ADVENTURES IN THE LIGHT & DARK
Created by Magnus Telekrex
CHAPTER ONE:
THE OBJECT
It slithered. It wouldn’t hiss, coil, or strike. This beauty of shining silver would raise its head in the void only to stare. Its shape was like a viper, with a sharp brow, thick scales on its face, and it gazed with little motion. Theo would stare back. Without sign of movement, he felt it coming closer. And though it frightened him in waves, he couldn’t help but be more curious than afraid.
Theo finally awoke. The passing train three blocks down the street cut through any other sound in the night. A familiar sound, but the first he’d heard in many weeks. He didn’t move, just laid there for a few minutes. The clock on his desk read 3:14 AM.
He rose from the bed, flipped on the light, pulled a light gray hoodie over his mangled hair, and grabbed his shoes. He could feel the hole in the leather on his left shoe was getting bigger. He thought to himself, should remember to fix that. He moved swiftly down the stairs and through the kitchen, eager to breathe outside air for the first time in a while. When he stepped outside he let the door shut slowly, an attempt to not make noise. As always, this just made the squealing last longer. Should fix that, too.
He first walked down his block, then across the street, then down several more blocks. He passed the library, which he always took extra attention to, before stepping into Windowtown. The air wasn’t cold, as it might have looked. This night was in the summer, clouds filled the sky but so did the stars. Tall buildings of brick rose up over the two-lane street. The hum of urban wind and the occasional tilting metal lit the soundscape and streetlights lit the fog. Between all this, only shadow. This spectrum, the painting of Windowtown, remained the same every time Theo had visited. It was always at night, but no matter the season or weather, it had the same touch. He’d wandered the alleys and building tops tirelessly over these many seasons, often taking the time to think or to dwell on things out loud. His audience would never let him down, always responding to his thoughts with thoughts of their own.
Where he walked now was still in the lit streets, a stretch where almost every building had a storefront at the base with neon signs. A radio played music at the face of one restaurant, which always bounced across the empty streets. Theo passed the last of the signs and turned onto the next perpendicular street, this one without streetlights. He heard a clatter then, which wasn’t typical of the soundscape. Theo looked down an alley to his right. It was a dog. A short dog, probably up to Theo’s knees, brown with short fur. He sat upright next to a metal garbage can, probably the source of the clatter. He stared at Theo with a tilted head, as if to ask him a question. Theo probably wouldn’t have an answer. He instead spoke to the dog, barely a whisper, “hey.” The dog wasn’t going to respond, he figured. Theo continued with his walk.
He decided he’d try his way through the thickening fog and visit the harbor and watch boats for a while. Theo had only been around the harbor a few times, but he’d spend parts of his walks looking at the large boats and the other side of town from a distance. Without a proper coat, as he usually was, it would be too chilly to stay for long.
Only a few steps later, he heard a pattern of small feet approach him from behind. Theo glanced to his side to see the dog trotting alongside him. He asked, “Where are you going, dog?” This new companion appeared happy to be coming along, and Theo smiled at the thought. “Wish you could talk,” he said. But the dog bolted forward after a few moments more of travel, rounded a corner, and disappeared behind a tall brick building. Theo, without much for plans, walked to the corner and peered around. The dog was gone, sight and sound.
Theo felt a rumbling from afar. He could not tell from which direction, only that it was slowly getting closer. He kept walking his original path, now closer to the edge of Windowtown. He could faintly hear the water of the harbor, but between that and him, the droning rumble. It shook him, from the surface of the ground to the hairs on his head, a wave of motion. It made him shudder. Many streets he crossed, and some lit and some not, and still it got closer. As he went he could see less and less in the distance, for the fog was settling in thicker and thicker. Theo stopped his steps when he saw a flash of yellow light, and the beast carrying it.
The source of the rumble was a street sweeper. He’d only seen these kinds of trucks around during the day, and rarely at that. He stood and watched the white painted goliath drive by at its humdrum speed. A rotating light on top splashed yellow across the buildings. Theo squinted, tried to peer at the window, but couldn’t see any evidence of a driver. The logo on the side of the truck was irregular, he thought. It read a handful of letters but none that he’d ever seen before, and in a hue of orange. It didn’t look like anything he recognized. Theo decided, after the goliath had passed and the rumbled faded, to continue north. The sound of the empty streets trailed off when he started walking.
And here, he saw The Object. Stopped in his tracks, he was. It came to his view as soon as he’d left his gaze on the ground. It hovered above ground, rotating softly like something traversing the void of space, not air. From afar, it was difficult to really understand where The Object was itself and where it was not. Its black edges blended across the scene, but he could tell it was small and shaped like a cube. A discovery, no doubt as soon as he laid eyes on it, but what he’d discovered was the question. It called to him. The first time, Theo did not answer. Instead he stood and stared down the street where it was. It felt like a long, ambient song. Like a ring, layered over a hum, with a certain vibrancy, absolutely. A marvel to look at as much as feel and to hear, even from a distance. It wanted to speak, Theo felt, but it couldn’t.
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