Morning all I hope your week is going swimmingly. I am almost caught up from going away which is nice. If I can have next week as a normal week I will be thrilled. So busy day ahead. Let’s kick it off with the morning prompt shall we? Timers set and off we go.
I think this would make a good flash fiction piece. I am close to the end, I can feel it, but I would then need to tighten it up after. That might be a lunchtime project, the finishing not the tightening.
Thursday, July 23rd: It swung like a pendulum.
It swung like a pendulum. Part of him looked up at it and thought of Edgar Allen Poe. It was slightly curved although the lights in it made it look less like a blade and more like the avant-garde chandelier that it was. Still the swinging and the curve still made him not want to walk under it. Then he noticed the ceiling cracks. They were barely visible at this distance looking more like thin lines drawn on the white ceiling. They extended out from where the light fixture was installed and as he watched, the lines seemed to be growing.
‘That’s not good,’ he thought.
“I don’t think that light is supposed to be swinging,” he said to Carson.
Carson rolled his eyes. “You just don’t get art, Mike.” He said before walking off. The rest of their group was already in a different room. He was not really a part of them. He never really fit in with this group of people. They weren’t friends and didn’t have to be. They were however assigned a group project and somehow he ended up in their group.
They didn’t much care for that. Neither did he if it came down to it. They divided the project and each were responsible for their own section. He hadn’t seen anyone but Carson since the atrium and their arrival. For all he knew they took care of their parts and then left. He came separately but saw several familiar cars in the lot. He expected a few of them paired up but most came independently.
He tilted his head upwards. There was no mistaking it, the cracks were longer and slightly wider. He took all the notes he needed and slipped his notepad into the messenger bag. Taking one last look at the swinging light fixture and realizing how it could very easily descend like Poe’s pendulum, he went to find a staff member.
There were none in the room, in fact he was the only one in the room. Mike shrugged and went into the next room. There he found someone in the staff uniform. He walked over.
“Excuse me,” he said walking over. The staff member, Brad by the name tag turned a generically pleasant smile on his face. “In the other room the light fixture is swinging and given the cracks in the ceiling, I don’t think it is supposed to do that.”
Brad blinked at him a few times and nodded. He turned and walked back towards the room. Mike followed. They stopped in the doorway and looked up. The cracks were both longer and wider now.
“Nope, not supposed to do that,” Brad said looking at the swinging fixture. He pulled out his radio from his belt and walked into the room. Seeing it empty, he crossed to each door in turn and pulled them shut, locking them before returning to Mike. He stepped through and Mike backed up. The final door was shut. While Mike didn’t hear might of the conversation the docent was talking on the radio the entire time he was moving. Mike turned to see other staff members moving forward, As they approached a loud crash sounded from the other side of the now closed door.
Ten til Midnight 