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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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