The next thing I remember is the face of a lady, covered not in snow but in old age. She had the passage of time written all over her face. Her eyes seemed almost blind, like two crystal balls devoid of any one color. Her nose was beautiful, even after all this time, and her long silver hair picked up every ray of light that came from the fireplace.
She was lucid, her voice had a sharpness to it, a clarity that I lacked. She kept asking me questions. How had I gotten all the way out here? Who was I? Where was my coat? That last one pierced my consciousness quite unlike the others. My coat. The snow.
“Stay quiet. Don’t talk any more than absolutely necessary.” It was a hush at first, but these jabs grew in intensity and unmistakably came from Mr. Green, who was leaning against the wall close to the window. He had his hands in his pocket, staring towards me and the lady, exuding a sentiment of concern. His vibe was oppressive. We needed to leave, to go somewhere else. And yet, Mr. Green had done very little to help me find what I was looking for. Was it my coat?
The lady would press onwards with her questioning, the blizzard would not settle and neither would she. At last, she told me of a train station just over the hill. A way out? I wanted to get up, but she would not let me leave, pointing out into the white night. She told me I could stay here, for now. She got up from her chair, carefully gliding towards a corner of the cottage that was beyond the reaches of the fire. Moments later, she emerged from the darkness, gently placing a folded coat on my lap. It wasn’t hers. It wasn’t mine. It belonged to a man she once loved.
—
You are currently traversing the limitless expanses of Visual Fiction. Each narrative fragment in this collection unravels a memory of a man drawn into an alternate reality. With every piece, he steps deeper into the unknown, attempting to describe the indescribable, to paint the unseen, and to make sense of the senseless. These tales offer glimpses into bizarre worlds that can at times feel both intimately familiar and strangely threatening.
