Work Text:
"my name's Júlio, and i work in a Porto Alegre gym. It made me glad seeing your computer, 'cus this wicked name won't leave my head. Six months ago, I went with my girlfriend to the cinema. We were going to commemorate two years of dating.
We did that basic program: dined at the shopping, went to watch the movie.
Right when we left the session, we'd walked through the corridors to look at the windows. She told me she was going to buy a purse and asked me to wait for her next to a bookstore. Getting the hint that she might do a surprise for me, I agreed and went out to look at some of the magazines.
She'd told me she wouldn't take that long. Right when she went away, I got to the bathroom to take a piss.
Locking myself in a stall, but didn't stay even two minutes there. I heard children's laughter and talking. When I left, something in that bathroom was weird.
I suck at details, but my girlfriend doesn't.
Yet, even I noticed something had changed. The lights were yellow, not white. Very yellow.
A very thick streak of green crossed the walls and the mirrors were all smaller. Nobody was inside. Not even the kids who were just then laughing. I washed my hands, thinking I'd gone insane.
To me, the water was kind of warm and very, very thick. Gross, to be honest. I looked for paper, but didn't find any. Went out shaking my hands so they'd dry in the air. Out of the bathroom, Id thought Id pass out. I thought I went out through the wrong door, or got into a new corridor. At least, I tried to. The shopping now looked like a gallery. It was all old and wasted, the lights weak, the stores simply gatherings of misplaced products. Everything was hideous.
I walked to a more open area, and was hit by the certainty that wherever I was, it wasn't a familiar place.
Nothing looked like anything I'd ever seen in my city or even in the TV. There were fish bowls the size of trash cans spread out everywhere. Inside them, there was some kind of purple blanket moving around.
The people went to those and put their hands on top of it, laughing. Ugly sounds, like their chests were full of snot. I stood there, watching them. They came in groups of two or three, touched it, and laughed. I shook my head side to side, looking for my girlfriend.
All I wanted to know was what was going on.
The people passed by me and ignored me. They all looked alike. It's like being in a different country, where all the people have similar traces.
Oh, and the bookstore was not there anymore.
In the place, a man sold pieces, or something like that. It was a big rustic wooden table, with several black objects that looked to be iron. They were all shaped oddly: hooks, hooves, cogs. I came closer and he asked me if I'd wanted to buy or trade. I couldn't answer.
A girl of, roughly, seven years, came closer and took a piece of steel that looked like a black spoon and showed it to her mom, who got her wallet to pay for it. Then, she pointed the spoon at me and I could finally see her face properly. It was normal, but something was very, very wrong. I don't know if it was the eyebrows or the distance between her eyes. I felt an inexplicable fear. There was a sizeless malice in her eyes.
The man told her:
"No, no, he isn't buying it, you can have it. I don't even think he's from here in Setealém."
The mom looked at me in disgust. Took the spoon from the girl, put it back on the table and pulled her daughter far away from me, like I was diseased. I started to get dizzy, and sat down in a wooden bench, very similar to the normal ones in malls, except it was a lot lower and could only accomodate a single person. I could see a lot of those.
A loud sound rang out and everyone looked up. It was a sound loud and grave, like those ship alarms that we see in movies. After it stopped, everyone took up their regular ways.
I thought of my girlfriend, and I thought of my mom. That could only be a dream. I got up fast, and a dizzy spell hit me so hard I had to lean on a shelf for a store that sold live pidgeons. Pidgeons! Ten of those walked around, trying to fly and biting eachother behind the glass.
I screamed.
The people started looking at me, pointing, whispering.
Decided to phone my girlfriend. Putmy hand in the belt and my phone was no longer there. I'd forgotten it in the restroom. Three men were sitting in the floor of the bathroom, one below the sink. Talking of something I didn't even want to know. I jumped over them, and got into the stall.
My phone was still there, but I couldn't phone her, because it just wouldn't turn on. Yet again, I heard the laughter of children. Stood there for some ten minutes, 'til someone hit the door. It was the bookstore guy, from before. He asked me if I was fine, because my girfriend was waiting outside.
It was all well lit. It was all normal.