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Nov. 19th, 2006 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyfirestarterThe fixed door to Milliways is in the Calvins' old building. It's almost right next door to Main; she can go downstairs and take the underground hallways, or exit at ground level and walk outside.
It's cold out. Charlie decides to take the tunnels. And it feels like a rational decision, at the surface of her mind.
But she stands for nearly ten minutes at the top of the switchback stairs, looking down the central shaft, one hand on the banister and one foot poised on the edge of the topmost stair, unable to make herself either turn away or take a step down.
It's darker down there than it has any business being -- except it isn't dark, that's nonsense, it's lit as brightly as the rooms up here (but how brightly is that, really?), and --
And it feels cold in here, too.
And dark. Dark in a way that has nothing to do with visible light.
There's a better word for it than either dark or cold. Two words really, and it's laughable, when you think about it, isn't it? -- it's just so damn funny.
It feels todash. It feels nineteen.
Charlie closes her eyes, pulls her hand away from the banister, and turns to head for the ground-level door.
It's cold out. Charlie decides to take the tunnels. And it feels like a rational decision, at the surface of her mind.
But she stands for nearly ten minutes at the top of the switchback stairs, looking down the central shaft, one hand on the banister and one foot poised on the edge of the topmost stair, unable to make herself either turn away or take a step down.
(when is a house not a house?)
It's darker down there than it has any business being -- except it isn't dark, that's nonsense, it's lit as brightly as the rooms up here (but how brightly is that, really?), and --
(when it's unheimlich, of course.)
And it feels cold in here, too.
And dark. Dark in a way that has nothing to do with visible light.
There's a better word for it than either dark or cold. Two words really, and it's laughable, when you think about it, isn't it? -- it's just so damn funny.
It feels todash. It feels nineteen.
Charlie closes her eyes, pulls her hand away from the banister, and turns to head for the ground-level door.
