Absence of the Human, Chapter 13, Scene 2

Friends and Readers,

My first draft of the next scene from Absence of the Human. The Transformation of Osseus.

As most of you know, these drafts are available in their entirety to my supporting subscribers. Everyone can see the scene’s beginning.

If you want to start from chapter one, you can do that here.

Brine never returned.

I was surprised, since he had put so much stock in our attendance at the event.

But the lights slowly dimmed, the drone of chatter from the seats hushed, the room became dark and silent, and Brine did not show up.

Then the lights came up on the stage, and the whole scene was much more impressive viewed from the dark under the proper lighting. The statue of Plutus, the owl, seemed much more imposing, much more lifelike, and somehow holy.

The three supporting players were already in place, just as Brine had described. They all wore ceremonial skull masks and hooded iridescent robes which gave them a supernatural appearance as well.

I wouldn’t have needed Brine’s description, though, to identify them.

The figure to the left of the owl could have been Brine himself, judging from his figure. And if that wasn’t enough to remind me of Fennek—the round man Frost had pointed out to me at lunch on my first day—his robe would have. It had a large, abstract, eye emblazoned across the chest.

He held a large sword in an ornate scabbard.

The figure to the right of the owl was no harder to identify. He was easily a foot or more taller than the Eye, and probably a fourth as wide. So tall and so thin that I had no trouble recognizing Lannar. And the chest of his robe was adorned with the abstract outline of a large hand.

Frost knelt back to us, facing the curtains, so I couldn’t see what design, if any, decorated the front of his robe.

The three of them were completely motionless, which added somehow to the gravity.

The entire scene had a kind of hypnotic effect. I found myself wishing that Molly could have seen it.

So I was taken completely by surprise when a thunderous Boom! shook the room. It seemed to come from outside the theater.