Flickr Fiction
‘How can I believe in God, if I don’t believe in myself?’
The dark was claiming him, he could see it creeping up behind. Every morning the pain of waking became more intense. To raise a weary head and look into the light that pierced the thin curtains. On bad days it was much easier to stay in bed - ignore the light and its warmth. There were no good days, not when it was like this. Days divided themselves into bad and numb. On those days he struggled from the bed, sharp sheets tangling limbs. Somewhere his eidolon strode the world. But he - the golem - walked through life, dulled to pain, to joy, to anything.
‘All the lonely people, where do they all come from?’
Late nights in front of the television. Random images puncturing his retina. Eyelids flicker, with each blink a new image. His mind processes nothing but it is better than sleep or the parody that it has become. Onscreen, an old time preacher sobs in relief. ‘God is talking’ and he weeps. His tears replicated a million times over. Something gets through.
‘You’ve gotta have faith.’
Spikes of steel, rotating overhead. He shelters under these skeletal umbrellas, tools scattered. It had seemed a good idea, before. Now, just another thing to keep the pain away. Focus on the repetition of it. The wires and cables, these rubber serpents encircle his feet, hissing power. Slowly, slowly they disappear, slithering into the forest of spears he raises above his head. What poisonous fruit can grow here?
‘These lives so small. People, dying every day. What have you done to be remembered?’
Lightening splits the sky, spilling rain from the heavens. The cables and wires float in puddles. He isn’t religious - thinks Faith is a joke. Yet he works away on the roof, numb to the rain and all that it brings. Receivers lined up, aligned to the sky. One day soon he will turn it on. The God Antenna.
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This weeks dodgy flicktion effort inspired by WIRE(LESS) By Flickr user Min. Check out the rest of the flicktioneers: The Gurrier, Chris, Linus, Tadmack, TeaandCakes, LittleGoat, Aquafortis, Valsha and Neil.
I have to admit to having to look eidolon up.
Terribly depressing, but brilliant too.
Comment by Teaandcakes — January 6, 2007 @ 12:15 am
Crikey! I like this a lot. I wonder if he ever will turn it on, or will he always have one more adjustment to make?
Comment by Valsha — January 6, 2007 @ 12:21 am
Yay for dystopian futures! Like the golem/eidolon idea — that bears some exploration in a longer story!
Comment by TadMack — January 6, 2007 @ 1:45 am
Interesting how a lot of us hit on that feel of someone obsessively working on a strange pet project… Nice one. Some great visual images, too.
Comment by Sarah — January 6, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
I dig the weirdness of it; beautiful language, too. Something gets through. I love stories of obession and madness. This works in isolation, but feels like part of a bigger picture, too.
Comment by Neil Struthers — January 9, 2007 @ 1:44 am
‘The God Antenna’ is a great idea. It conjures up all sorts of bad things.
Comment by Donal — January 14, 2007 @ 10:12 pm