#alient

Also Reverse 1999:

Day 28: The Cavity.

A tall, narrow, somewhat-triangular entrance stood unguarded at the base of the tower. It was dark inside. Black. Their was clearly a cavity beyond the opening, but it felt...”blocked” in a way that I can’t quite explain. As if there was an invisible barrier...a seperation between the inside and outside atmosphere. Walking through, I felt nothing, but once inside the space, a slight breeze could be felt pushing, pushing, pushing, then a slight pull as the tails of wind were dragged back in.  I didn’t expect an overly ornamental structure. No gleaming mosaics or triumphant columns. I didn’t expect monumental statuary or dexterous inscriptions. But regardless, I was taken aback by the absolute starkness that stood before us. Flat, featureless walls, other than thin, ribbed, perfectly-straight, concentric indents about five feet apart, extended up the perimeter of the tower. Not a stairway, brick, or even an imperfection visible. It seems like stone, largely slate grey, with a hint of the sunrise bleeding through the entrance, but the small amount of light didn’t reflect at all upon hitting the wall. It had an almost rubbery surface.

As we scanned upwards, our flashlights dully stumbling across the endless ribs, the walls seemed to disappear what seemed to be about half-way up the tower. It was a blackness unlike that which surrounded us. Complete and total; deep. Sterile, but for the hint, almost like a mirage, of some lighter object moving beneath the surface. Like seeing the glimpse of a fish darting around a dark pond. When our lights shown toward the edges of this “void” we could tell it was rounded, descending toward us from the edges of the tower. Where the rubbery walls met the void, discoloration, something like mold, could be seen extending from the black edge. It seemed almost like liquid, though the surface was perfectly smooth. When shone along an edge and at an angle, our flashlights reflected much as if on the surface of oil, but when shone directly at the object, they were absorbed with no noticeable reflection or illumination from within. The mirages continued to swim, barely visible beneath the surface. 

And then we felt it. Not so much on the pussssssssshhhhhhh, but the puuuuuuull brought the air from around our ankles, gently twirling in a counter-clockwise vortex up around our shoulders and toward the void. 

It was breathing.

Staring up at the Void.

9x18

Acrylic, pen and ink, pencil, digital and watercolor on paper.