Free Association Story

 

And so, the plastic bat in my driveway said to me, "Go west young artist, for you shall find mirth and merriment, but be warned...though you shall endlessly quest for it, you shall never find complete satisfaction.

Spots will appear before your eyes to cloud your vision, but don't be deceived. The spots are lies.

Before me was The Pandora's Box. It was said to be full of all of the evils of the world. All I could think was, "What kind of evils would men put into it?"

Dead MR: ‎*takes ryan and shoves him deep into Pandora's Box as she squeals with delight*

NB: Through the box he tumbles and falls in an endless dark. He drops through fog, and feels its wetness on his face as his descent accelerates.

SS: Then as his flesh parted at the shoulder blades and wings began to grow from beneath his human skin, Ryan began to weep tears of silver ashes from his humbled eyes.

NB: The ashes burn him like embers as they are blown across his face, his new wings are too feeble to support him. He tries to stretch them wide, only sending himself into an uncontrolled head first spin. Below him an alien landscape approaches, and it does so very quickly.

Ryan: As he tumbles closer and closer to his imminent demise, he wonders, " Why give me wings if I still fall?" It is at that instant he realizes what it was all about. Pandora was never about man's evil, it was Gods. It is His twisted delight to only give us a taste of extacy, then take it away. How would we ever suffer if we not what it meant to taste the forbidden fruit? As the rock hard reality of ground hastened towards him, he thought, "At least I'll get to ask the bastard that soon."

NB: His fury rekindled, he thrusts both arms and legs outward ceasing his spiral, and once again attempts to open his untrained wings against the force of the air he falls through. The tips outstretch revealing an amazing reticulated pattern travelling down the rows of feathers. All his muscles strain against what feels like a column of warm air rising from the surface below. His fall begins to slow, as the ground grows closer. His face contorts to a pained grimace as he can feel the weight of his whole body straining on the new appendages.

Ryan: Although he was slowing, the ground will still coming closer and closer. He closes his eyed, prepared to accept his impending fate. But, the ground never came. Once you accept death, it no longer has the power to hurt you. He smirked and looked up, "Not this time, you sick bastard." Or was this just another of his twisted jokes.

NB: He was no longer falling, everything was white. As a dark blur began to take shape before him, he realized it was not white he was seeing at all, but extremely bright light. Now that his vision adjusted to it, he saw he stood among many other creatures of various sizes and designs, some humanoid, some aquatic, some completely alien. Before them all towered a great beast with ram horns spiraling out from its brow which was wrought with deep wrinkles, and stood on 8 arms. Where its legs should be, a swollen hairy abdomen continuously pumping out eggs like a string of pearls.

Ryan: The site, meant to horrify him, left him with nothing but indifference. It didn't matter, his life was now his to shape. He was free, like a slave whose master has lost the power to hurt him.