Saturday, January 11, 2014

The World’s Columbian Exposition of Horrors


      Chicago, 1893.
      
He ran across the hangar as if that was the last time he was ever going to be able to feel his legs. Everything was blurry and confusing. His eyes were covered by tears … he knew something was terribly wrong, he knew…
    
Lucian went down the long staircase which took him months to find. An exhaustive investigation financed by J.P. Morgan himself was getting to an end. He was both excited and terribly scared, if Morgan was right, whatever he was going to find down there was not going to be pretty.
    
“Clack” – he loaded his gun. After all, every time he went to work meant risking his life, he was aware of it, I dare to say that he was ready to die, he always was. There was not a single string of light that could guide him; everything he had was that terrible sound, a constant thud… 
    
“Tuck, Tuck, Tuck”
   
 “What the hell?” – He kept going down.
   
 Then he saw a human figure at the end of a narrow hall. The floor was covered by a thin layer of a dark liquid. “Hello… is anybody there?” “I am a pinkerton, do not dare to move, I am coming your way” – he shouted.
    
The human figure didn’t seem to care much, it was just…there.
   
 Lucian got closer and saw a man standing, guarding some kind of door.
    
“Hey, you, what the hell is this place?”
    
“Ugh… ugh…” – It growled.
   
“What?”
   
 Lucian aimed his gun at the humanoid’s head. “Turn around, or I will shoot you”.
   
 “Ugh… ugh…” – It growled.
    
The creature turned and faced the detective. He had never seen such a thing, that thing was pale as a glass of milk, his eyeballs were missing and he had two massive bloody holes at his forehead. Lucian didn’t hesitate, not even for one second… he fired two bullets that hit the very chest of the monster throwing it down to the floor.
    
Lucian went pass the corpse and opened the door at the end of the hall.
   
 A powerful bluish light left him blinded for a couple of seconds.
    
He dropped his gun.
    
Copper wires covered the ceiling making a tornado of industrial madness in front of him.
    
“Help, please” – mourned a fragile voice at the distance.
    
Lucian went running and what he saw changed his world forever.
    
There were six gigantic cages full of bodies; they all looked like that monster he just killed. Their eye balls had exploded, they were pale as a blanket and two shinny bloody nails were stuck into their skulls. This monstrous machine was hurting them; it was turning them into some kind of horrible undead creatures.
   
 The wires led to the surface, this machine was harvesting them…
    
The detective had to get out of that infernal place; he went up stairs and head straight to the convention. J.P Morgan had to hear about this. This was going to be a scandal.
    
He ran across the hangar as if that was the last time he was ever going to be able to feel his legs. Everything was blurry and confusing. His eyes were covered by tears … he knew something was terribly wrong, he knew…
   
 “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the World’s Columbian Exposition” – A man shouted to the crowd.
    
Lucian was lost amidst the excited multitude.  
    
“What was going to happen?” – He asked himself.
   
 “Let me introduce you to the future of science, to a spectacle that will leave you dazzled in excitement”.  
   
 The crowd started clapping.
   
 “Behold… the Alternate Current.”
    
Suddenly the exposition was covered by a beautiful yellow light. Over two thousand light bulbs were lit at that very moment. It was a wondrous experience.
    
Lucian stopped.
   
 He could hear the mourning of a thousand souls coming out from those light bulbs, he was disgusted and terrified.  Those monsters were lighting the whole place with the electricity that came out of their heads, an infinite cry of pain and death contained within a crystal bulb… who was capable of such a crime?, who was so fiendishly violent to make that massacre and show it to the world as an enormous achievement?

    
“And here is the man responsible for this miracle, ladies and gentlemen, scientists of the world… "
"Nikola Tesla!" 

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