[ST] - The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 4: Treacherous Darkness

Hello once again to all of you, my dear readers. It's already Friday again and therefore time for yet another part of my short 'The Bamboo Labyrinth'.

For those who are new to the site and haven't already checked out the previous parts, it's only natural for me to recommend starting right at the beginning. Just follow the links below and delve right into it! And trust me, it'll all make more sense if you get to see the whole picture.

The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 1: Introduction
The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 2: Delving Deeper
The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 3: A Memory's Embrace


So without further ado, I present to you part four! Enjoy!


*~*

You see... within in the walls of this truly majestic building, something was lying in wait for me, something which I had still to discover until those days. Dangerous, yet strangely magnificent in its ways, how wisely it kept itself hidden away, but I was still too young and by all means too daft and curious to be fooled into giving up on finding it so easily. I was still on the hunt for all the sweet treasures life had to offer for me, despite of not even being aware of what they might turn out to be.

I can still recall a situation after entering this unknown realm in which I found myself hastily turning around upon hearing the faintest of noises coming from somewhere in the far back of one of the many hallways haply scattered out around me. Yet neither my parents nor my brother noticed it at that point in time. They were all by far too caught up by their own nonsensical means.  

The sound itself now is presented to me distorted by the ages, torn apart and quickly sewn back together again without any form of care tended to it, as I came to search for it once more. Calling it a shriek should probably serve as most fitting.

The darkness lingering in the hallway beyond, that I was staring at so eagerly, is in this picture still as smothering as it had been in that very moment. The shade dances in front of me with a certain vile lust for freshly spilled blood. But it appears that this is something I never really took notice of at such a young age. And coming back to the scene like this, I now fully realize how it all had been for the better.

As the minutes continue to creep past and my parents still rest caught up on exchanging their shallow welcomings with these unknown entities, I on the other hand started to grow uneasy. And no matter how hard I tried my eyes were unable to catch even only a glimpse of whatever it was that I had managed to hear in this one second of utmost importance.

From then on I only wanted to be set free.

I wanted to investigate.

And never being a friend of these pointless rituals, I had to urge myself, almost forcing my feet into resting in this one place and not blindly follow my instincts into this obscure chasm opening an arm length before me. Without doubt, no matter when the moment would come that they would call my name and summon me, only to tell me I was allowed to roam around this place freely, it would have been too late for my past self.

My left hand started slightly twitching, a quirk I had picked up as a teenager, as my ears continued to block out everything else around me which I thought of as insignificant. I had to be able to hear it clearly again, should the sound reemerge, not disturbed by any unimportant chattering.

It has become rather difficult to say what I really thought in such a moment. I was clearly ridden by tension, driven by curiosity and held back solely by obligation. Also, the thoughts rushing through my mind are long gone, erased and overwritten now telling strange stories of their own. They spew out random facts about Newton or Nietzsche as they are loitering in the far back of my head giving their personal tribute to my intellect as well as my insanity.

To my own disappointment I didn’t hear it again. At least not this early and..., not on this day... I dearly hoped for it to come back maybe even to show itself, but now, by all means, I came to know better.

Bestowed with the knowledge of experience and years I can now safely tell you... It won’t be returning so easily.

But this is when we encounter another rip in the fabric that is my mind. The scene skips forwards into a bleak and dark room governed by silence. It might not be complete, but surely it is close. Faint breathing being the only thing breaking it up as the moon now slowly wanders along the heavens.

Why I came back to this exact place in time?

In all honesty..., I cannot tell you for I do not know either. Memories often seem somewhat random and incontrollable. A judgment more than rightfully passed.

Yet what I know is the place and the time. It took place in the room appointed to me and my brother. I had just managed to talk him into finally being able to sleep. The afternoon took his toll on him, but he kept it sealed away until we were alone. A moment of weakness as pristine as it might be utterly unimaginable, it was sometime more than simply strange to witness. 

And of course it again came down to me to swallow my own urge to talk about a few things I was confronted with today so I could sooth somebody else’s savage soul. He never really thanked me for that either...

*~*

*click here to keep on reading with part 5*

Ominous sounds, washed out memories, inner conflincts... but yet we still move on a clear path through the apparitions of a sole mind, as we continue to venture towards the secrets that lie burried within the past.

As always thanks for reading, enjoy the upcoming weekend and by all means... feel free to comment, subscribe to the blog and/or send me messages telling me to get the hell off the interwebz.
Marc, in-search-for-a-suitable-sword