The Helmet of Horror

Chapter Two

Ariadne
Hi. I'm glad I'm not the only one here.
Organizm(-:
Hi there, darling.
Romeo-y-Cohiba
Where there are boys, there have to be girls. Some funny rainbow-coloured patches of light just appeared on my walls.
Monstradamus
That's odd, I had them too. Or maybe I imagined it.
Nutscracker
Ariadne? Did you start this thread?
Ariadne
Yes. But no one answered, and I fell asleep.
Monstradamus
So why did you write that phrase about the labyrinth?
Ariadne
I was trying to remember where it came from, but I couldn't. I had the feeling it was very important.
Monstradamus
Who are you and how did you get here?
Ariadne
I'm in exactly the same situation as you.
Organizm(-:
In that case, we know all about you already. Your real name's xxx, you're xxx years old and you come from xxx.
Ariadne
I know what's going on here.
Nutscracker
How?
Ariadne
I saw it all in a dream.
Romeo-y-Cohiba
I don't think I'd exactly regard that as bona fide information.
Monstradamus
I wouldn't mind hearing about it, though. Tell us about it.
Ariadne
I saw this old city. I mean, really ancient. The kind they must have built thousands and thousands of years ago. It was really beautiful there. Roads paved with big, flat stones, stone walls covered with living curtains of some climbing plant with pale-pink flowers. The doors and windows of all the houses were locked, but all the time I had the feeling I was being watched by someone. I wandered round the streets for ages, but I didn't meet anyone. And then on the crossroads up ahead of me I kept catching sight of a dwarf dressed in grey rags and a strange hat with a wide brim and a round crown. Every time I spotted him, he instantly darted round a corner, as though he could feel my gaze on his back. It happened lots of times, over and over again. Soon I realised he wasn't hiding from me, it was just that the rhythm of his movement was linked with the rhythm of mine so I couldn't see him for more than those few seconds. Only don't ask me how I realised it, in a dream everything has its own logic. I began trying to adjust to the rhythm, trying to get a better look at the dwarf. By choosing broad, straight streets, I could keep him in my field of vision for longer. But most of the streets were narrow and crooked  -  the way they linked up made a genuine labyrinth. I realised there were actually two dwarves, but it was easy to confuse the second one with the first. He was dressed in exactly the same way, in some old rags, only the brim of his hat was bent up on one side. Gradually I became certain there was someone else with them as well, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see the third person. Sometimes I could just catch a glimpse of the edge of his dark cloak from round a corner. I guessed I needed to find the way to the main street  -  it would be long and wide and I would be able to see all of them ...
Romeo-y-Cohiba
What's the point of us listening to all this?
Monstradamus
Please, don't interrupt. What happened after that, Ariadne?
Ariadne
After that I made my way to the main street. There was a long line of palm trees in tubs along the middle of it. I remember that what was most astonishing was that there were yellow leaves everywhere, it was autumn, and then here were these palm trees.
Nutscracker
You started off with pink flowers. Now suddenly it's autumn, with yellow leaves.
Ariadne
Yes, autumn set in while I was following the dwarf. I thought he must have done that on purpose to spoil my mood and prevent me catching up with him. There was no one in the main street. I came to a large square with a fountain with bronze statues standing in it. From their style I thought they must be just as ancient as the city, but their subjects were more like something from a Japanese cartoon film  -  naked teenagers being strangled by tentacles twined around their bodies. Or snakes ...
Nutscracker
What have Japanese cartoons got to do with anything?
IsoldA
She's talking about mangas , young girls who are raped by demons with their tentacles. It's a persistent theme in Japanese virtual porn.
Monstradamus
It's an expression of the repressed subconscious frustration resulting from defeat in the Second World War. The schoolgirl raped in these cartoons symbolises the Japanese national spirit, and the monster that sprouts these multiple phallic tentacles represents the modern western-style corporate economy.
Nutscracker
Or maybe they're just octopuses?
Monstradamus
Octopuses? How original. I'd never have thought of that.
Organizm(-:
Hey, who is this Isolde? Someone new?
IsoldA
Yes.
Romeo-y-Cohiba
Welcome to our little world, Isolde. We're very pleased to meet you.
IsoldA
Thank you, Romeo.
Organizm(-:
Are you pretty?
Romeo-y-Cohiba
Get a grip, Organism.
Nutscracker
Isolde, can you add anything to the sum of our experience?
IsoldA
No.
Monstradamus
Then, if no one has any objections, Ariadne can continue.
Ariadne
I realised I had to go over to the fountain and then I would see both dwarves. Only don't ask me how I realised it; it was suddenly clear, that's all. When I reached the fountain I turned my back to it and leaned against the wall. Opposite me there was a building with a colonnade  -  a massive, depressing building with ugly superstructures on the roof. It occurred to me somehow that a long time ago it had been burnt down, and nothing was left but the stone skeleton, and since then a lot of attempts had been made to repair it and restore it to life. But you could still see the traces of the catastrophe through the restoration work and the paint, and you could tell the building was dead and empty ...
Romeo-y-Cohiba
I'd say we need an entire committee of psychiatrists for this spiel. Or we could ask Monstradamus, he's got a good handle on this stuff. What was that phrase he used  -  corporate frustration?
Monstradamus
Romeo, please, be patient just a moment longer.
Ariadne
Suddenly I noticed one of the dwarves standing beside me  -  the one with the side of his hat bent up. I didn't see how he got there. He was really close to me, but I couldn't see his face under the hat. I remember he was wearing medieval-style pointed shoes in red and white stripes. He began speaking without raising his head, and what he said was very strange. He said the master he served was the creator of everything I saw around me, and a great many other things too. The way I understood it, this master of his was not a man. Or not just a man. His name was Asterisk ...
Monstradamus
Are you sure you heard correctly?
Ariadne
I think so. The way the dwarf explained it, Asterisk is some boundlessly and infinitely powerful being. I asked whether he didn't mean God, and he said that God was merely Asterisk's errand boy. I asked how that was possible. The dwarf told me not even to try to understand. He said it was a great mystery, and repeated this several times. I asked him what was the correct name to use for someone who is mightier than God. Any name you like, the dwarf replied  -  the word 'Asterisk', or any other that can be spoken  -  they're no more than loose dust covers, they make no difference at all. That was what he said, honestly ...
Romeo-y-Cohiba
What absolute gibberish.
Ariadne
The way I understood it, Asterisk is angry with people because at some time in the past they killed him. Or because they will kill him at some time in the future  -  the dwarf expressed himself in such a complicated manner, you could take his meaning any way at all. Since that time  -  or until that time  -  people have to pay tribute to Asterisk by sending him people to join in his games and die in his arena. Like us, for instance ...
Nutscracker
Well, there you go then.
Ariadne
But the dwarf said there was no need to be upset, because the people Asterisk sacrifices to himself have already been born, and dying in the arena is the common fate that nobody escapes. I tried to ask in that case what was the point of the sacrificial tribute, but the dwarf began getting nervous and said, 'Look, he's coming, now you can see him for yourself.' I looked up. Two figures had appeared in front of the burnt-out building. Striding along solemnly in front was a dwarf holding a flag with the Merrill Lynch symbol on it  -  you remember it, they have that jolly little bull  -  and the inscription 'Be Bullish!' But I didn't feel like laughing at all, the figure following it looked so terrifying. I don't even know what to call him. He wasn't like a man. He was absolutely massive, and I thought for a moment he was a monstrously overgrown mushroom with a big cap of blackish-green metal. Then I took a closer look at him. He was wearing a long loose robe that reached right down to the ground, dark-coloured and not particularly clean either, but not the same kind of tattered rags as the dwarves. And on his head he had a bronze helmet, like a gladiator's mask  -  a headpiece with a wide brim and a plate with holes in it where the face would be. There were two horns on the helmet ...
Monstradamus
Like a bull's horns?
Ariadne
They were much more massive and they didn't stick out to the sides, they ran backwards, merging into the helmet to form a single block. If I could compare them with anything, they looked a lot like the silencers of a bronze motorbike, curving along the rim of the headpiece with the round crown. There were lots of little rods and tubes on the helmet as well, all made of bronze, and they linked all its different parts together, so the whole thing looked a bit like an antique rocket engine.
Nutscracker
Did he say anything?
Ariadne
No, I didn't see him for very long. I only had just enough time to think the two dwarves were dressed so strangely because they were trying to look like him. Beside him they looked absolutely tiny. And there seemed to be something wistful or sad and lonely about him, like someone who'd been banished by the emperor. Or just the opposite, as though he was an emperor who had been left all alone because he had banished everyone else.
Monstradamus
Is that how the dream ended?
Ariadne
I didn't see Asterisk again. Suddenly the dwarf and I were somewhere else, on one of the little streets, facing an old wooden door with a handle in the form of a ring set through the head of a bull. The dwarf knocked on the door with the ring and it opened. Inside there was a small room. From where we were standing all we could see was a bed with a man sleeping on it, a tall man with a moustache and a mole beside his nose. The dwarf muttered that we were in the wrong place, led me to a different door and opened it in the same way. The room behind it looked the same, but it was empty. The dwarf raised his finger and asked, 'I shall construct a labyrinth in which I can lose myself, together with anyone who tries to find me  -  who said this and about what?' I started thinking about it  -  in the dream I almost knew the answer. Then suddenly he pushed me inside and slammed the door shut.
Monstradamus
What happened after that?
Ariadne
The push woke me up and I found myself in the room I am in now. Then I sat down at the desk with the screen and typed in that question. I was afraid I might forget it. But I can still hear it in my head now.
Monstradamus
Is it the same room as you entered in the dream?
Ariadne
It's hard to say. It's just as small.
Romeo-y-Cohiba
And who was the man with the mole beside his nose?
Ariadne
I don't know. I'd never seen him before.
Romeo-y-Cohiba
Can you describe him in more detail? Exactly where was this mole of his?
Ariadne
Between the side of the nostril and the cheek. He had a horseshoe moustache too. And he was absolutely bald. Big. I definitely remember that his arm was lying on the pillow and it had a tattoo on it, an anchor with a dollar sign twisted round it. I though it might be a yacht club symbol. A pretty moth-eaten type really.
Romeo-y-Cohiba
Well thanks a lot, sweetheart.
Nutscracker
I suspect someone might just have recognised himself. Right, Romeo?
Romeo-y-Cohiba
No one's ever called me a moth-eaten type before. But I do have a tattoo like that on my arm.
Nutscracker
So does anyone have any ideas?
Organizm(-:
I don't get it, are we seriously discussing someone's dream?
UGLI 666
I think ...
Nutscracker
New members, please introduce yourselves to the group straightaway. What do you think?
UGLI 666
The Lord sent her that vision to make us repent.
Romeo-y-Cohiba
That's just great. We've been locked up in here, and we have to repent? Repent for what?
UGLI 666
What we were locked up for.
Romeo-y-Cohiba
And what were we locked up for?
UGLI 666
Each of us for his own reason. For it is said: 'There is no man that shall live without sin, though his life be but a single day.'
Organizm(-:
Ugly, what sex are you?
UGLI 666
That's of no relevance.
Organizm(-:
Is he/she really serious?