The Display

by Diane Sprague

The children ran through the dark hallways in the basement. They were excited by the possibility of finding some secret rooms, but I steadily held my ground. I told them that the secrets the basement holds might not be the type they would want to find. It would be best to stay calm and walk slowly. Unfortunately, the children would not listen and they continued to run ahead. I sighed. Soon they would be lost in the darkness and I would be left alone. Perhaps that would be for the best. Frivolity was out of place in the endless cellar. The black corners and dampness created the heaviness needed in a soul preparing itself to discover what was hidden in the depths.

I soon heard the children calling me from the distance. The voices came from different directions. They must have become separated from each other, and now they were frightened and alone. I did not call back; I only walked slowly knowing that panic was unnecessary. They would stay lost for awhile. I was no longer in charge or in control of the situation. Something else was taking over and I could not fight it. The voices became quieter. They were lost in the distance and soon I was surrounded by complete silence.

I place my hands on the cold, solid wall that surrounding me. The monotony of the damp stone walls was filling my thoughts with a profound sense of dread. I began to miss the children. I wanted to run to find them, but my legs felt like stones. I was walking through a thick, molasses atmosphere that would allow for no speed or urgency.

The children much too far away. Time was slowing down and standing still. Nothing was left but the gloomy hallway and my consciousness of something lurking in the shadows. The basements was ready to communicate its secrets, but I shrank away. I did not want to hear. I wanted the children. I wanted the light, the daytime, and the world above the ground, but I allowed them to wander away so I could have something horrid to satisfy my desire for mystery and darkness.

I came upon large glass windows placed in the stone walls of the hallway. Behind the windows were grotesque images of humans that were half dead and deformed. Their blank stares made me step back in terror. They would not speak, but their slow movements back and forth eloquently stated their hopeless and despair. The were caught in the timelessness of their frozen death. I feared nothing could awaken them and release them from their prisons.

I found I was no longer able to move either. I was terrified to realize that I was becoming part of the display. I would soon join these blank figures which could only rock back and forth and freeze my consciousness into the solid monotony of the nothingness of the dark, endless basement. I was now behind the glass windows with them. There was nothing I could do, no way I could escape.

In the heavy silence that enveloped me, some distant shouts broke through. I heard the laughter of the returning children. They gathered in front of the display and pointed at the bizarre creatures standing behind the window. When they saw me, they called loudly, "Come out! You do not belong there. Come back with us to the sun."

I found that my legs were now able to move. The air became thin again and I was on the children's side of the display window. I turned back to look at the figures behind the window and found myself laughing along with the children. We take ourselves so seriously, but death is only a joke. The basement held better secrets than that. The children held my hands and led me down the hall to a musty room. The floor of the room tilted upwards and we followed it up towards a light. Soon it became apparent that the light was the daytime world: the world of sunshine and life.

The children once again to ran off the explore the outside world. I slowly walked behind them. After leaving the cellar, I stole a few glances back and I sat in the grass and waited for the children to return. I notice some creatures slowly emerging from the basement. They were the frozen humans. They looked at the new word with puzzled eyes. "We released the monsters," I called to the children. The children came back and cried, "Let them be free and follow us into all of the mysteries of the daytime world." We all joined together and walked away.

The musty scent of the basement followed us as walked together in the sunshine.