MLAAS - Ch 7

Chapter 7 - Good Advice

I continued the one sided conversation with the statue across from me in the darkness, telling her all about my life:  birthday parties, school, friends, family, and the events that lead me to where I was.  I talked about television and my favorite foods and anything I could do to take my mind off of things.  I made sure to keep my mind flowing like a river, not giving myself a single second to stop and reflect again.  After a few hours, I had run out of things to talk about.  As I struggled to come up with another topic, I realized it was becoming hard to keep any sort of thought straight.

I...I...wait, what was I just doing?

Suddenly, I was conscious again.  I had apparently dozed off in the middle of my search for a topic.  It was then I realized:  Sleep is possible, even when you're just a chunk of rock.  However, it's unlike most normal sleep.  There is no dreaming.  Since you can't close your eyes, there is no darkness (well, other than the darkness of the basement.  I'm talking more broadly now, though).  It's as if your mind just stops working for a moment and you lose all awareness of your surroundings.  In other words...

I cleared my mind.

I didn't have long to reflect on what had just happened however.  At that moment, I became aware of what caused me to awaken:  the sound of footsteps and muffled talking above.  I couldn't hear exactly what was being said:  only that there were two voices.  One I could tell was the lady in black.  The other was much higher pitched:  presumably a younger girl.

A younger girl...Oh God, it's happening again.

This must have been one of the appointments she had told me about:  my reason for being down here so prematurely.  From the sound of it, the younger girl was doing most of the talking.  For three minutes straight, I don't think I heard her voice stop once.  My guess was the lady was going to be glad once she finished her latest "work."

Get out now...get out while you still can.  Please, just turn and leave and never come back...

The girl would not leave.  Of course, she would have no reason to:  as far as she knew, this was just going to be a several hour job and then she'd be going home to have dinner.  Unless of course, she had no home.  Given all that had happened, I completely had wiped the trigger of all of this out of my mind:  the ad.

Maybe she doesn't have a home or a family...maybe to her, jobs like this are few and fa-My God, does she ever stop talking!?!

Against all odds, I was for the moment sympathizing with the lady in black.  I'd been listening for 10 minutes and all I could hear was that same high pitched voice going on and on.  However, the moment wouldn't last long.  The deeper voice cut the steady stream of chatter with a few brief words.  I heard the slow and steady taps of the lady's feet as she circled around the soon-to-be-statue.

Don't just stand there.  Don't listen.  Run.  Break your focus and run.

More steps, more of the deeper voice.

Run away.  Run.  Please...just run.

More steps and then...something unexpected.

A scream.