"As long as there is a hole in my heart to fill,
My companion, the sadness, will try to fill it."
G.E.A.
SADNESS IS A LONELY THING
(the sadness will vanish when you are not alone)
by Gard Eggesbø Abrahamsen
The house was obviously old, and not exactly well taken care
of, as the yellow paint was falling off the noticably rotten
walls. The only thing that made one see that the house still was
inhabited was the newly polished sign that was hanging over the
door. "Your Travels Inc", it said. Only a tiny, hairy little
man in the crowd of people rushing by on the pavement had
decided not to ignore this house, as he carefully opened
the door and entered.
Squeeking sounds for each step he took up the stairs made him a
little nervous, as if he expected the house to fall apart any
second. Still, he had been waiting for this day for a little
while now, and he didn't want to miss it for anything in the
world.
The door was open, inviting him to simply enter the clean office
where men in white were rushing to and fro between the
different computers. At the far end of the room, there was a
huge machine with a chair mounted to it.
"Ah! There you are!"
"Has everything been prepared?"
"Just sit down, and you'll be off any moment."
He walked slowly over to the chair as if he was having second
thoughts, but as he got closer, her realized that he had to do
it anyway. As soon as he sat down, he was strapped to it before
several electrodes were fastened all over his body.
His eyes closed as he awaited his departure.
A flash of orange light zapped in front of his eyes.
Screams about defect machines sounded through his ears. And
everything went black...
Only the faint sound of disco music could be heard.
Nothing could be seen. The music went louder and louder, so loud
he felt the vibrations through the air. He could smell a
mixture of deodorant and sweat passing by. A strange smell
of perfume grew stronger till this scent dominated far above the
other odours.
"Would you like to dance?" he heard a sensual voice whisper
into his ear. He immediately opened his eyes and found the most
beautiful female creature he had ever seen just a few inches in
front of him, inviting him for a dance.
He got up on his feet and grabbed her hand, pulling her onto
the dance floor. Ready to dance, he held her close, feeling
her soft touch in his hand. The slow rhythm beat into his brain,
making him move around, taking the female with him.
The feeling of her body touching his body steamed through him,
teasing his mind, oppressing all other thoughts, as a mindless
dance filled with an unexplained pleasure boiling inside his
head, concentrated around the cuddly female he had between his
arms. Only the remote reminder about behaving as a gentleman kept
him from violently breaking the dance and starting to strip all
her clothes off whilst kissing her all over.
"It's the last dance," she whispered into his ear.
"I'm gonna miss ya', y'know!"
"Yea, I know."
The music slowly faded away, leaving the two dancing to the
silence that was filling the ear with a somewhat slower rhythm.
"It's over, now."
"I'm still gonna miss ya'!"
"Yea, I know."
She gave him a long and passionate kiss before she
slipped out of his grip and walked backwards towards the
door, waving him goodbye.
"I should've danced while I had the chance," he shouted after
her.
"You didn't?" she asked as she disappeared through the door,
leaving him all alone on the dance floor.
"No," he sighed. He was the only one there. There was no band,
no other people that had danced. It was just his lonely
soul that was filling the room with thoughts and minute
tears of dreams blowing in the air like invisible drops of wet
rain.
A flash of orange light zapped in front of his eyes.
Screams about defect females sounded through his ears. And
everything went black...
"He looks a bit pale, doesn't he?"
"Nah! He's just coming round."
He opened his eyes.
"Welcome back."
"Uh. Hi!"
"Did you have a good time?"
"Er...well..."
"How do you feel?"
"I'm fine, thanks."
"Never felt better?"
"Exactly!"
"Not bad for someone who just amputated his right arm."
"Wha...?" He intuitively tried to pull his right arm up, but
couldn't, forcing him to actually turn his head to look at it.
It was black, burnt, as if a very high voltage had passed
through it, boiling the meat, leaving only crisp bacon around
his bones.
Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes,
bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and
tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact
and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any
kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are
not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll
texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.