Ellipse

Chapter four

Monroe sat thoughtfully at his desk finishing the part to the machine.
He was still going to build it and give it to Mildred, there was no question about it. But now that Enoch had showed such disturbance over the matter he was a bit hesitant. It was almost done, though still he could not tell what it should be used for. It was getting late into the evening, and he figured perhaps he could bring it to Mildred when he was finished. He didn't like the idea that Mildred was up to something out of the ordinary, and believed Enoch to be over exaggerating things. But either way he didn't know, and had no reason to know. So he put it out of his mind for the time being.
it was four o'clock in the evening by the time he had finished with it, it being fragile, he wrapped it up and put it in a box. When he was sure it was in there safe he picked it up by its sides and walked into the kitchen. He knew Mildred would be at his office, even though the clock shop wouldn't be open. Monroe had never thought about it, but it was a little odd that Mildred spent so much time in his office and never really seemed to do anything for the actual business. He was about to leave to bring the finished project to Mildred, when he noticed the mirror sitting in the corner. Roland was at professor Winningham's lab, and would not come back till later. Monroe fixed the mirror back in its place, still wondering why Roland did that.
It was very cold that evening, much colder than it had been that morning, he had to bring his coat. There was a few little snowflakes that where falling from the sky, drifting to the ground in a slow floating motion. The old man that always was walking through the street was taking his evening stroll, even thought it was cold. Walked down the stars trying to not to drop the box as he did so, he waved to the old man, and made his way towards the shop. Not without once glancing around the corner to where the masked man had been the night before.
The streets where not that busy yet, so it was easy to get there quick. Finally he came to Ink Street and walked down it's dark gloomy-like alleyway. Monroe made sure he had his keys with him in case Mildred wasn't there, but he turned the doorknob and the door opened easily. The door was not locked.
Just as always, the chorus of ticking clocks sounded loud and clear as the door opened. With the box in one hand, he removed his hat with the other and stuck it on the coat rack. He strolled across the room and knocked on the office door... no one answered. He knocked again. Still nothing, "did he leave the shop unlocked?" Monroe said looking around the room as if he had missed Mildred. He knocked one more time loudly now, and decided he was to look into the storage room. But the door to the office opened, and Monroe turned to find Mildred standing there, his large mustache slightly frayed. He looked like he had been working for a very long time, and had not gotten much sleep. "Oh it's you," he said, "you've made it already?"
"Yes," replied Monroe, "I've finished it."
"Good, er.... Bring it in here for me would you?"
Monroe set the box on his desk, Mildred's office was immaculate. Everything in its rightful place, nothing was out of order. Though it always seemed rather odd to Monroe, the office almost seemed unused. Just the fact that not a pen was out of place, and there seemed to be a film of dust covering everything. The dust. Now that Enoch had spoken about Mildred, everything about him seemed to be suspicious. All the way down to the fact that he never really ran the clock shop, and spent so much time in his office, but never seemed to work in his office. And if one was to look in his office, it would appear that no one has ever even been in it.
Monroe tried to put it out of his head for the time being, for Mildred was reaching in his pocket to get out some money.
"Here Monroe," he said handing him a handful of flats. Monroe counted them, five. Now that was definitely not right. He waited as Mildred walked across the room and seemed to be dusting the bookshelf, and Monroe waited.
Mildred turned back around and opened the box that the part to the machine was in, "very good," he said looking it over. After he felt it was all right, Mildred put it back in the box. "Good," dismissed Mildred, but Monroe didn't leave.
And after a bit of silence Mildred finally remembered, "oh, yes," he said, "how much did I say I was going to pay you again?"
"Er... thir... twenty sir."
"Damn," uttered Mildred looking down at his watch, "I'll finish paying you later eh?"
Monroe nodded, and pocketed the five flats, "thank you sir." and he turned to leave, "see you tomorrow then eh?" said Mildred.
"Yes sir Mr. Haywood," Monroe said and left the building in a bit of a bad mood. 'Well,' he thought to himself as he crossed the street to get passed the train station, 'I should have told the truth, I shouldn't try to please people too much. I'll never get anywhere that way.' he had just past the station when he noticed something, his head was cold. He left his hat at the shop, he turned around annoyed, making his way back to the shop. He was just about to get to the bank, when Mildred rushed by him. He was walking an excited pace with his compass looking thing in his hand. He was quickly and energetically pressing the buttons on the side of it, completely oblivious to the world. He briskly walked by without even noticing Monroe.
Monroe frowned as he watched him disappear around the corner. He slowly made his way back to Ink street, why had he not noticed Mildreds behavior. It may even be nothing, it was only Enoch suggestion. When he came up to the door it was left open, which was causing the sound of the clocks to be much louder. Monroe pulled out his keys, thinking that even if Mildred was to come back, it was good to keep the shop locked up. He reached in and grabbed his hat, and was turning to go when something caught his eye.
He slowly turned and searched the room until his eyes found what it was, it was a light. A light that Monroe had never seen the likes of, not in the shop, nor anywhere else.
The door to Mildred's office was slightly open, and the light was emanating from it. But it was not the natural glow of an ellipse lamp, nor the warm flickering light of a candle or a gas lamp. This was a cold and stark blue, it was deep and abnormal; but what was it coming from? Monroe tried to see it better, should it be a wise decision to see what it was? After all Enoch was worried about Mildred, and did ask Monroe specifically to keep an eye on him.
He looked behind him out into the street, nothing was there except the few bits of snow drifting from the sky. He came into the building and shut the door, then walked up hesitantly up to Mildred's office to where the door was slightly cracked open. He gently pushed it, causing a slight creak and peered in. the light was coming from the bookshelf, or at least where the bookshelf once was. Both sides of the shelf were pushed back like sliding doors, and there was a thin line of space revealing the light. The light was so strange looking, and Monroe couldn't decide what was so strange about it. He came into the room and pried the bookshelf open.
Behind the bookshelf was a long dark hallway going down in stairs of old bricks and stone. At the end of the hallway, and where the light had been coming from, was a room.
"What in the world are you doing Mildred," Monroe whispered as he slowly walked down the hallway, taking note of the strange way it was built. It reminded Monroe of some kind of bunker, sealed and secluded, dark except for the blue light. Eventually he made it to the room at the end of the hallway and stopped dead when he saw what was in the middle of the room.
What he saw was a machine. The machine was large, sturdy, and looked very familliar. Sitting on top of the machine, fastened to it with thin bolts and sealing rubber was a glass dome. It looked like the kind of dome one fills with roses, but there was no rose inside of this one. But what was inside was much more interesting then a rose. It was a floating orb.
A deep sapphire blue Light emanated from the orb, and everything in the room reflected from off it's color. It was a strange thing to behold, for it was completely black, yet light came from it. Such as an eclipse, where the sun covers the moon turning it black, yet it's light still covers the land. Underneath the orb there flew tiny strands of hair-like wires floating about, and from those wires shot out thin bolts of electricity. The electricity seemed to be holding it in place, making it look as if it were floating.
Monroe stared at the orb intensely, he slowly walked around the machine his eyes transfixed on it. What was it? The light that came from it was so powerful, yet the thing itself was not light. Looking straight into it, the thing was dark, and gave an impression of a round ball of coal being held in front of a light. But no matter where Monroe looked, he could not find the source of the light. He began to study the machine that the glass dome was set on, and suddenly he recognized almost all of it. He had built it, piece by piece, wire by wire. And the more he looked at it the more he came into the realization that Mildred had only stuck each piece together, each one fitting perfectly with the other.
There was only a few things that he had not done. An assembled sheet of buttons was spread in front of the dome, and a large lever was sitting on the side of the machine. But what did this mean? Monroe couldn't get close to even fathoming what it was, even though he was the one who built the machine. He tried to think. But thoughts were useless at the moment, everything was pointed at the glowing orb that floated in the middle of the dome. Monroe walked up to the buttons of the machine and counted them, fifteen in all, what did they do? He pushed one. There was a sharp clank, and the thin wires that the electric bolts shot from, began to press together. The orb lowered. He pressed it again, and everything was set back in its place. He then turned towards the lever, was this the thing that turned it off? He grabbed the lever and looked at the orb, perhaps he shouldn't, but his curiosity was too powerful not to. He pulled the lever down without hesitation, and waited. The soft hum of the engine stopped, and the electric bolts disappeared. But the orb stayed in its place, the blue light still glowed brightly from it. He waited, but nothing happened, not at first. In slight disappointment he pushed the lever back up to turn the machine back on. But it didn't turn on. At the sight of the lack of electricity, and the absence of the engine sound, a sick panic began to rise inside him. "Oh no," he said, and turned the engine off and back on; still nothing. He pressed a random button, nothing happened. He pushed all the buttons, still nothing. He knew exactly why it would not turn back on, and he cursed at himself for turning it off. Perhaps he could fix it.
He got down on his hands and knees, and was about to begin taking it apart, when he heard a noise. It was a very high pitched, a warped sounding hum. He stood to see if the machine was turning on, but when he listened, the hum was not coming from the engine; it was coming from the orb. He watched it, and at first it seemed as if nothing was happening except for the noise. But then he noticed it move slightly, it was a sharp movement, so sharp that if he wasn't looking closely he wouldn't have noticed it. And then it moved again, jabbing to the side. And then again, and again, each time more violent than the time before. He looked in closer at it, it was now growing and shrinking, and forming into odd shapes, still that quick angry movement. And then suddenly the light grew to a blinding brightness. Monroe took a quick step back as the warped hum, turned into a wheeling screech.
An explosion erupted the room, and everything turned white. Glass flew everywhere was the dome shattered into a thousand tiny shards, and the warped sound wailed in an ear splitting chorus of sound. And then everything went quiet.

Mildred had entered the shop when he heard the noise, that blood curdling screech. He stopped petrified, the blood ran from his face, one thought pounding in his head. no, no, no, no! He staggered through the shop to his office, and opened the door with shaking hands. The bookshelf was opened, but he remembered in his excitement he had left it opened. But the light that he was so used to seeing, was absent, gone. "No, no, no!" he said rushing into the hallway, his heart thumping. "What did I do wrong? What did..." He came to the room, and felt as if the life drained from out of him. The machine was obliterated, and the orb was nowhere to be seen. He stared at the destroyed dome, and then he looked down. "YOU," he roared. Monroe was sitting against the wall, a dazed look in his eyes. "WHAT DID YOU DO!"
Monroe looked up at him, eyes wide, he opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Mildred's fear turned to hot anger, "get on your feet you!"
Monroe tried to get up, but staggered a bit trying to find his balance. Mildred grabbed him by his collar and pulled him upright, "don't you realize what you've just done!" He bellowed.
"I-I..." Monroe stuttered still dazed.
"Destroyed it!" Mildred let Monroe go and turned towards the machine and buried his face in his hands. "It's all gone," he moaned, "all that work to get it stabilized. I was finally done, and then he knows already. And when he learns I've failed..." Mildred kicked the destroyed machine with an angry yell, and then turned to face Monroe. "What are you still doing here! get out!" Mildred grabbed the remains of the glass dome and threw it to the floor with a CRASH! "now don't you set a foot back in this place!" he yelled, but Monroe didn't need any more encouragement. He stumbled up the stairs, and got out of that shop as quick as possible. Leaving Mildred sitting at his desk on the brink of tears.