Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Entry #27

"Headlight"
by Forrest Landry


The twin images were different, for all their sameness. And upside-down. He looked closer and saw they were coming from two pin-pricks in the wallpaper.

Intrigued, he stooped and stared, finally closing one eye and squinting. Through one tiny hole he saw into the next room. Two antique kerosene lamps burned on a sideboard.

Their light illuminated a severed head, eyes closed, mouth a painful rictus. A dark glint, probably blood, cascaded down the front of the piece of furniture.

There was nothing else to see, through the minute hole.

Then, because he was so close, he heard the sound of labored breathing and something dragging.

My God, he thought, what if someone’s hurt and trying to get help?

Then his instinct for self-preservation asserted itself. He disregarded the urge.

A woman in a Victorian-style dress with a lace bodice came into view as she passed one of the lamps. The white garment was bright red all down the front. Her hands and arms looked as though she’d plunged them into a vat of blood.

Suddenly she turned and stared directly at him, as though she somehow knew he was watching her. Startled, he pulled back sharply, frightened.

As he stood there shaking, wondering if she’d seen him somehow, he heard the TV playing the soundtrack to NYPD Blue, as the re-run came on.

The wall he was looking through faced a brightly-lit hallway – not a room.

7 comments:

Bernita said...

Vivid description but I'm confused... is this an optical illusion or a paranormal incident?

Erik Ivan James said...

I agree with Bernita, confused. I was doing fine right up to the ending. I also agree, vivid description. You do that very well.

For The Trees said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
For The Trees said...

I snuck another one past you both! This was him looking through a hole in the wallpaper into the "next room" and seeing the aftermath of a murder, only to come back to himself as NYPD Blue's theme music played on the TV. And more importantly, the wall he was looking through was the hall wall. So he couldn't have been looking through the wallpaper into anything but sheetrock.

Decidedly paranormal. Call the paramedics. Grab a parachute. It's a parable. Sorry to have confused you!

Forrest

Lyn said...

My take was that he was watching a 19th century scene, snapped back to reality, tried again but the scene had changed. Sort of a time portal a la Star Trek experience. I still wouldn't want to go to sleep that night. Good descriptive voice. Work on the ending a bit to help the reader transition with you, but over all nicely done. Lyndon

Bhaswati said...

Gripping scene there.

Anonymous said...

Forrest, an intriguing idea. A small peep hole opens into another time. Very nice use of physics too! I caught the pin-hole camera effect in the inverted images.

Good marks for pacing and storytelling.