My Spring 2000 Assignment

Day Three Prompt: ▼

Place: An alien spaceship
Character: An investigative reporter
Object: A piano key
Date: Spring, 2000

“Here’s your assignment, Davies.”
Will Davies took the page and glanced at it. His stomach plummeted. “Really?”
“Yeah, you don’t have a problem with it, do you?”
Not wanting to balk, Will shook his head.
“Good, cause I need you on this. You’re the best investigative reporter I got.”
“I’m the only….”
“Yeah, yeah… well, get on it.”
Great. He so hated space travel and to have to take an alien ship just made things worse. Talk about a language barrier.
Two hours later he was ready. Not happy, but ready.
As he walked the corridor that would take him into the spaceship a man with a package approached and stopped in front of him.
“Mr. Davies?”
“Yes?”
The man handed the package to him. Before hel could ask any questions, the man disappeared.
Ttucking the package under his arm, he made his way to his cabin. Once alone, he sat down and opened the package. Dumping the items on the bed left only confusion. He picked up what looked like a piano key. A white one.
Why would anyone give him a piano key?
A note fluttered out of the envelope. Will picked it up and smoothed it flat.
‘Meet me in the Piano bar and bring the key.’
Will flipped the piece of paper over wondering when he was to go. There was nothing more written.
His instincts told him to go now.
He made his way through the maze of corridors to the Piano Bar. It was quiet. Not a soul around. He moved to the piano and noticed one key was missing. Pulling the key from his pocket he slipped it into the empty slot. He held his breath not sure what would happen. After what seemed like eternity, the room began to shimmer and tremble. Will gripped the piano as a wave of vertigo assailed him. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them… wide.
The room had changed. No longer was he in the piano bar. Now he was in what seemed to be a plush office. Trying to get his bearings he looked around.
“I see you have made it, Mr. Davies.” a thin voice said from the shadowed corner.
Will took a deep breath and made his way towards the sound.
“Take a seat, Mr. Davies…” when he sat the voice continued, “I see you are full of questions. An admireabe quality. I will do my best to answer all you have but I must insist that you not look at me. Is that understood?”
Will nodded unable to find his own voice. His thoughts swirled.
“Slow your thinking, focus your questions…” the voice admonished.
Will drew in a slow breath and let it out. He repeated the deep breaths several times before his mind complied.
“That’s better.” The voice said.
Will focused his questions and the voice answered in its slow thin rasp. Will scribbled his notes and kept his eyes focused on the words. His desire to see the man behind the voice grew, but he fought the impulse by taking slow deep breaths.
After half an hour he heard a door open and footsteps cross the room behind him. He closed his eyes a moment and concentrated on his breath as he waited for the other person to appear.
“Your Excellency…” a deep voice boomed then a deep rasp was heard and all was silent.
‘What happened?’ Will’s mind screamed, but he fought the urge to open his eyes. Some small part of him held on to that…
The thin voice rasped, “I told him not to look at me…”
The desire to look seemed to overwhelm Will, but he fought the internal battle.
“I will leave you now… take the corridor to the left and you will find your way back to the piano bar.”
Will dropped his head to his notes, still fighting the urge to look, then like mist, it abated and Will opened his eyes. He raised his head slowly and looked about the room with a ferocious curiousity. Not a foot away stood a man, frozen. The gasp still on his lips and his eyes blood red and oozing from their sockets now turned to stone. Will shuddered. Grabbing his notes he moved to the exit. He thanked his fortitude for keeping his vision safe, now he just had to write up this article and make sense of what had transpired… if only he could figure it out himself.

Word Count = 747