Cuento E Terror

APRIL INFINITE
by Jason Young
I sat between the rocks and watched the town simmer. The brightest lights of its highest points flickered, and once again, I saw the serpents' eyes. They were no strangers to me; I had met them in a dream - they had told me not to panic. All was well. They had comforted me as I felt their tongues wrap around my brain in a descending spiral of blinding heat. I hadallowed them to lead me up and away from the twitching lake of fire; through my closed eyes, they had shown me futures and pasts, depths and heights that had sent chills down to my shaking fingertips. I cannot describe the places they showed me - my skill with words crumples far beneath even the lowest of their star-sprinkled heavens; my descriptions drown in the shallowest of their forbiddenlakes. The pictures I paint are barely visible through the flames their visions have left me.
So it was a Friday that found me climbing Mount Lirpa on the north-east side of my sinking city. The serpents had told me my life would end on the first stroke past midnight, on the first day of May. With a trembling piano score that dripped with sorrow, I was allowed to watch my demise on the face of amountain. I stood motionless as the future's Mount Lirpa leapt to boiling life, spewing its molten anger down upon the city which lay fast asleep in the hill's protective shadow. The fear of a million citizens flashed across the rock as the liquid fire swept the tears from their eyes. I recognized many faces as they fell beneath the lava - their arms reaching out for an escape that was simply notthere. Their fingers slowly dripped away; silent, last words bubbled to the surface of a fire that poured over houses and under beds. It left nothing in its wake to smell the acrid smoke
And I saw my face, reflected off the graphite cliff. It screamed in horror and twisted away in a sizzle of steam. Suddenly, I crashed back into consciousness and the serpents slowly slithered back under the rocks.
Isat between the rocks and watched the town slumber. The brightest lights of its highest points waved to me, daring me to forget the serpent's eyes. But for the life of me, I could not. I checked the face of my wristwatch, and was relieved to see the time was 11:04. Only fifty-six more minutes until May the first: the end of my nightmares. Finally, I would be able to sleep again, without thesinister strains of piano-music accompanying the angry snarls of the treacherous snakes. No longer would their tongues flicker up to caress my mind, their angry snarls whispering into my burning ears the terms of surrender. I could dismiss the images of death as madness. For madness - that I could accept.
11:05. The minute changed with a silent tick that seemed to mock me - as if this great steptowards my salvation was No Big Deal. I almost screamed, but decided not to, passively deciding to vent my anger by kicking a rock off the edge of the plateau. I lashed out with my left foot at an uncommonly smooth boulder beneath my perch. It was heavy, but it turned part way over. And then it stopped. I gave it another kick and it completed its roll before settling again. That was when I saw the poemscrawled upon the bottom of the stone
Behind my eyes
Her shadow sings
Through my soul
The echo brings
Breath so cold
But never wanted
She gives me life
And leaves me haunted.
And what is life
If nothing's in it?
My perfect love,
April Infinite.
I stared in quiet awe for several minutes, not noticing the minutes change on my watch, not watching the serpents peering out from beneath theslippery stones. I read and reread the lines of verse, unable to comprehend their reality or purpose. They appeared to be carved into the stone, but without the chips and scrapes that accompany even the most carefully formed carvings. All the letters were perfectly spaced apart, their curves and lines the exact same height as the next. Besides the visions of my burning city, it was the most...