Ceaseless Night

3, The Pen

Dirt Road Leading to Cabin, Woods, A Few Moments Earlier.

Alexis Garner trudged along the winding dirt path, using her flashlight to see through the cold night. She had left her car behind about a mile behind her on the main road, and was worried she would get lost, so just in case, Alexis put red markers on the trees every few feet.

"Are you sure we're going the right way, Hugo?"

Alexis's hearing aid buzzed "I can't see where we are going, so yes."

"Okay." Alexis said, her breath visible in the flashlight. "Are we sure it's a cabin?"

"I could bore you with the logarithmic" Hugo said, "But from what I can see, small rectangular prism, made of wooden planks, hollow, fireplace, all the different parts of a cabin. I have no clue what will be in it, though."

Alexis nodded as if Hugo could see her and continued walking in silence for about 10 minutes before, at last, coming across the fabled cabin. It could only have been 25 feet across, wooden planks nearly completely concealed by foliage and strangely geometric vines. Alexis walked around the building, finding nothing of interest besides a stump around the back.

"Hey, I have to go," Hugo's voice in her hearing aids interrupted the silence, "A friend is calling me. Keep Facetime on and I'll keep watch."

"That sounds good." Alexis turned on Facetime and tried to peak inside the small window.

Complete darkness.

Alexis held her phone up as she moved to the door and began tearing vines off of it, revealing intricate patterns of black paint surrounding the tarnished bronze doorknob, Alexis thought it looked Nordic. She slowly turned the doorknob, and pulled. The door opened without any resistance.

The first thing Alexis noticed was the patterns. They didn't stop at the doorknob, they tumbled out through the entire room, covering the walls, the floors, the ceiling, the windows, even the furniture. There was only two pieces of furniture, an old chair and a small square table. And on that table was a small jade box.

Alexis cautiously approached the table, and she sat down in the chair. She felt strangely at home, even though this place was giving her the creeps a few moments earlier. In one sweeping motion, Alexis opened the jade box.

The next few moments would be engrained into her head forever.

Inside the box, laying gently on bed of blue felt, was an old-fashioned fountain pen. The outer casing was made out of a black material, with sparkles that seemed to keep the same position no matter what angle Alexis looked at it.

Alexis grabbed the pen, and gently placed the tip on the table. At that moment, she knew, there was nothing outside of the cabin. The inky patterns scrawled across the table began to spiral around the fountain pen, dragging all of the neighboring lines into the pen with it. Alexis felt the pen dragging at her too, but she used what little will she had left to resist it.

In less than a minute, the pen had consumed every last bit of ink. Alexis began to write. Her hands made looping curls and, with pin point precision, wrote the first words.

Et veniunt ad spectaculum videre minimo.

Alexis's heart pounded, her mind thinking only about the words that were not hers. She didn't know calligraphy or Latin, but the pen knew, and it was doing everything in its power to get the message across.

Nunc tandem operi admovere morabar adsidua nocte.

The message was done, the pen loosened its grip on Alexis, and she did likewise, because she passed out.

Later, she would figure what the message was.

They come and go to see the show, to see the blinding light.

But now they stay and work and pray to bring their ceaseless night.