Silkhaven 5.

5.

Only one eye could open to greet the darkness. Observance of surroundings led to the immediate realization that Jacob was enveloped in fear. No limb would procure movement despite the behest of his will, his body lay splayed and contorted in a position he was incapable of admiring, one eye left to gather what was above… and below. Dim light cast silhouettes of flickering flame fifty feet beneath him onto checkered floors. Candles sat within metal candelabras of iron, surrounding pillars that reached heights where he could not retreat. Every slight movement was met with severe tension and immediate withdrawal, this place was a prison of art and emptiness.

Producing the slightest motion that his neck would allow, Jacob allowed his eye to wander slightly further than the checker board of marble below. The ceiling directly across the way mimicked that of a dome, buttresses stitched along it in every direction boasted blackened wood that jutted from the curve of the ceiling itself. The dome formed its steeple at the head of the ceiling, where all of the buttresses met their interwoven purpose, continuing full formation on the very ceiling where he assumed he was immovably pinned onto.

As his eye adjusted to the darkness, the investigation continued. Twisting his pupil in every manageable position, the attributes of the ceiling opposite of him began to be realized. Paintings, a mural composed of depictions of angelic beings canvassed the entire dome. Where light was mimicked, gold leaf lay. Where angels flew, alabaster hues stroked for eons. The mortal and the everlasting was captured in celestial depiction, encompassing the entire vault that he himself seemed to be attached to. Dawn was imitated by rings of yellow tincture surrounding the steeple, while dusk was the backdrop for every cherub and naive nudist. The only explanation for such an expansive depiction of religious beauty was that Jacob had found himself residing within a cathedral, or the mind of a lunatic.

The thin beams of light provided by the candles beneath him emitted cones of vibrancy that fanned into an auratic cloud of dim light, hinting at the artistic renaissance that his own body appeared to be a part of.

With demanded determination, Jacob proceeded through the process of separating his face from the wall that cemented it. The aching pull of skin clutched by stone led to muffled screams as his second eye began to register light with each earnest pull. With sealed lips, a fetid breath entered through nostrils that absorbed the scent of stale paint. Skin separated from his cheeks as the struggle continued; with a final twist and contortion, his neck separated the head from the wall that fought so insistently to hold him.

Blinking sporadically, his eyes emitted flakes of tattered shadow that spun like ash upon the shoulder of the wind towards the distant floor below. Forcing his tongue to pierce swollen lips, those too emitted the same flakes, concocting a salivic solution of lead and dust.

Fully realizing his stance within this hell, the gothic prison continued to be admired, now with a pair of eyes where before a single pupil attempted explanation of the unfathomable. Depictions of Heaven and the book of Genesis arched across every segment of the ceiling, twirling angelic beings and humanoid figures into a single canvas that spanned to his own location. Quelling the fear that screamed to escape from him through tears and benign shouts, Jacob held his head in dismay. Chin resting upon the same ceiling, his eyes fluttered in disbelief that his body was absent of definition. In its place was the coloration of his nude frame, as that of a painting in conjunction with all others pictured within the same canvas. Relieving any sense of control, hyperventilation seized his lungs, and in return, the frame of his flat torso responded by having the wall he was painted on breathe outward rhythmically. Terror encaspulated each vessel of humanity beneath his skin leading to hellish thrashing, met merely with slight, momentary protrusions of the wall that held his painted figure. Focusing on a single limb, Jacob forced his left arm (Outstretched and lacking definition) to produce even the slightest movement. The agonizing process of separation began, a single finger began to gain definition from the wall, and with its dimensional features realized, fragments of flesh began to sprinkle as snow from the appendage itself. Where the flesh once resided now sat what Jacob could only perceive to be miniscule caverns, absent of vibrancy… completely void. The color of the defined flesh rested cracked and aging upon his skin, as though a layer of paint stretched over his muscles. Paint that was quickly cascading into the dampened air with every forceful muscular twist.

His devotion to the liberty of the other fingers began with agonizing procession. Each finger that retreated from the wall emitted leaflets of painted chips that in their stead, led to the creation of more void-like chambers where once skin lay. Balling his fingers into a fist, Jacob drew shallow breaths as his wrist began to show its dimensional features. Half the arm still lay within the wall resembled only by the flat portrait of amber and vanilla.

The sound of hastened pattering drew his immediate attention. Silence returned, overtaken by the staccato drumming of his own heartbeat. He was not alone.

Paralyzed with fear, his eyes stared openly across the open cavern to the opposing side of the ceiling. Unnoticed only a moment ago now sat a pair of golden eyes staring at him with the same curiosity. Within moments, a second pair appeared adjacent to the original, and with only a seconds difference a third and fourth rendered themselves clearly. These blaring beads of light seemed to dance in the space of darkness, eyeing him as prey. As his ability to focus was returned, Jacob’s eyes began to adapt to the darkness, allowing the wisp of candle light to cast illuminating rays on whatever host these eyes inhabited. Each pair appeared to be embedded within the blackened skull of a humanoid creature, clutching the walls with both hand and foot, as if magnetized to the stone itself. The necks craned balding heads towards Jacob’s direction, revealing rotted teeth, some holding slim objects, others simply serrated with filth and neglect.

The beings slowly lifted limb after limb in imitation of walking along the wall. Arm crossed behind leg, thus opposite leg branched over the other arm creating a disturbing interpretation of attempted movement. As these creatures traversed upon the canvassed dome, some on occasion would rip the slim object from between their teeth and began using it to etch onto the wall, as though sporadic strokes of darkness itself were spilled onto the angelic depictions. Wherever these beings implemented their tool, hues of gold and white became stained with the same void that occupied the portions of his removed flesh.

Twinkling as stars seething through twilight clouds, several other pairs of eyes began to appear on either side of the collective. Briefly acknowledging Jacob, the newly introduced companions began to divide and continue the work of their formers, performing their inebriated waltz along the vaulted ceiling. Observing the overwhelming mass of skeletal shadows, Jacob began to perceive that each figure was clutching a paint brush, whether in hand or crooked smile. Where others slaved to rid the cathedral of any depiction of light with their quilled artifacts, some remained motionless; embraced to the wall as a sentinel to protect their progress from the frightened, quivering mortal across the way.

Reality returned to Jacob’s mind, bringing with it sensibility and the ingrained instinct to survive. Twisting to and fro, his body became an arc of movement as every attempt to break free from the mold of the wall became a desperate necessity. The arm which already showed promise in visual representation became a priority. Tearing skin and separating stone from flesh became agonizing, and yet he endured. Thrashing rhythmically with every muscle within his flattened frame Jacob began the painful concerted effort of severance.

The continuation of his sporadic and violent movements began to draw forth the attention of the shadows. Countless eyes began to narrow as they allowed thin limbs to unevenly carry them, forming a mass of malevolence seeking to abolish the interloper.

Frantic breaths sent echoes off of the ceiling as the stampede of foot and palm circled the dome. Time was measured in heartbeats, death was calculated as fate.

Slowly, previously unrevealed limbs fused to the foundation of the ceiling gained definition, adding to Jacob’s frenzied movement. Fingers from his other arm began to separate and gain freedom, still the shadows gained. His eyes darted as if fashioned to a pendulum, between limbs seeking liberty and the hunchback beings that thirsted for his absence.

The other arm freed, taking with it a pound of flesh, quickly dissipating into leaflets of paint, riding turbulence to the floor below, still the shadows gained.

Hellish laughter and barks of malice joined the choir of malnourished sprinting. Some of the shadows dragged their brushes in hand as they began their hasteful journey, leaving rifts of darkness along the landscape of purity; spreading caverns of emptiness.

The battle to separate himself from the wall ensued with such ferocity that flakes of his skin began to create a whirlwind around him. All the while, the shadows began to close around him, every moment that passed was a second closer to suffocation by these devils.

The first skeletal hand encroached upon his torso, the immediate pull on his body provoked screams and continued thrashing. If his body was to remain in this chapel of darkness, it would do so in splinters on the ground below, refusing the embrace of the deranged who wished to cradle him eternally against the ceiling.

In every conceivable direction hands seized him, some gripping his arms, legs, and face. Others spread their fingers through his mouth, or ran nails along his skin from head to heel.

Jacob’s mouth screamed with agony, his fists became hammers seeking to crucify all that touched him. With each connected strike, a limp darkened body would fall from the ceiling screeching to the floor below, allowing him a moment more to swing his entirety away from the wall in an attempted leap before countless other hands reeled him back against it. Though the creatures lacked strength, they were unyielding with numbers that were countless. With each frenzied strike, bodies cascaded to the marble below replaced briskly by another member of their endless ranks.

In the midst of the mound of shade that now encompassed him, Jacob began to feel a fresh pain, a searing one that was spreading like a nail dragged across his skin. Fingers briefly appeared over his eyes from above him, another set of hands began to grasp his chin, together each pair twisted his head skyward into the very eyes of one of the demons. There, amongst its brittle teeth lay one of the brushes he had seen dissipate reality with its strokes. A single hand raised to its mouth to remove the instrument, the opposite joined the other grasped palms in holding his head steady, in preparation for the next chapter of this crucible.

The moment the brush stroked his eye, the searing pain announced itself yet again. His body trembled in pain as blindness encompassed his sight. He felt the strokes running across every inch of him, as though billions of bristles were creating caverns of heat in jagged streams across him.

Bending his knees in blindness, he pressed the balls of his feet against the wall. With one final push, Jacob commenced the crescendo of his thirst for freedom. Feeling the grasp of each hand pressed against him slowly lose grip, his body found full form as flesh was at last released from the wall unabridged.

The only sensation left to behold was that of gravity.

—-----~~<<+>>~~-------


Dawn graced the pillow that his head lay upon. A nightmare imagined was considered more bearable than a nightmare lived. Was there any more meaning to a dream than the opportunity to reside within one’s imagination?