Craving desperately the serenity of the emotionless, Elijah tries on the stone mask. Immediately the room fades to a dull grey. He no longer feels afraid. The loud banging at the window has ceased. Curious, Elijah trances over to find a lone boy sitting at his classroom desk, filling in bubbles on a sheet of paper. Each time he finishes checking off one sheet, a pair of skeletal legs – so tall that Elijah cannot see a torso through the window – leans over, and a pair of long, bony hands reaches down and hands him more work. Elijah sits and stares at the masks, feeling like he could sit there immobile forever, closing and opening his eyes with a steady, drugged certainty. Holding on to only to a tiny thread of the white-grey floor, he slips through to the other side of the floor and floats gently into the darkness. Apparitions of his old family and friends flow through him, lunging and disappearing before he can wrap his arms around them. And there in the spotlight ahead, crying in the fetal position, is a woman in a bright pink bonnet. Her sobs match his heart beat. He pulls the string to climb back up, but by doing so he only spools out more thread in a seemingly infinite succession. Her sobs grow louder, and alongside them his heartbeats, until he is at last jolted. The string becomes taut and he is able to climb up through the grey ooze. The smiling yellow mask seems to call out to him with its glow, and he slogs over to give it a try.
lyrics
[Elijah]
Mask of sinking
Stone, I feel a-
-lone the noise has
Ceased
At the window is a
Lone boy at his
Desk taking a
Test to make the
Grade
Leaning over is a
Long pair of bone
Legs and hands giv-
-ing him more, more
Work
Drugged certainty,
Drowning apathy.
Spooling little bit of thread, I hold.
All my family and friends, unfold.
As I imagine a lady in passion
Collapsed on the floor.
I reach out for more.
And with her sobs growing louder, my heart ever prouder
I wake, to make my escape.
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