of earthly delights

of earthly delights

© 2012 by ariestrash. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this book may be taken and reproduced without the written consent of the author.

The light dimmed and black illuminated the room.

Black

                which was black

                                which was black

                                                which was black

                                                                                everywhere.

Everything fell silent. Everyone went still in the small tight room.

From the left corner of the room, blood crept up the walls moist with sweat, sticking and dripping and swirling in the exchange of bodily fluids. The steam streamed through the hot humid air. She held her breath just to breathe, her mind spinning in circles, herself slipping into lightheadedness. She felt herself begin to sway, back and forth, back and forth. She felt clammy hands on her arms, pulling her down

                down

                                  down

She licked the salt off of her lips, her throat burning from her orange drink, the contents of which were still unknown to her. The sound of the synthesizers slowly swelled and the lifeless bodies began to move again. Her heart began to pound out of her control.

                Da-DUM Da-DUM. Red. Da-DUM Da-DUM.

Across the room it had started to rain. Perspiration fell and glistened, sprinkling stars and fairy dust over everyone, glitter finding its way into every corner, every exposed crevice, in places you wouldn't expect. Blue. Green. Violet. The sweating bodies pounded on the dance floor, exposed skin smacking against each other. She was being pushed around and around, the room was twirling and jumping and doing zigzags, color splashing onto her pale white face.

                Everything was beyond control.

At the center of the room, time speed up. Bare-naked trees began to bloom, its buds bursting, their sweet fruit growing and growing; giant berries sprouting from their thin branches. They swelled overhead, so close yet oh so far to reach, their juices oozing and gushing around their big, swollen pits. Hundreds of arms rose into the air, oily hands reaching for the forbidden fruit. Harsh and greedy, they stretched and scratched for the sultry, for the pumped, for the luscious dark nectar, their mouths up and opened to catch a drop of its juice on their tongues, until the pits began to pulse and the harvest ruptured.

Gloom hung in the air like an eerie fog and the dew around her ankles made the hairs on her arms stand still. Sap was everywhere. People around her were freezing into solid statues, cold, chiseled ice sculptures, as all the color in the rigid room emptied out in pool at their feet. She felt a chill, her breath blowing in uneven swirls in front of her face. The music was lost in the frost. The life, the energy of the room, was frozen in space and time, leaving her the only one in motion.

The wait was long. Enhanced by the pounding of her heart, she was scared and frustrated, lost in her intoxication. Her mind kept reeling as her eyes scanned the room looking for any way out. She was trapped.

Is it better to live and to die knowing all of the secrets of the universe? To experience all there is to experience? To see and to hear, to smell and to taste, and to touch what isn't ours, to embrace it even if it'll destroy everything we know and love? Is it better to drown in the music, to dance with the beat, the beast, knowing that we've sinned beyond belief...