Stumble It!
3WW- The Elder's Grimoire
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 10:15PM 
Image from my Fifth Avenue Series
The apartment was one of those scandalous Manhattan penthouses. Filled with so much visual noise that it was difficult for Lena to focus her eyes on any one thing. In fact, everything appeared cathedral-ancient and shiny with the kind of glare that only freshly polished wood can yield.
"He must have lived here for years...," she thought as her eyes followed the path of candle lights beckoning her into a long hallway. There was something to be seen in every nook and cranny. Had he collected the brick and mortar for these walls from his travels?
Just that morning Lena was four hours north in Vermont. She had been covered in dirt, grime and powder. Sweaty and determined she mixed a barrel of concrete and built a four-walled monolithic structure to bury her Book of Stains in. It was her soul. She had read the elders Grimoire repeatedly. It explicitly stated that once the book was encased in concrete, as of midnight that night, she would no longer feel. She would go numb, eternally.
Her reverie was crushed by an unfamiliar grip on her shoulder, "Lena, I'm so glad you made it! You only have four hours left!"
Lena's face contorted in that mix of uncomfortable confusion. She was elegantly dressed and ready for an evening of charm in this illustrious space, but had she made a mistake?
"Ah, I can see you're unsure." The stranger slid his hand down her shoulder and grasped her fingers as he pulled her towards him and said, "Let me introduce myself,my name is Jacob."
He consoled her with his soothing voice and continued, "My family has raised many a runaway, I am the last of the clan.
Jacob stared into Lena's eyes and she was flushed with a great awe as she recognized his flesh curling into its true state, scales.
"Your time is short, but you're in the right place. My job is to show you all the wonders of the world before you lose your senses."
"My senses?" Lena asked as she was taken aback by the semantics.
"Yes, all that with which you feel."
Lena pulled away and wanted to show her conviction, "Where do we begin?"
Jacob's lair filled with music. He poured Lena a glass of wine and said, "First, we'll dance. Then I will show you all the wood that I gathered from Giuseppe's studio, then Cleopatra's jewels and cosmetics, then Andromeda's chains..."
"How long and WHERE have you lived?" Lena interrupted, completely immersed in Jacob's expanding mouth and elliptical yellow eyes.
Jacob chose not to answer her, but instead to show her. They danced in between ever fifteen minutes. She felt things she thought she would never feel. Then the clock struck twelve and it began - the draining of all her capacity to feel.
Reader Comments (6)
I don't usually say this as I think an author knows what they want to say--and you said it so well--but I want to know more. Why did he have that power etc.
I have been moving the past couple of weeks--so I haven't been doing my job as keeper of the blogroll, but I will do it now:)
Really enjoy your posts so was going to do it earlier--saw that you're serious. Made up that rule to discourage people who just want a link
I've enjoyed reading this.
It makes me curious.
You can find my entry here: The Fire
Have a great day!
I think I want to know more about this. Do we have another part?
more please.
xoxo
i cannot even begin to imagine the pain she must have been enduring to cause her to decide to do something like that... wonderfully written!!!!
yr story is so intriguing... the last of the clan... runaways...i like the 12 midnight and dancing as she morphed and everything changes... now the picture definitely reflects the visual noise of the penthouse... love it!!!...