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Deep, deep, deeper still - under the layers, below the dust and the holy ones - where the shadows change their shapes to mix among the streetwalkers.
In this strange, black world - where the only colour is the red strike-blooms on the tiers of shade, and the only light is kept locked away - she walks on, head down.
Never lift your eyes
They gaze from the doorways, the ones unclean. The shunned, the unaccepted, and the self-fallen hunters, with their white smiles and gleaming blades - dull now, both, seeped through with grey, the spark winked cold.
Head down, hand clasped around the tiny shard of light - a fragment of a memory, a promise, thrown across the great divide on a ragged prayer, kissed white on faltering heart strings. No-one dares look up to the ceiling - the flat, smoked ceiling to the upper floors that presses the square buildings squatter still, into single-storey squalor by the righteous whim.
She looked up once, stared up through the midnight mists, strained to see beyond what she was cast into. The hem of a golden robe, trailing above. A pure, white slipper, muddied red at the toe. Then a face - a sinful face, lying prostrate at a gleaming, hollow alter - tears of pleaded forgiveness rolling idly from mocking, fickle eyes; only she saw the lies.
The razor-white digs further into her palm, and she stares harder at the dust-layer - Never lift your eyes. That is when they notice you. - unless there is someone so willing, so mournfully loving protecting you, never lift your eyes. A promise stands where all else has fallen.
Blood - bright and fresh against the oppressive naught - trails behind, dropping from the past as those memories swim back. A hunter spies his near-forgotten escape; his red-drowned gift to the pearly gate - and the spark is back. Quick scan of the scarlet track, weapons drawn from the rusted rack, blades blunt against the lethal black.
She knows - the journey has been far too long for her not to recognise the anxious shift in the air, the slow, solemn spark push the grey back by near-nothing and the steel twist cool warnings to her pale skin.
I promise. You will never have to fight
He tracks - a stooping, silent sprint between the cracked walls and out into the wide gate-road. And so every sense bar sound, flares at his approach. She sighs a ragged, tired breath for the memories, for the lost, and his eager body streams back into a doorway, blood lust pooling under the timber. The dark, the grey blank, crushes the spark back under the heavy, washed-out air.
The gatekeep straightens by the double-door, her steady approach in the centre of the road never faltering, the shard of light in her hand picking her out amongst the shifting tides of nothing.
He places his shaking hands, one on each handle - black and white, hot and cold, rough and smooth - and waits, as he always has done, for someone to make a decision.
Take my love. Don’t look back, and rise above where I left you. You are greater than this.
She pulls her hood back from her head and holds up the shard of light - stained slightly, red at the edges, but still shining through the pain. The gatekeep looks down on her - a child so young - and nods his duty-bound acceptance.
Rise up, above, and love again
She moves to the black door, and closes her tiny fist around the shard until the blood flows free.
The gatekeep moves to one side and drags open the pitch portal, ancient hinges screeching out a warning to the deaf.
And on she walks, on a new path - taking the steps down, the black icy steps deep, deep, deeper still - where the shadows cast shadows of their own. And she smiles.
The gatekeep closes the door, shaken, and tears - real tears from pure, faithful eyes - drop to the floor. They trickle down, through the stone, through the dust, to the floor below - a little aid to the wandering white.
Perhaps, one day, we shall meet again.
Muhahaha-uhhh.
...
I think also it might be the element of fantasy in your pieces, and the fact that they seem to have more futuristic backdrops.
But yeah... FFF... Always love you're metaphores and descriptions...
Maybe because I'm always on about people's eyes. And religion - I noticed, in the last 3 or 4 things I've written, there was some degree of religion bashing. But there we go.
It's other things as well, I think. That contribute to the whole Anime-style picture, like the settings and the way people move. I dunno, but that's how it always comes out in my mind, and I write what I see.
What I will say, FFF, is that so many times now I've pictured these stories of yours using my imagination, and to my surprise quite a few times I've pictured them in anime. Why? I have no idea - I'm not even an anime fan in the slightest.
Enjoyed that muchly :)
Deep, deep, deeper still - under the layers, below the dust and the holy ones - where the shadows change their shapes to mix among the streetwalkers.
In this strange, black world - where the only colour is the red strike-blooms on the tiers of shade, and the only light is kept locked away - she walks on, head down.
Never lift your eyes
They gaze from the doorways, the ones unclean. The shunned, the unaccepted, and the self-fallen hunters, with their white smiles and gleaming blades - dull now, both, seeped through with grey, the spark winked cold.
Head down, hand clasped around the tiny shard of light - a fragment of a memory, a promise, thrown across the great divide on a ragged prayer, kissed white on faltering heart strings. No-one dares look up to the ceiling - the flat, smoked ceiling to the upper floors that presses the square buildings squatter still, into single-storey squalor by the righteous whim.
She looked up once, stared up through the midnight mists, strained to see beyond what she was cast into. The hem of a golden robe, trailing above. A pure, white slipper, muddied red at the toe. Then a face - a sinful face, lying prostrate at a gleaming, hollow alter - tears of pleaded forgiveness rolling idly from mocking, fickle eyes; only she saw the lies.
The razor-white digs further into her palm, and she stares harder at the dust-layer - Never lift your eyes. That is when they notice you. - unless there is someone so willing, so mournfully loving protecting you, never lift your eyes. A promise stands where all else has fallen.
Blood - bright and fresh against the oppressive naught - trails behind, dropping from the past as those memories swim back. A hunter spies his near-forgotten escape; his red-drowned gift to the pearly gate - and the spark is back. Quick scan of the scarlet track, weapons drawn from the rusted rack, blades blunt against the lethal black.
She knows - the journey has been far too long for her not to recognise the anxious shift in the air, the slow, solemn spark push the grey back by near-nothing and the steel twist cool warnings to her pale skin.
I promise. You will never have to fight
He tracks - a stooping, silent sprint between the cracked walls and out into the wide gate-road. And so every sense bar sound, flares at his approach. She sighs a ragged, tired breath for the memories, for the lost, and his eager body streams back into a doorway, blood lust pooling under the timber. The dark, the grey blank, crushes the spark back under the heavy, washed-out air.
The gatekeep straightens by the double-door, her steady approach in the centre of the road never faltering, the shard of light in her hand picking her out amongst the shifting tides of nothing.
He places his shaking hands, one on each handle - black and white, hot and cold, rough and smooth - and waits, as he always has done, for someone to make a decision.
Take my love. Don’t look back, and rise above where I left you. You are greater than this.
She pulls her hood back from her head and holds up the shard of light - stained slightly, red at the edges, but still shining through the pain. The gatekeep looks down on her - a child so young - and nods his duty-bound acceptance.
Rise up, above, and love again
She moves to the black door, and closes her tiny fist around the shard until the blood flows free.
The gatekeep moves to one side and drags open the pitch portal, ancient hinges screeching out a warning to the deaf.
And on she walks, on a new path - taking the steps down, the black icy steps deep, deep, deeper still - where the shadows cast shadows of their own. And she smiles.
The gatekeep closes the door, shaken, and tears - real tears from pure, faithful eyes - drop to the floor. They trickle down, through the stone, through the dust, to the floor below - a little aid to the wandering white.
Perhaps, one day, we shall meet again.