The Steel Edifice

Note: This story is a translation of an original Arabic imagining. Read it here if you know any Arabic and you can read his entire excellent blog, بلوق د. ساعساعينو, which has both Arabic and English writing.

With heavy eyelids he opened his eyes slightly after slumbering for an unknown amount of time. The man lay on his stomach on top of a thin, spongy pillow.

The expression on his face was indicative of how exhausted he still felt, and that his awakening was not of his own volition.

He still hadn't fully opened his eyes; it was an involuntary reaction to the brutality of sunlight that filled his surroundings. The rays woke him up and made his pupils dilate.

The air was frigid.