The Sad Masquerade
The Witness climbs the stone staircase of the Lunar Temple with dead eyes and heavy limbs. The Witness proceeds to the open-air back hall of the building. There the Committee of the Crescent Moon begins a hearing on the subject of Subject 3.
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COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN:
This hearing is now in session.
The Crescent Moon began this day at the ninth highest position it can reach in the sky. Considering that it presently rests at its sixth highest possible position, we will now begin hearing the Witness’s testimony.
Please state simply what you observed during the study in question.
WITNESS:
I saw Subject 3 walk into the room painted scarlet on the designated test day. All over the floor lay nameless people frozen in rigor mortis in various poses of agony. She could not clearly discern a reasonable cause of death for any of them since the only visible abnormality on the corpses were severely broken fingers swollen dark purple at the joints. Some of the swollen fingers bulged against rings tightly choking them, but never mind. Subject 3 looked up and saw the large bronze contraption on the far wall. She got closer and inspected its intricacies. She saw its various knobs, buttons, grooves, and rotary dials on the device.
A gathering of indigo ghosts appeared soon after in the scarlet room. They surrounded Subject 3, reached out, took her hand, and guided it towards the device on the wall. She looked around and saw that the ghost’s faces were ethereal copies of the inexplicably dead bodies lying about the room. The ghosts extended Subject 3’s right index finger and placed it on a button of the bronze contraption. An unidentified force−either the ghosts’ or her own−made her finger press the button inwards. Her finger pushed the button far inside the device until it was immersed up to its knuckle.
Subject 3 felt something soft, wet, and warm close around her right index finger. She shuddered and fell to one knee. She frantically waved away the nurse who entered with a surgical mask across the lower half of her face and approached Subject 3 while holding a small handheld defibrillator−more commonly known as a Taser. I saw her shudder again and nearly give in to the urge to withdraw her finger from the device and pull it away from the moist thing inside. She shut her eyes tight and remained still after looking again at the corpses with disfigured hands all around her. I saw her keep her eyes closed and focus on her breathing as the soft, wet, and warm thing stayed closed around her right index finger.
The indigo ghosts withdrew to the center of the room. There they moved in ritualized geometric patterns behind Subject 3 in an act of proud ceremony, but only after Subject 3 shut her eyes to their existence.
Subject 3 heard the sounds of gentle applause on the other side of the scarlet wall to which she’d been linked by way of her finger immersed knuckle-deep in the bronze contraption. I saw her strain her muscles in an effort to contain the spasms springing forth from her discomfort.
When she opened her eyes, turned away from the device, and faced the room she saw the translucent indigo ghosts continue their dance for a moment too long before vanishing from sight after they felt her gaze. The ghosts apparently became drained of their influence after that, after accidentally verifying their existence to Subject 3. They clearly failed in their role to−
COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN:
Please remain on topic.
WITNESS:
Yes…of course.
Subject 3 withdrew her right index finger from the bronze device on the wall. Soon after, Its gears and dials came alive. They created a very detailed rhythm. I saw her stumble backwards to the opposite wall−as far away from the contraption as she could go.
After a moment of thought, she slammed her left foot on the floor according to a rhythm either composed of pure chaos or an order complex beyond my comprehension. She closed her eyes, sucked her right index finger, and screamed a muffled scream inside her corked mouth. Her scream clearly grew rancid in there because she gagged in time with the beat of her numb left foot.
I could not understand her lack of logic until I saw the far wall with the bronze device start flickering repeatedly in and out of existence. I saw that it faded more and more after each time it returned from invisibility. When Subject 3 stopped her graceless dance and opened her eyes during one random moment she caught a glimpse of shadowy forms holding a secret parliament on the other side of the wall. Seconds later the shadowy forms began melting into an anonymous and formless darkness after the division between their white meeting room and the scarlet testing room increasingly lost definition because−
COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN:
Thank you. That will be all.
Considering that the Crescent Moon has now fallen to the third highest position it can reach in the sky this Committee finds no valid grounds for Subject 3’s theory of a dark conspiracy hidden close by at all times. We uphold the diagnosis of her unforgivable insanity.
Proceed with treatment.
This hearing is dismissed.
#
A nurse with a surgical mask across the lower half of her face walks to the control panel just outside the scarlet room. She peers over her mask with dead eyes and moves with heavy limbs. She checks the orders on her clipboard once before manipulating the controls. As she does, the committee’s decision is broadcast into the scarlet room in three different languages as well as Morse Code to ensure that Subject 3 understands its contents. For the sake of audibility, each version of the ruling is broadcast simultaneously and at the highest decibel level human ears can withstand so as to overcome Subject 3’s pleading screams of resistance.
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The nurse arrives at her home several hours later during a moonless night. She turns off the lights both on the inside and on the outside of her house before sleeping peacefully, having only obeyed the committee’s order−after initially refusing−because of her superiors’ politely worded insistence that nothing she did could limit the crescent moon’s lunar cycle.
END
The Witness climbs the stone staircase of the Lunar Temple with dead eyes and heavy limbs. The Witness proceeds to the open-air back hall of the building. There the Committee of the Crescent Moon begins a hearing on the subject of Subject 3.
#
COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN:
This hearing is now in session.
The Crescent Moon began this day at the ninth highest position it can reach in the sky. Considering that it presently rests at its sixth highest possible position, we will now begin hearing the Witness’s testimony.
Please state simply what you observed during the study in question.
WITNESS:
I saw Subject 3 walk into the room painted scarlet on the designated test day. All over the floor lay nameless people frozen in rigor mortis in various poses of agony. She could not clearly discern a reasonable cause of death for any of them since the only visible abnormality on the corpses were severely broken fingers swollen dark purple at the joints. Some of the swollen fingers bulged against rings tightly choking them, but never mind. Subject 3 looked up and saw the large bronze contraption on the far wall. She got closer and inspected its intricacies. She saw its various knobs, buttons, grooves, and rotary dials on the device.
A gathering of indigo ghosts appeared soon after in the scarlet room. They surrounded Subject 3, reached out, took her hand, and guided it towards the device on the wall. She looked around and saw that the ghost’s faces were ethereal copies of the inexplicably dead bodies lying about the room. The ghosts extended Subject 3’s right index finger and placed it on a button of the bronze contraption. An unidentified force−either the ghosts’ or her own−made her finger press the button inwards. Her finger pushed the button far inside the device until it was immersed up to its knuckle.
Subject 3 felt something soft, wet, and warm close around her right index finger. She shuddered and fell to one knee. She frantically waved away the nurse who entered with a surgical mask across the lower half of her face and approached Subject 3 while holding a small handheld defibrillator−more commonly known as a Taser. I saw her shudder again and nearly give in to the urge to withdraw her finger from the device and pull it away from the moist thing inside. She shut her eyes tight and remained still after looking again at the corpses with disfigured hands all around her. I saw her keep her eyes closed and focus on her breathing as the soft, wet, and warm thing stayed closed around her right index finger.
The indigo ghosts withdrew to the center of the room. There they moved in ritualized geometric patterns behind Subject 3 in an act of proud ceremony, but only after Subject 3 shut her eyes to their existence.
Subject 3 heard the sounds of gentle applause on the other side of the scarlet wall to which she’d been linked by way of her finger immersed knuckle-deep in the bronze contraption. I saw her strain her muscles in an effort to contain the spasms springing forth from her discomfort.
When she opened her eyes, turned away from the device, and faced the room she saw the translucent indigo ghosts continue their dance for a moment too long before vanishing from sight after they felt her gaze. The ghosts apparently became drained of their influence after that, after accidentally verifying their existence to Subject 3. They clearly failed in their role to−
COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN:
Please remain on topic.
WITNESS:
Yes…of course.
Subject 3 withdrew her right index finger from the bronze device on the wall. Soon after, Its gears and dials came alive. They created a very detailed rhythm. I saw her stumble backwards to the opposite wall−as far away from the contraption as she could go.
After a moment of thought, she slammed her left foot on the floor according to a rhythm either composed of pure chaos or an order complex beyond my comprehension. She closed her eyes, sucked her right index finger, and screamed a muffled scream inside her corked mouth. Her scream clearly grew rancid in there because she gagged in time with the beat of her numb left foot.
I could not understand her lack of logic until I saw the far wall with the bronze device start flickering repeatedly in and out of existence. I saw that it faded more and more after each time it returned from invisibility. When Subject 3 stopped her graceless dance and opened her eyes during one random moment she caught a glimpse of shadowy forms holding a secret parliament on the other side of the wall. Seconds later the shadowy forms began melting into an anonymous and formless darkness after the division between their white meeting room and the scarlet testing room increasingly lost definition because−
COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN:
Thank you. That will be all.
Considering that the Crescent Moon has now fallen to the third highest position it can reach in the sky this Committee finds no valid grounds for Subject 3’s theory of a dark conspiracy hidden close by at all times. We uphold the diagnosis of her unforgivable insanity.
Proceed with treatment.
This hearing is dismissed.
#
A nurse with a surgical mask across the lower half of her face walks to the control panel just outside the scarlet room. She peers over her mask with dead eyes and moves with heavy limbs. She checks the orders on her clipboard once before manipulating the controls. As she does, the committee’s decision is broadcast into the scarlet room in three different languages as well as Morse Code to ensure that Subject 3 understands its contents. For the sake of audibility, each version of the ruling is broadcast simultaneously and at the highest decibel level human ears can withstand so as to overcome Subject 3’s pleading screams of resistance.
#
The nurse arrives at her home several hours later during a moonless night. She turns off the lights both on the inside and on the outside of her house before sleeping peacefully, having only obeyed the committee’s order−after initially refusing−because of her superiors’ politely worded insistence that nothing she did could limit the crescent moon’s lunar cycle.
END
