Bastion

I had thought that I already put this one up, but it would appear that I was mistaken.

Melted faces leered at him from the walls, various expressions of pain and horror. Black obsidian, dark as the void, left an impression of empty space below him, as if he walked in the Nether Lands. Behind him, two broad doors stood closed, promising a way out even as the Guardians at his side did not. Ahead, a sickly pale light glowed, strange and disturbing. If light could be grey, this was it.

From the ceiling dripped a molten something, hissing as it struck the black stone floor. Strangely, none of it hit him or his two companions, though it fell like water from trees just after rainfall.

He refrained from shrugging at the thought, knowing that such movements confused and unsettled the Guardians.

He knew also that when the creatures became unsettled, they acted fast and violently, and though he held no particular fondness for his own existence he had no wish to go to the special corner of hell reserved for the victims of the Guardians.

He had witnessed it once and had no desire to witness it again, much less be the object of that act..

Such images were a power unto themselves.

Author's Note

This was something I wrote one morning, the small amount that I could piece together of a dream. Perhaps you can find some meaning in it where I can't. It has significance to me but I couldn't tell you what it is.

Reviews

[R. W. Graham]

Vivid descriptions. I love it. It does seem to have a surreal feel to it, which makes sense, given that you stated that it was inspired by a dream. Personally, I feel like dreams always end up being the best writings if you can appropriately describe them, which you have done here.

I feel like there is definitely a metaphor about freedom here. The Guardians seem to represent laws and order, and restriction. The line referring to to "the special corner of hell reserved for [their] victims" would support that theory. However, with the darkness, I also see that as uncertainty, the unknown. The figure here seems to be going through life, unsure of where they are going, but also feeling restricted by the law and order that surrounds them. That order could be anything really.

I would guess that the figure is experiencing some sort of turmoil in their life. Maybe they are having difficulties with their boss, maybe he's a teenager and about to move out and is fighting with their parents, maybe he lost his parents and is coping with his loss and the responsibilities that he's started to shirk due to it. Maybe even a metaphor for depression. There are a lot of possibilities here, but aside from literary analysis, it just reads very nicely.

[A Modern Hippy]

I am flattered and more than a bit surprised at the effort and accuracy present in your review.
read moreI am flattered and more than a bit surprised at the effort and accuracy present in your review.
This is something I wrote during school, not a happy time for me, in response to a literature task that told us to "write a page expressing how you feel with your current position in life". It was not a big ask as I'd been doing this kind of thing for as long as I could write.
The Guardians were to me a representation of my own thought processes, an internal manifestation of my restraint, control, second-guessing and self-doubt, all things that for me were of paramount importance in any situation.
It may come as no surprise that just before the end of literature class the next day I was escorted to the Chaplain's office by two social workers who proceeded to detain me for therapy for the remainder of the day. It hasn't changed much of me but it makes a good story and a decent example of 'real life narrative irony'.
Description is what I'm best at. I visualise concepts, pictures and occasionally small events very clearly, but extended writing is often beyond me; you can imagine how more than a few pages of that amount of detail would be very draining for myself and any reader.
I'm pleased you liked it, and thank you for the thoughtful review. :)