Hidden by Ryan Licata
She ran, remembering never to look back. On the other side of the woods she saw the old Mill, just as she had seen it drawn in her story book at home. The door had been forced off its hinges, then propped up precariously, barring the entrance. The door was too heavy for her to move but she was small enough to crawl through the gap. Sunlight broke through the windows where boys had thrown stones. Finding the darkest corner, she crouched down and embraced herself. She could hear them calling out her name but she knew not to answer.
Chopin, Bolero op. 19 di Cubber
La guerra era finita.
Attraverso l’afa tropicale, il generale osservava sorridendo il proprio avversario. Era un ragazzo giovane, estremamente bello, e reso ancor più bello dal terrore, che rendeva esangue la sua pelle scura. Il generale sorrideva, sfiorando l’oro e le carte sudice. Il ragazzo teneva le proprie come l’offerta a un suo dio variopinto. Il generale amava scommettere l’oro contro la vita, amava giochettare con l’oro scommesso, sotto gli occhi degli avversari tremanti.
Come mi aveva ordinato, prima dell’ultima mano gli allungai non visto la carta vincente.
Anche l’afa rendeva più belli il terrore, e la morte, del giocatore.
Notes
The first illustration I made for Hidden was a very interesting one, but completely wrong. For some reason my mind did not record the first sentence, so the output was a woman looking back with terror in her eyes. I liked the mute film look of the illustration, but of course had to ditch it. As most of the time, I like the new illustration a lot more. The “wrong” one can be found here on deviantart.com.
Cubber’s story is about a man (we assume some kind of warlord in some kind of tropical land) playing cards with a young, terrorized man. It’s life for gold, and he’s going to win (by cheating of course). Hence the idea of a different kind of cards, which can be both the card of the winner and of the looser, as you like. Drawing those cards made me want to draw a whole set! I think I’ll do it as soon as I find some time…