LEER
Leer is a fictional investigative piece that acts as an escape from the mundane everyday. It follows the story of a man who walked into the underground tunnels and became stuck on the outside of society leering in.
Transcript
I don’t know why I did it. The reason I walked into these endless tunnels of my own free will is beyond me. Perhaps it was a desperate need to see what lies in their tempting depths. Or maybe it wasn’t my choice to make.
I can remember standing there at the very edge of the light. Close enough to touch the darkness, to feel its cool caress upon my fingertips as it urges me to come a little closer. To step fully in and accept its embrace. Warm or cold, I still don’t know.
There was noise behind me, other passengers continuing their journeys without pausing, without a single thought for the strangers they pass. Both strangers they might never pass again and strangers that they pass everyday in their ceaseless routines.
So there I stood, staring, and it stared back.
…dragged my hand along the pipes as they curved through the tunnels. Every so often a looped wire snagged on my hand to hold me there, to stop me from going deeper and deeper. To here, a dead ended tunnel behind all the twists and turns and twists and turns.
So here I sit and here I wait. For what? I don’t know.
Am I waiting or am I simply being? Sitting. Breathing in old and stale air. Feeling the damp dirt between my fingertips, the hard press of the uneven wall pressed to my back and the pure, unrestrained cold that seeps up from the ground.
It starts as a gentle prod, a gentle reminder from my body that my gut is almost empty.
Like a silhouette without a true form, I roam these sunless tunnels. Invisible to those waiting up there, unable to stray from the light. Their sacred light. They can’t see me but I can see them from my darkness. From the shadows that creep in every corner, every crevice. The shadows that welcomed me home the moment I stepped foot inside like I have always been one of theirs.
Two people sit there, chattering and chattering. One lifted her head, leaning back against those lined tiles. A few strands of her golden hair, golden like those forbidden rays, curled around her neck. She swiped at them with a finger, they must’ve been tickling her skin. The other one said something to make her laugh, something I can’t…
I saw a child, so small and innocent, untainted by the smokey gloom. He was at that age where all they see is wonder. So curious they are, those small beings. Unafraid to approach that which they shouldn’t. They haven’t yet developed that sense of unease that can be felt when something is wrong, something is off but nobody knows what. That feeling is what keeps others safe up there and away from here. But as I watched that little boy stumble ever closer to the start of the tunnel, I realised he didn’t know to stay away. My shadows quivered, so eager to devour and trap another lost soul. Perhaps they had already corrupted mine because I too felt an eagerness. Buried deep but it was there all the same. And a disappointment when his mother pulled him back. The boy did not protest, nor did he whine. He did not make any sound at all. Yet he didn't turn away either. Just like I did before, he continued to stare and this time I was what stared back.
I tried to catch the sun but even her personal glow could not fend off the muck and grime that make my tunnels. Just like the warmth, the light didn’t last. Those golden strands wrapped like brittle wisps around my filthy skin. Instead of…