by Brian E. Rochlin

LIGHTS UP

There is a vault. At the bottom of a deep well there is a vault. And the stuff in there. … The dark, putrid stuff….

This is not the story of how it is released. This is not the story of hell that followed.

This is not a story.

I don’t know why it’s not a story. It should be. I mean, you’re out there and I’m up here. And I’m reading to you. But this is not a story.

It begins. Once upon a time. There was a vault. A vault in which dark, putrid stuff was stored, and that vault was placed in the bottom of a well.

And then there’s nothing else about the vault. Or at least, nothing new. Because this is not a story. Time and again, the vault would be mentioned and you would know nothing else about it. Not its color. Not its size or weight. Certainly not its combination. No, there would be nothing of any more value about the vault…filled with dark, putrid stuff.

Sure, it is buried for a reason. But that reason will not be revealed. Nor the scintillating cast of characters behind its burial. Nothing will be told of their fascinating lives. Not where they were born, the scars they earned, the loves they knew, their untimely deaths.

There will be no sex scenes. Although fantastic sex took place. I mean the type of sex that leaves you tingling in places you forgot about. The type of sex most of you have never had. You know its true.

There certainly will not be any discussion of deviant sex, although there was plenty of that, too. And I know that what is and what is not deviant when it comes to sex is HIGHLY subjective. But were I to tell you about the sex behind this story, even the most "experienced" of you would agree that this qualifies as true deviance.

There will be no three-act structure. No beginning, middle and end. Other than "Once upon a time. " There will be no more metaphors. There will be no idioms, similes, literary conceits, or additional images. All there will be is fore-shadowing.

Because somewhere there is a vault. At the bottom of a deep well there is a vault. And the vault is filled with stuff: dark, putrid stuff.

And right now, someone is lowering another someone down that well. And we don’t anything more about it…

…But we will.

LIGHTS FADE