Glass

Riley awoke to a symphony of fractures. Every glass balustrade, every window in her apartment had been marred with a web of cracks, as if the glass itself was attempting to replicate her escalating dread. Some panes were utterly shattered, shards littering her pristine hardwood floor.

An eerie silence hung over the destruction. There was no sign of an intruder, no wind gust or seismic tremor that could explain such devastation. It was as if the glass had simply decided to implode.

Desperate for normalcy amidst the chaos, Riley decided to book a Melbourne glazier. Teams were dispatched, working tirelessly to replace the ruined glass, but it was a futile endeavour. As quickly as the repairs were made, new cracks formed, spider-webbing across the pristine surfaces. The glaziers were perplexed, unable to provide any rational explanation for the bizarre occurrences.

As the glass continued to crack and shatter around her, Riley sought answers elsewhere. She dived into the depths of the internet, sifting through forum posts and articles. It led her to obscure folklore, chilling tales of glass acting as a portal to other dimensions, of spirits bound within reflective surfaces.

As she read, the air around her seemed to thicken, her dread amplifying with every tick of the clock. It was late into the night when she glanced up from her screen, her eyes catching the fractured reflection in the nearby glass balustrade.

There, amidst the shattered glass, a dark figure loomed. It seemed to pulse and undulate with the shadows, its form almost fluid. Its touch seemed to further distort the glass, twisting the world into a grotesque caricature. As she watched in silent horror, it reached out from the reflection towards her.

Riley recoiled, the vision so real she could almost feel the icy touch of the phantom hand. The reality of her situation came crashing down on her. She was trapped in her apartment, caught in a hauntingly distorted reality, facing a supernatural entity that seemed hell-bent on reaching her. With every shattered piece of glass, the entity seemed to grow stronger. Her reflection grinned back at her from the fractured surface, a mocking echo of her terror.

I really wish they hadn’t chosen to torture me with this first challenge in Australia’s Next Top Office. I was incredibly tempted to break the glass balustrade I’d spent hours crafting.

“I don’t think I can resist it any longer. I’m going to smash it!” I said.

Space Wizard hissed from within the water bottle I was keeping his liquified remains in. “You must hold on, Bandit. If I’m to get my revenge on Archerak and you’re to get a pardon for your crimes, we have to win this challenge. Just take deep breaths and get back to work.”

“Maybe we should just hire a glazier from Melbourne to do it for us.”

“You know that’s against the rules. Be strong, Bandit. I believe in you.”

That made one of us. I returned to work, getting the new sheet of glass ready for its placement along the rails. If I could just hold off my intense urges to shatter glass, we’d have a really nice balustrade in the end.

“How do you think the others are going?” Space Wizard asked.

“Knowing Archerak, he’s probably used some spell to make his,” I said. “I doubt it will be any good, though. Lacking in craftsmanship and finesse, probably. I’m worried about the Dirge, though. Apparently he has a background working with glass.”

Space Wizard hummed within his water bottle. “Yes, the Dirge may be a problem. If I still had my body, I would curse him with a sore curse that stops him from being the best glass balustrade installer Melbourne could want. But alas, I am liquified.”

“But you could have a body again if you wanted to.”

“Sure. But I quite like it here. Besides, Archerak would probably just cast power, word, liquefy again. It’s not worth the effort of regeneration at the moment.”

I stepped back and realised that I had successfully installed the balustrade. Our conversation must have kept me distracted enough. But then I noticed a hammer across the balcony, and the glistening of the glass in the sunlight made my heart race.

“No!” said Space Wizard.

“I’m sorry, I can’t resist it!”

I dove for the hammer. It was time for the Glass Smashing Bandit to strike again.