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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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