gazes of superiority. Here, he felt as if he had entered into some dark underbelly of the world, a place where one might come to escape the drudgery of the normal world, to acquire things not normally handed out, to meet with certain unsavoury characters to enquire of them things not known elsewhere.
As he watched it had grown late, far too late for a young boy like him to be out and about, especially in a place like this. Yet he felt so drawn here, as if, despite the repulsive visual spectacle of the place, it was a place he needed to come to, needed to see, a place that contained certain knowledge, certain secrets that he couldn’t find anywhere else. So he went on, down the passage, trying to ignore the leering eyes of the strange creatures that lined the alleyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUIQgEVDM4
Suddenly, everything stopped. For he had entered a time capsule. This was a remnant of a lost age, perfectly preserved into the modern age. Time did not seem to flow here, little light ever pervaded, yet there was a pull, some kind of force calling out to a certain kind of person.
The sky had turned black, no moon, no stars. Only little flickering lights in the various windows of the alley. Dark, cloaked figures now lined the street, either side, two parallel lines facing one another, creating a long aisle before him. And he began to walk, slowly, slowly…
Though standing still, their shadows danced on the ground before him in the flickering light, leading him on. The face of each figure seemed to be hidden behind an assortment of masks; were these even human beings? Maybe demons or spirits, or shades of ancient heroes.
Then he felt himself cloaked, hooded and masked, a spear thrust into one hand and a sword in the other. Two more prominent figures stood at the end of the long, dark corridor beckoning to him, and so he proceeded. The others lining the street seemed to be emitting a long, low drone, and the temperature seemed to be rising, sweat was dripping from his body, yet still on he went.
Then he could see, at the very end of the passageway, a kind of altar table, covered in black cloth, upon which lay an object covered in a lighter cloth. He knew this was the very thing that had drawn him here and he yearned for it, stretching out his hand, but the two taller figures barred his way. Looking up at them, he could see nothing but deep, black eyes gazing at him expectantly, yet he did not know what to say, he knew there was something he should say, something that he needed to say to get past, but he couldn’t, for the life of him, remember what it was.
Then, all was quiet. All was still. Then a deep, dark voice. “Not yet…”
He blinked. The sky was dim but not dark, the people were bustling about, chattering, growling, grunting and cackling with laughter. The altar was gone, his sword, spear and cloak too, and everything was as it had been before. He shivered. It was cold now, and fear gripped him.
This was no place for a young boy. So he ran, back the way he had come, ignoring the leering shouts his sudden flight had aroused in some of the hulking figures of the alley. Back into the brighter alley, back to the lighted fire…back home.
“Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to endless night.”
Omega Synthesis 