Silentium

The dust scampered in hysteria as the crash of the carton shattered the silence.

With her vision still groggy from her slumber, she stumbled half-blind towards the fallen box of documents that fell from the shelf. Kneeling before photographs strewn across the floor, she pursed her lips in annoyance as she hastily gathered them into a heap.

Amidst her cleaning, the dust found peace and drifted quietly back onto every surface of the reseach lab.

The stillness of the air seems to be anticipating something.

Her sleepy eyes widened as she saw the photograph attached onto yellowed research paper. Pushing her black framed glasses onto her nose, her lips now parted slightly in amazement of her discovery.

In the next moment, her entire body went into a frozen stance---her mind was whirling and ordered her heart to stop beating.

Her shocked expression started to molt as a smittened smile curled at her lips. Her fingertips came together lightly and flipped the stapled pages.

Specimen A.

How could she never cared?

There were only several brief lines written about the specimen. It barely exists---so little known about it, it's almost like a legend told among every folklore.

But it bears an uncanny resemblance to Unus, her prized specimen.

Hours and hours of study delegated to the research of that specimen. One that drove her to the brink of insanity. Time was at its expense, which she could no longer afford to give. With that, she destroyed all the aparatus designed to capture it.

Since then, she has been sleeping amongst this wreckage, waiting for something new.

She hurried back to the desk and disposed all those field notes and coding sheets that were irrelevant.

She swallowed her saliva that was the first drop of liquid that flowed down her parched throat since a very long time. With trembling hands, she set aside that cup murked with tea stains to make way for a glass bottle.

The dust fled again. They were unsettled by the powerful excitement simmering inside her.

She grab a felt tip pen and scribbled across a strip of paper. She stuck it to the adhesive side of a piece of tape and smooth it out gingerly onto the surface of the empty bottle.

The Perfect Specimen, says the label.

The bottle may remain empty forever.

But for now, let it be filled by all her hopes and dreams.

Ghost of the Habour

The salt in air
made the wind cling
onto the skin like
a widow's veil.

So light,
yet it burdens
the heart and
crushes it as
would a chainmail.

I'm so glad
to see you here.

Your voyage has
ended now, sailor.

The waves that
hit you so hard
had brought you here.

You wouldn't feel my graze
on your battered skin.

You wouldn't hear my words
through these deafening
crashes of the sea.

But Lady Fortune's grace
had been upon you.

There are many, many
who had died amongst
these waters.

Few have been so
blessed with their souls.

Just like that captain
from decades ago.

So fine was his ship,
with her mast strong
against the storm.

She sailed past
the habour I was at,
and he was dashing in the wind.

But she had a will of her own.

And soon,
the captain could no longer
steer her with the mast.

And he was abandoned
into the depths of the ocean
as she vanished
into the howling rain.

His waxen face
was chisled with fatigue
from his struggles.

When he came back to the habour
where I have been waiting
since his departure,
I knew what should
have been done.

The sea needs to
be appease.

In his stead,
I will go.

The roaring waves
swallowed me
without mercy.

It was cold.

Now,
this is the
only place I could roam.

He used to come back,
you know.

But mad with
my senseless longing
did I haunted him with fear.

Not long after,
there was nothing
about him I could hear.

It must have been
an adventure, sailor.

I, too, wish to set
upon these sails.

But dead as I am,
it is amongst death
must I dwell.

So to you,
my dear,
I wish you well.