How many nights had I spent looking at this strange rock formation? Crystalline flesh of pitch that is never warm to the touch even though it devours all light that touches it. Was it a fluke of nature or something paranormal? A remnant from a lost civilisation?
It’s considered the local landmark and serves as a hotbed of tourist attraction, featuring in several famous paintings over the centuries. Now conspiracy theorists are always all over it, and instead of being the subject of fine art, it dominates a sub section of the internet. Ideas range from it being some kind of crystalline battery for alien spaceships right through to it being a portal to a different realm or a military test sight for the government.
All around the base is barricaded off due to a “structural instability and risk to life”; and though there isn’t a physical guard presence these days, every angle of the rock is monitored by CCTV to keep anyone out. I’m pretty certain it has its own drone on standby these days from the intermittent whirring in the vicinity. Anyone who comes within five meters is instantly detained, no questions asked.
A drifter that would come and go from the city kept touting that it was artwork from visiting extraterrestrials; much like we ‘go to lakes and stack stones, or build sand castles at the beach’ he would say. Many of the locals always laughed him off, and even I grinned up at the abyssal sky that was leaching the last remnants of twilight away as I recalled that crazy theory. He definitely knew more about the crystal than he let on.
Closing my eyes to a sudden wind that rushed impatiently down from the mountains. The youthful leaves of spring chattered in the rush of jasmine perfumed zephyrs and one by one, stars pierced through the darkening indigo. The lone bell of the church called out it’s final peel of the day. Deep chimes rolling out from the streets and through my soul where I lay in the grassy hill overlooking my home.
Reaching for the age-worn shard of black crystal I had worn continually for two years, I thought back to a different sleepless night. My parents were out of town and a storm had been building all day. The humidity was insane. My head felt like exploding and the air was pulsing static. So I went for a walk. I bumped into the drifter outside of city as the storm broke in a violent crescendo above us. Via an unsuspecting cave, we found ourselves taking shelter deep in the heart of the crystal rock.
From the outside, the black was reminiscent of a void and even standing a few meters away from the structure, the air took on an icy chill that gnawed a person’s bones. Inside however, it was the most beautiful thing. The crystal slowed the lightning down and detracted the bolts into shimmering waves of opalescent light that washed against the crystal walls like a lazy ocean wave. The thunder that tore at the sky and shook the earth purred to us. There was such a surge of energy inside of me. I wanted to run. To dance. To fly.
My heart was skipping beats and fluttering wildly as the air pulsed around us, intoxicating and charged in ozone and sweet spice. Beneath my back the crystal was smooth and warm to the touch, like a heavenly embrace that seemed to stabilise the chaotic madness of my soul.
I woke up back at home and would have thought everything a dream if not for the yellow oversized hoodie that had been placed over my shoulders or the black crystal pendant my fingers were clutching. Now I had more questions than ever. The only thing I knew for sure was that the crystal was alive in some way and chose who could get close and being to know its secrets.
The sonorous voice of the bells finally fell silent and the wind paused its flight. My heart was again fluttering in anticipation of what was coming. The ochre of the crescent hunters moon was captured by the gossamer cloud and pooled into the ink of night. Stars shone in ferocious competition for dominance of the night sky, each a brilliant diamond. Both were silenced as static whispered in tongues of silver light edged with gold trim that gracefully wove a path across the sky, shimmering and coiling together. Teasing. Lingering. Like the scent of sweet spice that trailed faintly behind the jasmine breeze.
