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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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