Page 52 of Seth
Diego whistled; his head bobbed from side to side as he explored the volcanic stone covering the walls.
From this side, the glass doors behind Gustavo’s back resembled a portal to another world.
“Soft,” Diego stated, fingers tracing the stone-like structure. “What is it, his personal nuthouse?”
Gustavo pressed his palm to the wall. The warm surface bounced under his touch. He looked closer at the carved acoustic foam finished with textured paint of different shades to imitated natural rock. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
Diego shook his head as he kept sliding his hand over the wall, ambling through the space. A few mirrored doors led away from the hall; opposite the windows, a black staircase curled upstairs.
Gustavo approached the staircase and looked up. “Where do you want to start?”
“Basement.”
“Basement it is.” Gustavo grinned.
Long tubes hatchedthe ceiling.Black cords stretched down from hoists, iron hooks ominously glinting at the ends. Platforms and workbenches lined the walls but left breathing space in the middle. Above the clearing, the ceiling had a rectangular patch of a different material. A massive telescopic tube connecting it to the floor suggested an elevator platform. Large air vents took the corners of the ceiling, and one more hovered above a massive furnace.
The basement looked like a screenshot from a steampunk movie. Gustavo recognized the glass melting studio and what looked like a kiln. Glass pieces, burnt cloths, and all kinds of clamps and tongs littered workbenches. Blowpipes occupied a vertical stand, different instruments laid nearby, and a few empty cans littered the floor. Gustavo picked a can and twirled it in his hands.
“Olives…” he kicked the second can, then the third one. All cans were of one brand and used to contain the same thing—green olives.
“Do you also feel disappointed?” Diego asked as he ran his finger over a workbench.
“That he loves olives?”
Diego chuckled, shook his head. “No, that there’re no bodies, no skeletons, no severed heads on the walls, not even decaying animals. It looks like a usual torture room.”
“Wait for his bedroom; maybe he keeps them there.” Gustavo picked up a piece of glass, stared at the pretty pattern. The marble-like structure had silverish flakes embedded in it. In a way, it looked like a swirling galaxy was embedded in the glass. The longer he stared, the brighter the illusion of the swirling particles became. He set the piece down and lifted a long segment of glass barbed wire. Detailed and sharp, it carried the same particles throughout the length.
Carefully, he returned the wire to the same place and turned his attention to the massive pieces of red glass scattered around. The smallest one was of a size of a football; the biggest could contain Gustavo’s torso. “I can’t believe he made this all by himself. He is talented, isn’t he?”
“No shit…” Diego replied as he fetched an iron rod from the stand, twirled it around. “What is it called?”
The rod swished past the workbench missing a glass piece by a miracle. Gustavo’s nerves tightened. “A blowpipe. It’s used to hold or shape molten glass. Put it down.”
With his interest in the object diminishing, Diego returned the rod to its place and plucked up a tiny piece of glass. “It does look pretty. Erotic almost…”
Gustavo ignored the deeper notes in Diego’s voice. He observed the basement for a moment longer before turning to the staircase. “Let’s get out of here. I want to see his bedroom.”
Located on the second floor, at the farthest end of the long corridor decorated with artificial stone, the living quarters had a cozier feel. It took Gustavo three attempts to find the door to Seth’s bedroom.
Black, burned wood coated the walls and ceiling. Tiles of different sizes and depths created a stunning 3D effect. Among the wood, red and golden glass embellishments sparkled catching the sun. The window overlooking the vast cityscape beneath the immense blue sky had no dressings at all, wild grape rimming it from the outside. A plain black carpet lay before the wide wooden bed. A massive glass work hanging below the ceiling hoisted Gustavo’s focus up. A spiked sphere with shards of glass flying away was an explosion of red. In the glass, he could see the outlines of the LED light.
“Is it a chandelier?” Gustavo wondered if the spikes would stab through a person if the construction fell. Subconsciously, he avoided standing beneath it.
Apart from the decoration, Seth’s bedroom didn’t have anything unusual in it. Gustavo rummaged through the wardrobes but only found clothes with attached dry-cleaning tags. No sex toys, no porn, not even condoms. It was almost ascetical.
Unlike the bedroom, Seth’s studio resembled the office of a mad scientist. A rich library boasted a collection of historical, philosophical, artistic, and spiritual books of different cultures. A set of prisms hung above what looked like a large modelling desk coated with green cloth with a cross-section pattern. Supported by tiny metal wires and glass holders, it caught and dispersed light. Fragments of glass lay here and there, mixed with rocks and crystals.
Several folders, stacked in a black, wooden rack bristled with falling-out sketches. Some of them made sense, showing detailed designs of buildings, decorative elements, and glass sculptures, others revealed fragments of exotic fantasies.
Gustavo’s possessive instincts stirred. He craved to acquire this collection, to explore each sketch with the utmost attention and decode the small, hurried, nearly unreadable notes on the sides. His instincts suggested that the key to Seth’s mind was encrypted within these pages.
Desert landscapes, strange animals, antique sculptures, hieroglyphics, insects, ancient jewelry Gustavo had only seen in the Egyptian sections of museums—every sketch carried vivid details. But the intricate drawings of the ancient god, Set, intrigued Gustavo the most.
“Hey, look what I found.” Diego’s voice startled him. Gustavo had almost forgotten he wasn’t alone.
Standing in front of the mirror, Diego held a piece of wrapped plastic in his hand. Having a handle on the inner side, it reminded Gustavo of the bulletproof shields Special Forces used to subdue aggressive crowds, except this one was blurry.
