Monday November 9th, 2020

The exercise:

Write about: a forgotten place.

2 comments:

Greg said...

I feel like the whole of Eldorado is really a forgotten place. Even though the Elizabethtowners are looting it (we think) it doesn't feel like they want to come there and bring it back to life. But let me describe this forgotten place and see where it takes us!

A forgotten place
"This must be what they've been looting," said Jimmy. He walked down the room, while I looked at scratch and scuff marks on the floor -- it looked to me like chairs and tables had been dragged out without much care. "These chairs are heavy!" He sounded so surprised I laughed, and Ben joined in.
"Gold is," I said. "Biggest problem with it really; when there's a lot of it it gets too heavy to move around easily."
"And we're walking out of here," said Ben. "I'm not carrying a chair on my back for anyone, no matter how shiny and golden it is."
"More like a throne," said Jimmy, sitting down on one. "Cold, too," he added after a few seconds.
"We could take the cups and trays," I said, looking around. "And the curtains are light, the silk might be worth something. Keeping it clean would be a trouble though."
"Cups yeah," said Ben, sucking air through his teeth. "Trays, yeah, they're flat, they pack up easy. But... I was hoping for something a little nicer, Red. More of those fish-type things."
I looked at the pool, but there were no signs of golden fish on the bottom of it, or even swimming happily in the water waiting to be caught. "Me too," I said. "But this does kind of explain the boat and why they were turning up here at night."
Jimmy got up and started walking around again. "We have to wait till morning, right?" he said.
"Why?" Ben was puzzled.
"Because those creatures probably guard this place, but we know they don't like sunlight."
I thought about it.
"We've never seen them in daylight," I said slowly, and then Jimmy interrupted me.
"Hey, there's another door back here! And there's a key in the lock!"
Ben got there ahead of me, and before I could suggest being cautious the key had been turned, the lock snicked open, and the door pushed inwards. It moved slowly, and Ben leant against it, pushing harder and barely speeding it up. After it was past the half-way point I heard a splashing noise and then a deep, throaty gurgle, and when I looked back I saw that the pool in the main hall was draining.
"It's an office," said Ben, sounding disappointed. "Books, a desk, oh-ho-ho, what do we have here then?"
I turned away from the draining pool, wondering why it would be connected to a door to an office, and looked at Ben. Through the doorway I could see him opening up a glass-lidded case of some kind, and then he picked up an ornate, enormous necklace, the kind of thing that priests wear for ceremonies that drapes from one shoulder to the other and makes you wonder why the pews have to be wooden and hard when there's that much money around.
"This is more like it!"

Marc said...

Greg - well at this rate there won't be any of them left to come loot (or whatever) the place.

A draining pool and another door! This place certainly has a lot of secrets. Which just makes me all the more uncomfortable with Ben taking priestly things like that...