Nihilist

Welcome to Lexicon

Bubbles brought her back to earth. Big, fluffy, pink things that deposited her into a dark pink world. The sky was cloudy, a storm on its way. A storm of faerie floss, perhaps? Her toes touched the ground lightly and she slipped off her silken perch and the bubbles floated around her, a reflection of a million Mels on all sides. One tickled the tip of her nose and popped. Giggling, she popped more of them in a flurry of rapid-fire noise.

“How curious,” she said softly as a green bubble hovered before her and then lazily moved just out of her grasp. Laughing, Mel skipped a few steps then tried to grab it again, yet, the green bubble still moved away, zooming across the dark pinkish red grass in what might be dusk if the sun wasn’t obscured by dense cloud cover.

“Come back!” Mel shouted in frustration and ran after the green bubble, her boots pounding against the vibrantly toned grass. The bubble continued to lure her over hill after hill through this high contrast world of pinks and greys and smoky blacks.

“Aha!” Mel jumped and her hand latched onto the bubble, but it was stuck. The bubbled wouldn’t let her go and almost yanked her arm out of its socket as it hoisted her into the air, further and further up into the atmosphere.

As much as she tried to detach her hand from the sticky surface, it was getting more and more dangerous as the green menace pulled her higher and higher. Soon, her face was plunged into the clouds, water vapor coating her face and making her spit and cough, her arm and shoulder screaming out in pain.

“Where are you taking me?!” She shouted to the bubble who, most obviously, wasn’t inclined to answer her in the slightest. Mel broke cloud cover with a gasp and instead of moving up, the bubble jerked her forward towards the only speck of green in the dark sea of clouds.

A small inlet came into view with color saturated and fake-looking grass, but then again, the grass down below was pink, so green grass shouldn’t startle her. The rocks underneath the bright lawn crumbled and melded into the clouds below. Set on top of this impossible and mysterious spit of land was a manor house of days past, so completely old fashioned that Mel wondered if it was from back when humans used to live on earth instead of in the airships.

The stone was a dark grey and dirty, stained with water from the rain and weathering. Each brick was rough-hewn, but they all fit together perfectly, no mortar needed. It was separated into three wings: an east, west, and the middle common area. Columns adorned the doors to two of the wings, a grand oak door standing guard over the middle section of the house. Hedges outlined the house like a murder victim, a reflection pool showing a backwards and upside down world.

The green bubble set Mel down on top of the pool, which proved to be no more than an inch deep.  She rotated her shoulder, trying to regain some feeling and banish the pain to no avail. Mel turned her head to get a good look at the place and it took her a few moments to realize it was what she saw in that strange flashback or dream or whatever it was. It certainly couldn’t have been a flashback; she had no recollection of those events transpiring. Or maybe that’s what a flashback was? To remind you of things you shouldn’t have forgotten?

Although the green bubble had left her, she began to see something come up from underneath the surface of the reflection pool. Impossible, Mel thought. I’m standing on the bottom. It can’t go any deeper than this, can it?

But it could and soon from the depths green bubbles were erupting everywhere, practically suffocating Mel with their volume. She flailed her arms, crying out as she tried to pop them, but they wouldn’t break. None of them would. Hesitantly, Mel opened her eyes and what she saw she couldn’t put into words, but I surely can.

She saw herself. She saw herself for what she truly was. The machinery without the flesh. The cold, hard truth of her ruthless and cutthroat nature. The bubbles moved to take to her form, her metal form, and they faced her.

“What do you want?” Mel had her arms wrapped around her torso, her hair obscuring a tear-streaked face.

“What do you think?” the automaton replied cryptically with a simpering smile. It took a few jerky steps towards Melville.

“I don’t know,” Mel replied truthfully. “I don’t think I ever will.”

“Oh, yes, you do,” the automaton was close now, almost an arm’s length away. “You’ve always known.”

“D-do you want me?” Mel asked fearfully, her eyes wide underneath her curtain of hair. She shrunk into herself with every step the automaton took.

“Ah, but we are one in the same,” the monster told her. “I am you and you are me and we are all together.” A grin came onto its face. “Forever.”

“Stop!” Mel shouted and put her hands out as her reflection almost was upon her. Where her hands touched the automaton, green bubbles flew away and into her face. “Leave!” She commanded, but the bubbles wouldn’t stop, the automaton came closer, and Melville fled. She ran, stumbling up the steps of the manor house and tugged on the front door. The reflection turned and jerked horrifyingly towards Mel, taking one step at a time.

“Help!” Mel pounded on the door, shrieking as loud as she possibly could. “Open the door! Help me! Please!” She was sobbing now and tugged on the door uselessly. Still, the automaton came, almost halfway up the stairs. Mel ran and tried the other doors, but nothing opened. The windows wouldn’t break. The reflection had made it to the top of the steps now, coming towards her. She huddled in the corner next to the east wing in front of the columns that joined the wings together. Her fate was sealed.

A raw, terrifying sound escaped her throat, a cross between a shriek, a scream, and a last breath. But it wouldn’t be her last breath, not yet. A pair of arms jutted out from in between the columns and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her through a hidden door and into the manor house.

When she stopped thrashing enough and calmed down, the person whispered into her ear as he set her down into a shadowy corridor.

“Welcome to Lexicon.”