Until I become aware
of a change. Not sound. But there is light around me, a deep, reddish haze. My
eyes drift past the large white screen that fills my view, and my desk is gone,
along with the wall behind. My entire living room has vanished. I’m sitting in
the open. Not a field – there’s no sign of green among the scorched earth.
Around me, a battle. I blink. It’s still there. Not men. Angels, gleaming white
and silver and gold. Huge wings fanning out as they fly or wrestle on the
ground. And they wrestle demons. Red, black, leathery, feathered. Stone
gargoyles, come to life, fight the demons – they must be on the side of the
angels.
The sky above us
is black with grey clouds roiling all around. Lightning flashes inside the
clouds, but it doesn’t strike down to the ground. There is no thunder. Still no
sound at all.
My mouth is open
in astonishment. I snap it shut and shrink back in my chair, afraid to be in
the middle of this great battle. The blinking cursor on my screen catches my
eye. An empty page, not the project I was working on. I understand, and I
recoil. Without meaning to, I wail, “But I don’t want to write about angels and
demons!”
The battle around
me freezes, figures locked together. Their heads all turn in unison toward me,
regarding me in silence. A giant silver, feather-winged angel stands with arms
upraised, hands clasped in the grip of a terrifying leathery-red demon. They
open their mouths together and deep voices rasp, “Who. Asked. You?”
The battle
resumes as if it had not paused. No one pays me any attention now. I sink into
my chair and pull it closer to the base of my desk. I know with complete
certainty I don’t want to draw their attention again. I focus my eyes on the screen,
let the battlefield around me fade away, and begin to type…
|
Dogs
in house
|
Houdini, Brindle
|
|
|
|
|
Time
writing:
|
20 minutes
|
|
|
|
|
September
word count:
|
4,183
|
No comments:
Post a Comment