Reading: "CATACLYSMAL" (A.Glass 2017)

 

“I wouldn't go in that direction,” a man says, his image is unclear, obscure, yet familiar.
Elly Jansky keeps walking forward, she turns and looks at the man in front of her. His look is one of concern.
“It's the only way out of here...”
“There must be another way,” the man replies.
Jansky continues walking onward.
“...The building, it's just rubble...We are so far up.” Jansky looks around at the broken interior of the building structure, walls, ceilings, all dislodged and reshaped – a smashed interior of what was once a multi storey high-rise, now just reconfigured into perilously unnatural building shape, a structural disfigurement.
“That's not the way out of here...You are walking towards the edge Elly!” The man yells out. Jansky continues walking forward trying to retain her balance, as the floor beneath her has shifted and warped as though something violent has pulled apart the building. She proceeds to move along the dislodged flooring of this high-rise, which appears to be what was once an apartment block, trying to find a way out. Jansky notices that the walkway beneath her begins to open up, above her is a broken water main, she reaches up and grabs holds of the disfigured piping, a visual reminder of the vehemence against this building.
“We can use this to hold on,” Jansky says, referring to the water main. She turns around, the man that she was with is no longer there, just the rubble of this disheveled area, with its skewed angles and perspectives. Unsure why she is here and who her companion was, alone, Jansky moves carefully towards where a large opening has appeared - to what looks like a collapsed floor, she angles herself around the edges of the twisted pieces of flooring. Grabbing hold of the pipe with both hands she moves closer to the large gap, briefly looking onward at the smashed and opened walls, she sees a clear day with the blue sky above. Smiling Jansky moves towards the light, she then looks down.
“Elly, don't look down.” A voice is heard, looking ahead of her she sees an older woman.
“Mom, I will be with you soon,” she says smiling.
“No, you won't. Just keep moving my darling, but not towards me...Please don't look into dark...He was right, stay away from that edge. You have so much more to give.” Jansky continues to make her way towards her mother, looking up at the piping, gripping the broken water main with both hands, trying to maintain her balance. She looks back towards where her mother was standing, on the other side, near the broken window – but her mother is gone. Jansky looks down at nothingness, just a black-hole, an abyss, no other levels can be seen, no indication that the building has been damaged apart from what she can see within the area around her. Beneath Jansky is pure darkness. She sees the end.

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Reading:  "CATACLYSMAL" (A.Glass 2017)