3 Miserable Comedy - 3

[Seth Lee]

I got no fuckin' sleep last night, gonna be honest. Had this pit in my stomach and it wasn't a shit, I checked.

A lot feels really weird about this school, though I'm definitely not gonna think about why. Something's just a little off about this place, I can smell it.

Like, I mean, why me? Why'd this place take me? This place looked a hell of a lot nicer on the brochure than I thought it should given that nobody's ever fuckin' heard of it. Mom and Pops almost had dual heart attacks when they realized that tuition was free and they'd almost overlooked it.

I feel sorry for them. I really do. They shouldn't have ended up with a failure of a son like me. Nine months and fourteen years, and they got a piece of shit out of the deal.

I can probably redo things at my new school, though. Looks aren't terrible, if I do say so myself, and I'm reasonably tall and shit. If I can find a normal group of kids to start off, I can probably ride out the next four years, maybe even with a little style. No baggage, no history, no mess, just a new me in a new world. That sounds good to me.

Besides that, though, I can't fucking handle it. What the fuck was that heat? How in the name of God's hairy asshole does anybody survive out there? I thought that the only train I'd be taking would be reaching its journey's end in purgatory. How do those fogies stand it, or just stand up? I would be a puddle on the floor if I lived in this place, Jesus.

Like, holy shit, there was a thermometer hanging on the outside of one of those shops, and that thing was only reading in the nineties. That's fucking horsecrap! There's no way that that kind of heat comes from the nineties! It was so warm I overloaded and started getting colder!

Death Valley has nothing on this place. I guarantee that shit. Nothing.

Deathfull, Colorado. On god that was a punishment from Jesus.

And I still have another, what is it, fucking two hours left to go? Shoot me, actually, I can't with this. Give me AC or give me death, man, jeez.

Good time to take a nap, though.

- - -

[Observer]

The platform was quiet. It was 10:15 AM, and the station as a whole was nearly empty. The only people there were a clearly overworked snoozing businessman who'd had a bad Saturday night, a young mother with a tiny daughter who were making faces to each other and laughing in preparation for a meal over at the neighboring city an hour or so down the line, and the fourteen year old who'd arrived there this morning, waiting for his train in two hours.

The elegant, austere lady in a long, black sleeveless dress, with a loose black coat that looked like it was made out of storm clouds, and silky looking long black gloves, sat down next to Seth on the same bench as him, surrounded by empty spaces.

Adjusting her wide black sunhat's red ribbon to the exact same position as it had been, she said in a clear and refined voice just as she checked up on her impeccable red eyeliner and lipstick, "Dear, would you mind telling me what the time is?"

"The giant clock could tell you a lot louder," Seth mumbled back, still trying to drift off.

"Making conversation is often the point of that question," she replied smoothly.

This time, Seth paused for a second, clearly noticing how their smooth back and forth had felt rehearsed, with no pauses in between either of their jabs. It left a strange, bitter taste in his mouth.

To his further chagrin, the woman, rather than wait for his response, pulled out a pitch black pocket watch as well, on an equally black chain.

"You had that but you still woke me?" he said, with more than a hint of exasperation tinting his voice.

"I'd appreciate some courtesy. I assure you, it'll chase me away faster," she responded in a subdued tone.

"Sorry, I just- didn't really-gah."

"Light insomnia? Ah, I see. Though it's no excuse for rudeness, I suppose it's reason enough to move on," she said, a hint of a smile on her face. Belatedly, Seth realized she was teasing him, and that he had indeed been a bit of a dick.

Having toyed with the pocket watch for long enough, she flipped it open as Seth rubbed his eyes. Imitating her, he stared at the interior, which appeared to be a red circle with no watch hands.

"How do you tell the time on that thing?" he asked, having found no imperfections in the smooth red surface or the smooth black of the outer watch.

"I don't," she replied, the smile evident in her words without even looking at her face, which Seth noticed was rather difficult to focus on.

"Then why do you carry it? Sentimentality?" he jabbed back, thoroughly infuriated with this woman and her interactions with timepieces at this point.

"Oh, no. In a manner of speaking, I suppose, somewhat, but this device can serve some surprisingly practical uses," she told him. This time, Seth noted that she had a peculiar way of stringing words together, as if the last sound made for the previous word would seamlessly transition into the next, like a neater form of slurring.

Her accent was also familiar, but he couldn't place it. All he knew was that she sounded aristocratic, royal, even, but he hadn't heard of anybody eccentric enough to wear this black and scarlet ensemble, so he...

Why was her outfit like that, anyway?

Seth shook his head a little. "Stop thinking about her dress," he thought, staring at her dress.

"Is one of those... telling time?" he blurted out instinctively, breaking up his haze of confusion.

"Why, no, as there are no clock hands here. I had assumed that was fairly obvious," she replied drolly. This time, it felt as though this was a question she had heard millions of times before, to the point at which she had taken in a breath as he said time, just to start the instant the m in "time" left his lips. "Actually, has she been breathing?" Seth wondered. Thinking about it, her staying perfectly still, not even rising and falling, was also a bit unnatural.

"Then where do you tell the time?" he asked, once again shoving aside his concerns. The strange imitation pocket watch had snatched his attention away from the strangeness.

Stretching out one long, elegant finger, she replied, "On there, dear."

Following the path of the pointing hand, Seth slowly worked his way over to the large clock on the wall.

Taking a deep breath, Seth turned back to the lady to ask, "Are you fucking serious?"

He only made it to "Are you" before freezing with his mouth agape.

This is a bit jarring, but: there's a sensation that comes up in life sometimes, a unique and almost addicting feeling. There's probably a word for it, but a functioning stand-in is "paralyzed by beauty".

It's the sensation of being wrapped up in a sight or sensation so profoundly beautiful and artistic and majestic that it stops you in place, and time freezes around you. For a moment, the infinite possibility of what you're seeing, feeling, or hearing sweeps around you, and you can barely move, barely breathe. You've gone beyond being able to hear your heartbeat, because your heartbeat becomes part of what you're experiencing, and it's faded into the background of sheer awe.

The red oval, just as tall as the noticeably tall lady in black, enclosed in a simple black ellipse, was perfectly beautiful. Swirling in shades of red, the purely opaque creation was beyond hypnotizing.

Seth, for one of the first times in his life, was paralyzed by beauty.

Two black stair steps floated in the air in front of the oval. The Lady In Night had stopped at the first of these, her scarlet mouth in a visible O as she looked at Seth looking at her. Belatedly, he realized that he was seeing her face through a veil. When had that happened? When had that veil been there?

She had an austere, perfect beauty to her, just like the buildings he had seen outside. It looked like she was a holdover from another age, a perfect artifact, Pygmalion's sculpture brought to life.

Yet there was a melancholy to her eyes, a sadness that went far beyond it. For a moment, Seth was staggered by the divide between her earlier joking demeanor and the way her perfect face was twisted with sorrow.

He didn't realize she had stalked over to him until he realized their eyes were at most a foot away from each other, and she was leaning down to peer at him inquisitively.

"Boy," she drawled, stretching out the B.

"What the-" Seth stammered, his knees buckling slightly.

Pressing her ample bosom against his head, leaning further to sweep around him, and putting her mouth directly next to her ear, the lady pointed to the oval and asked, "Can you see that?"

"Mint," Seth thought. "Mint breath."

"Seth Lee. Can you see a red and black apparition, and if so, what shape is it?" she commanded.

"Yes. Oval," he blurted out, before he could think, jolting in shock when he realized that she had wrapped her thin fingers on top of his shoulders.

In a whirl of black silk, the lady spun in a circle, a vision of black with a flash of her face, red and lightly powdered white, interrupting it occasionally. Seizing his shoulders once again, this time directly facing him again, she smiled serenely at him.

Even as her beauty captivated him, Seth instinctively cast his mind back to the time he visited the snake exhibit at the zoo.

"Well, well, well," she said, her peculiar elegant slur growing even stronger. "What a find, what a find."

"Wha-hu-ah-uh?" Seth stuttered, buckling.

Belatedly, Seth realized that he had never quite looked into her eyes. Every time he had tried to see through the lady's veil, he had strangely seized on one of her other features instead. The perfect, subtle cheekbones. The petite, thin nose. The pale, smooth cheeks. But this time, for some strange reason, he felt it would be better to look at her eyes.

Squinting, he focused through the black screen.

Twin orbs of scarlet stared back at him. Surrounded by a ring of black and what seemed like a world of white, the floating oval flashed before his eyes, even as the lady's eyes swirled in front of him.

Then, the red flashed, and his life flashed before his eyes, a sensation he would have recognized as being a sign of panic if he hadn't been frozen in place. Every thought he'd ever had, every thing he'd ever done, the gray spots in his memory, all of them flashed in front of him, and he got the feeling the woman could see it as well.

"Hmm, so there is one last gift I can offer," the woman murmured. Seth tried to ask, "Huh?", but couldn't unfreeze himself.

Seth unfroze. He instantly realized that he could move again once his muscles stopped seizing together, but fell to the ground before he could move. The world was spinning, and the woman's eyes were flashing, the circles were spinning, and black streaks were painting the world. With great effort, he pried his eyes away from hers, looking at the world around him, colorless compared to the deep scarlet hues. The world looked gray, everything was dark, and it was still 10:15 AM.

Then it stopped.

The madness vanished from his world, but everything was still frozen around him. The mother and daughter were mid-laugh, the mother still in the midst of pulling her face down, the daughter screaming with laughter. The slumped-over businessman had a string of snot frozen in the air, hanging on by a thread. If the world hadn't been spinning and his vision hadn't been fading, Seth would've been tempted to stand up and tap the line.

Groggily, Seth attempted to support himself on a nearby bench, to look at the woman now walking through the red oval as if it weren't there. He didn't remember when he'd fallen to the ground, nor did he remember when he'd stood up, nor did he seem to be able to recall anything, now. However, he could feel everything starting to burn, like his skin was crawling from heat, and the world was itching for him. The haze he'd felt outside had returned, and he could barely move. No, he couldn't move.

"Make sure to catch the train," he heard the woman's voice say, sibilantly, as if she was bent down next to her ear.

Then, the world faded to darkness.

- - -

[Seth Lee]

Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUUUUCK

I fell asleep with my backpack on my legs and it made them fall asleep. Almost missed the fucking train because of that.

I had this weird fucking dream about some lady in black. Searched up what it means to dream about that and apparently it means difficult times are ahead. What else is new, I guess.

God, I hope that this place looks like the brochures and not prison.