SkyeSlipstream
The grandfather clicked and clocked, ticked and tocked, each beat droning in how time was meaningless in this room of old perfume and dust motes. The women nattered in unison like a pack of disheveled geese, while I continued to tap my fingers to that tick-tock rythym. The visit had to end soon...
"Doctor, doctor, I feel like a pair of curtains!"
"Pull yourself together!"
The man immediately took his two severed sides, the viscera and bone cartilage still leaking from its open pores, and tried to staple himself together with the remaining inner workings, as a disgusting melding of two things into a grotesque whole.
(Happy Halloween!)
The creature beat on the invisible walls surrounding it on all sides, the prison it could not see. It scratched and clawed and bit and tore, trying to pry away whatever magical force kept it in place, but it found no quarter. Outside, the giants stared with wide eyes and they pointed and laughed in their strange tongue. A powerful beast, confined to a glass jar.
The new jeans fit perfectly. They weren't too tight that they bit into her hips, but not so loose that they dragged behind her heels like a kid in his pajamas. She turned in the mirror, trying to admire herself from the side. Her figure didn't lend itself to the hourglass pose she wanted, and she sighed at her bulging belly, but at least the jeans were a step in the right direction.
He took the last step on the crest and peered over to see what lay before him. Hills and dune rose above and beyond, each one a contour on the world's largest land, merely a bump in a road that never seemed to end as it stretched on as far as the eye could see. Valleys and dips cracked the surface of the world like imperfections, and the sun glared down and lighted it all up for the man. There was a lot left to explore.
Heads turned. Feet stopped. Eyes fluttered. Everyone couldn't feel the air leave their lips as they saw her enter the room. She was like art come to life, contours and curves in a colorful burst that dazzled and charmed everyone in the room. It was as if they had fallen under a spell, and with her bewitching beauty, it's entirely possible that was indeed what happened.
I brace myself and feel it pierce the skin, a tiny pinpoint strike against my only armor. How can something so small and fragile cause such pain? I watch the blood draw, a wound in my defenses, as the surgeon weaves up and down, his precision the only thing keeping my nerves in check. He uses me as a canvas.