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† THE GLASS FACTORY. †
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#@#&&††«,. SEVERAL CENTURIES AFTER IT HAD LAST .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. BELONGED TO US, WE WENT ON AN OUTING TO ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... THE GLASS FACTORY THAT BORE OUR FAMILY ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. NAME. IT HAD CHANGED OWNERS MANY TIMES ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. SINCE OUR ANCESTORS DEATH, AND THEN .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. STOOD ABANDONED FOR A LONG WHILE. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... FINALLY, THE NATURAL END STATION FOR ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. THE BUILDINGS THAT SURVIVE: A MUSEUM, ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. AND A GIFT SHOP. .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... THERE'S A LONG TIME SINCE MY FAMILY ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. MADE ANYTHING. BY MANY, WE WOULD BE ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. CONSIDERED POOR. .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... THERE ARE TWO MAIN FACTORY BUILDINGS, ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. DOMED THINGS OF SEVERAL FLOORS, MADE IN ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. YELLOW BRICK. LARGE BUT NARROW WINDOWS, .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. REMINESCENT OF SOME CATHEDRAL. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... CUSTOM-MADE GLASS, OF COURSE, LARGE AND ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. LEADED, AND ASHEN. A BIT TOO DARK TO BE ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. PRACTICAL. ON THE EASTERN BUILDING, .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. SOME ARE SHATTERED. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. THE OTHER ONE IS PUBLICLY OPEN. THERE'S ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. A MUSEUM, WITH WAX FIGURES OF MY GREAT .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER, OR SOMETHING. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... VARIOUS TOOLS (OR REPLICAS) LAID OUT ON ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. TABLES, WITH EXPLAINING TEXTS. A LOT OF ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. GLASS OF VARYING THICKNESS. .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... †† ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. †† †† ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. ««««««« † † ««««««« .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. †† †† ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... †† ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. I QUICKLY SNEAK OUT, AND CLIMB INTO THE .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. OTHER BUILDING. THE CONTRAST IS ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... OVERWHELMING. IT MUST HAVE STOOD ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. DERELICT FOR A LONG TIME, WINDOWS ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. BROKEN, METALLIC TRASH AND POOLS OF .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. DARK GLASS ALL OVER THE FLOOR. NO ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... ELECTRIC LIGHTS, BUT I CAN SEE BY THE ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. LIGHT THAT SHINES IN WHEREVER THE DARK ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. WINDOWS ARE MISSING A PANE. .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... HOWEVER, THE GREATEST DIFFERENCE IS THE ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. HIGHER FLOORS: THIS BUILDING HAS NONE. ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. IT IS ONE MASSIVE HALL, STRETCHING AWAY .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. INFINITELY ABOVE ME. SOMEWHERE UP THERE ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... IS SOME GREAT IRON LATTICEWORK, FROM ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. WHERE CHAINS ARE SUSPENDED, AND PARTS ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. OF MACHINERY HAS BEEN FALLING DOWN. .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... THERE IS, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GREAT ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. HALL, A THIN SPIRAL STAIRCASE THAT ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. LEADS UP THERE. I SNEAK OVER THERE, AND .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. TAKE A FEW RELUCTANT STEPS. AFTER JUST ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... A REVOLUTION, I NOTICE THAT FOR EACH ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. STEP THE BUILDING STARTS TO GLOW, THE ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. BRICKS TURNING A DARK RED, AND THEN .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ORANGE, ALL THE PILED UP DEBREE BEING ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... LIT FROM BEHIND. ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. I STOP READY TO RUN DOWN AND OUT, BUT .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE ON THE STAIRCASE ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... WITH ME NOW, PRESSED CLOSE. HE'S ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. LOOKING LIKE ME, SHORT HAIR AND THIN ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. ARMS, BUT WITH EARS FROM SOME ANIMAL, .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. AND MORE DISTURBINGLY, COMPLETELY MADE ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... OF DARK LIQUID GLASS. ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. †† .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. †† †† ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... ««««««« † † ««««««« ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. †† †† ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. †† .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... MY FEAR HOLDS ME IN PLACE WHILE HE ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. STARTS OPERATING LEVERS AND DIALS SET ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. IN THE CENTER OF THE STAIRCASE. SLOWLY, .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. IT STARTS SPINNING, CIRCLING UPWARDS. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... IT'S AN ELEVATOR! I START TO RUN ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. DOWNWARDS, BUT NOW THE LIQUID BOY ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. CREATURE GRABS HOLD OF ME. I TRY TO .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. SHAKE HIM OFF, BUT HE'S TOO STRONG, AND ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... PULLS ME BACK UP BESIDE HIM. ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. THIS TIME, I TURN ANGRY INSTEAD. WHAT .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. THE HELL? WHO IS THIS GUY, ACTING LIKE ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... THIS? I REACH OUT MY FREE ARM AND SLAM ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. A RANDOM LEVER. SOME METAL BAR IS ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. SUDDENLY RELEASED BETWEEN US, HITTING .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. HIM ON THE ARM, FORCING MY RELEASE. I ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... SHOVE HIM OFF OF ME, AND HE FALLS INTO ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. THE LEVERS, MESSING THEM UP. ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. IMMEDIATELY, A THIN RUSTY CHAINMAIL .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. CURTAIN IS DROPPED AROUND ME. BUT THE ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... ELEVATOR ALSO SPEEDS UP SIGNIFICANTLY. ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. THE WALLS ARE FLARING NOW, YELLOW, .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. WHITE, ALMOST BLUE. I CLOSE MY EYES AND ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... CURL INTO A BALL. BUT THEN, THE GLASS ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. BOY SCREAMS, A PIERCING SOUND THAT ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. FORCES MY EYES BACK OPEN. I WATCH AS HE .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. BECOMES TOO LIQUID, HIS BODY POOLING ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... DOWN IN HIS NOW MASSIVE TAIL, AND THE ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. TIP OF IT SUDDENLY BREAKS OF IN A GLASS ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. DROP THAT FALLS TOWARD THE FACTORY .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. FLOOR. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. HE'S CRAWLING ON THE STAIRS, UNABLE TO ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. KEEP HIS BODY UPRIGHT. CAN'T REACH THE .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. LEVERS, CLAWS AT MY CHAINMAIL CAGE, ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... WHILE HIS BODY IS TURNING INTO DARK ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. PEARLS. FINALLY, HE'S LOST TOO MUCH OF ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. HIMSELF AND THE SCREAM IS CUT SHORT. .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. THE LAST OF HIM RAINS DOWN. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. I STILL CAN'T REACH THE LEVERS FROM ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. WITHIN MY CAGE. LOOKING UP, I TRY TO .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. MAKE OUT THE CEILING, BUT IT'S ALL A ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... WHIRLING SEA OF COLOURS. BELOW ME GLOWS ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. THE HELLFIRE OF THE FACTORY WALLS, BUT ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. VERY FAINT. I SIT DOWN, CURL BACK UP, .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. BECOME STILL. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. †† ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. †† †† .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ««««««« † † ««««««« ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... †† †† ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. †† ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. A LARGE CLUNK SHAKES MY ENTIRE BODY, ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... AND SNAPS ME BACK INTO REALITY. I'M ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. BACK AT THE FACTORY FLOOR, BUT THE ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. STAIRS ARE STILL MOVING SLIGHTLY, .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. CLICKING IN PLACE, CARRYING ME THE LAST ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... FEW CENTIMETERS. I CAME FROM BELOW, ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. SOMEHOW. THE CHAINMAIL IS RETRACTED, ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. AND I SLOWLY DISMOUNT THE STAIRS. .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... SHAKING AND CRYING, I MAKE MY WAY OVER ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. THE FACTORY FLOOR, WADING THROUGH DARK ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. GLASS MARBLES. A QUICK GLANCE DOWN, AND .,«††&&#@#
@#&&††«,.. I SEE THERE'S SOMETHING FAINT INSIDE ..,«††&&#@
#&&††«,... THEM. EMBRYOS? ARE THESE EGGS? ...,«††&&#
@#&&††«,.. ..,«††&&#@
#@#&&††«,. I SHUDDER, AND CLIMB BACK OUT. .,«††&&#@#
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