The Other Place
(a semi-musical Steampunk Goth hybrid story)
Blog Five: Don’t Unclasp the Key!
The harp music continues to call him and whatever tonic Lady Oolong made for him has nearly lost all its strength. He starts walking towards a street full of two-storey buildings. In the background he sees the spiral tower of a church or what he believes is a church. People bustle along the street. The image of the bewitching vampire with the succulent voice overwhelms him. He guesses that the ointment Lady Elsewhere covered his face and upper body with made his visible skin invisible to the vampire, but what about the necklace with the key? His right palm feels a lump in the pocket of his trench coat. He slides it inside. There’s a wide, thin jar and a piece of paper. Ignoring both he feels around his chest until he finds the key. He carefully unclasps it. As soon as he does it becomes visible. He holds it before him, and a blue light emits from the onyx stone within the key’s head.
His eyes widen as his mouth opens in disbelief. An endless menagerie of living stories occurs everywhere. A wolf fleeing humans. A little girl huddling in a closet. A man and woman intimate on a beach. Flashes go off and there’s a dog wagging his tail as he greets the sister he was separated from. The ever-changing images overwhelm his senses and he shuts his eyelids.
Fumbling with the key he manages to get it clasped onto the chain. When he opens his eyes, its just the busy street before him now. Except. Some of the people are swimming through the air.
The key used in the cover is from a picture of skeleton keys taken by Dianne McBride diannemcb@gmail.com
Honorable Mention:
Maggie Boone https://www.instagram.com/missmaggiemoon/?hl=en
This is a clip of her singing the Cranberries: Zombie https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm6H1P7IzTQ/?hl=en
Currently she’s doing a kickstart for her debut LP: Delaware Street
Tags: Gothic, ScienceFiction, Steampunk, storytelling