It is dusk that turns the windowpanes into glittering gilt sapphires and as they shine it is then that I first discern the faces in the walls.
By the dim rose glow of the fringed lamp I see: the walls are crowded with them. Some are simple heads - severed, disembodied.
Others are clad in flowing robes that seem to stir as if blown by some invisible wind or movement of the form beneath.
Staring long enough, wide-eyed and unblinking, the eyes in the faces began to twitch, and my own to burn.
The features seem to melt, the mouths begin to move.
And, by candlelight, their hair writhes and their arms reach out to me, beseeching, beckoning.
I sit alone on the wide white bed with my legs folded beneath me and smoke black cigarettes, one after the other, the gold band slippery between my lips, the blue wings of smoke curling about the candleflame curious and urgent as moths.
I watch the people in the walls, four white walls surrounding me, bare in their cracked and uneven plaster and curls of peeling paint, here and there showing a faded blot of wallpaper.
The walls bulge and buckle with years layers of wallpaper and paint and plaster-filled gouges.
I press the bulges in and they pop out again with a crackling of splintering paint and plaster falling into the dark empty space behind the paper.
As the hours move deeper into night and the darkness outside grows blacker, the crackling and splintering sound in the room of its own accord - without the touch of my fingers.
The faces press against the paper and the features seem molded as if I pressed my own face against some sheer wet fabric.
The eyes stare at me, into me.
I cross the room and sit in a gold high-backed chair.
And when I look up again - still the faces stare at me.
Still the eyes bore into my eyes.
It is my own face staring back at me, again and again and again.
They are my own eyes, staring.
1999
by Lake e. Lou
Comments
2 comments by jonni hern interesting intense/poetic imagery/layout/sequence..all appeal 2 my curiosity.1st vist 2 the site-1st reaction21st piece i;Ve read/impressed/intrigued/aroused physially&mentally this experimental writing fan toys wiv idea of sending maybeown stuff ib/small piece/good work is understatemeny going bak 2 look at more/HANX anyways4wot Looks like a verra goodd site/en dat veb ikke/jonni hern
by Anon That is a really great story! Insane, intense I could not take my eyes off of it. Very good ending also.