BY DR. AGONSON
I was expecting some Lovecraftian monstrosity that would burn my mind like it had Lance’s, or, I had wondered, maybe the terror would be in words, and I’d be subjected to the same sort of mad reasoning Billy’s ever spouting. Maybe it takes on different forms for different people, ruining them at their weak point like a river taking the path of least resistance.
All I saw was a sphere. Well polished. I’d hazard it was a perfect shape the likes of which Plato dreamed. Black, like obsidian. No, I didn’t touch it; didn’t dare. It was a little smaller than a basketball, and it was floating there, head height, in the center of the room.
Is this what had driven Lance to mumbled imbecilities and Billy into his maniacal ramblings? And what would it make of me?
There was a dim, fluttering light in the chamber whose source I can’t name. It seemed to shine up from below without ever touching that dark ceiling above. The surrounding walls were all that received this strange luminance. Those stone walls, rough and jagged, danced with terrible shadows.
I approached the orb. Orb seems the right word for it. In its crystal there was only darkness. Long I gazed upon this mystery. Death was behind me, had chased me here, and how near it was I did not know. I could not turn back, but neither could I go on; there was no place further to go. I had hit a dead end in this terrible room which had already destroyed my friends. All I could do was stare into it, waiting to meet whatever fate brought. And my thoughts began to wander…
I wonder if Billy knows he’s mad. I doubt lance knows anything anymore. I suppose, whatever this dark thing is doing to me, I won’t know either; I won’t be able to see myself as they can’t seem to see themselves.
As these musings swirled through my mind, I found that I could see myself, see a faint reflection there in the orb. I didn’t recognize it at first because it was upside down and distorted, like looking at your image in a spoon.
For many hours, or just a few minutes, I gazed into the orb, bemused by my own upside-downness.
“We got you!” I could hear Gale of the King’s guard shout as he burst into the room. I could see his reflection, smaller for the distance, and upside down as well.
“Why you standing on your head, little man?” I asked, trying to stifle a laugh.
That’s good, I thought. You must be going mad.
“Do you want to see it?” I asked. “See this great mystery you keep locked away?”
“I arrest you—”
“Would you like to be mad, Gale, and blow and bluster around the sea?”
Gale started marching toward me, his reflection growing larger.
“A great gale is coming!” I laughed.
I felt his hand on my shoulder.
“Come along,” he said, pulling me away. Then he screamed.
“No! God, no!” he shouted, falling to his knees.
He stared up into the orb, tears running down his cheeks.
I shouted to the shadows waiting outside the room:
“Better come get your boy. He’s seen what he can’t see.”
I glanced back down into Gale’s face. His eyes had gone red with blood, and crimson streams ran down his cheeks.
I couldn’t help but laugh. It was hilarious. I looked up again into our reflections. Our faces were side by side like the two masks you always see, tragedy and comedy, one smiling and one frowning. I was in hysterics, and he was crying his eyes out; except, it occurred to me then, that, our reflections being upside-down…
“Turn that frown upside-down,” I chanted, giggling. It seemed to me that the only thing left to do would be a summersault or a headstand. Both might be fun, but the headstand would get my point across better, I thought. Leaning down, I put my hands out to the floor and kicked my feet as high in the air as I could.
The world spun around me in a confusion of gravity. It was marvelous, and I was laughing so hard I almost fell over.
When I felt the floor under my feet again, I looked up into the bright orb, and a vague memory called it the sun. It was ridiculous. It just hung in the air there in a lavishly blue ceiling. Ceiling is the wrong word. What was it we used to call it? What was that whispered and forbidden word…heaven! Yes, I remember, the sun in the heaven.
What a beautiful day.
Tale Told 