Three Weeks
Guest Piece
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Guest piece inspired by “The Bird” / Part 2 of eXis
Author: L.E. Mullin
Three Weeks
It’s been three weeks already. The walls of my room melt into themselves, the cold has the form of a crystal ball that I can hold in my hands, and the birds perched on a branch outside the window look at me as if they were gazing at a strange creature with tired, moist eyes.
I can’t sleep.
I try to open the window, but when I look at my hands I don’t see fingers, but feathers. Who lives here? Where is the front door of this house? Why is the sky red? I need to go back to the world, but I know the only way to do that is to close my eyes and sleep.
There is a mirror next to the window, but its glass is shattered all over the room. I vaguely remember breaking it with my beak. What was the image the mirror showed me before I broke it?
If only I could close my eyes.
I walk down the stairs and see the portrait of a vulture hanging on the wall.
“You have to get out, grandson,” says the portrait, in an ancient language made of different tones of whispering wind.
The portrait gives me instructions that I don’t understand, but nonetheless I obey. I get out of the house and run, although my feet don’t touch the ground. I run for hours, days, weeks, feeling more tired with every second, until I reach the storm. I get into the red clouds, knowing I shouldn’t, until I see a silhouette below me.
It’s the silhouette I was searching for without knowing it.
My feet sting with pain until it is impossible for me to keep moving, and I fall. Before I touch the ground made of frozen flames, the last thing I see is the silhouette, whose tired, moist eyes I have seen so many times suddenly open.
Before the silhouette turns its surprised gaze toward me, the pain suddenly stops, the tormenting silence goes away, and I finally close my eyes.
About the Text
Three Weeks transforms the bird into a consciousness trapped between body, dream, and return. L. E. Mullin builds a brief, strange piece where metamorphosis is felt in the feathers, the broken mirror, the red sky, and that impossible need to close one’s eyes.
Gon Vas
About the Author
L.E. Mullin I’m Uruguayan, and I’ve been writing and drawing comics since 2011. Right now I’m working on a series called The Flight of The Condor, which you can read for free every week through my Substack mailing list.
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This is remarkable. Thank you L.E.
I love a good short read.
This one especially! Thanks for posting