Sins Loom: The Unwilling Weaver

Waking up in the sweltering midday heat, Rahul felt dizzy. Picking himself up off the ground, he went to dust himself off, but stopped upon noticing what he was wearing. He was wearing a torn and filthy brown shirt, with baggy brown pants and a pair of sandals. It was something he would often see being worn by the children working in his factory. What the fuck happened to my suit?

Looking around, he couldn’t find the impeccably tailored suit he was wearing earlier. Instead, he found himself surrounded by a bunch of small, dirty looking children.

“Get back to work everyone!” an authoritative voice shouted.

Immediately the kids scattered, heading back to their work. Looking around, he found himself inside one of his factories. One of those rotten little swines must have stolen my suit.

Trying his best to wipe off the dust, he gave up upon realising how filthy the clothes already were. I need a bath after this. Looking towards where the voice came from earlier, he found a familiar looking young man dressed in tidy clothes and glaring at the kids as they worked.

With a stern face, he walked over to the young man, who turned to glare at him. “Nephew Amar, why did you let those disgusting little cretins near me? Not only that, you left me lying in the dirt. I have half a mind to fire you.”

SLAP.

Amar slapped him across the face, causing it to immediately swell up and bruise. “What makes you think you can talk to me like that you little whelp. Now get back to work!” Amar shoved him to the ground.

Rahul looked up in shock, his ear ringing from the slap and giving him a headache. What? It took him a moment to realise what happened, but when he did, he rushed at Amar, grabbing him by the collar. “Listen here, this is not how you treat your uncle. And definitely not how you treat your boss. I will make sure you never work a day in your life ever again, you hear me?” He went to deliver a slap of his own, but when his hand came into contact with Amar’s face, he felt as if he slammed it straight into a brick wall.

He shook off his hand, but just as he did so, he felt a vise-like grip on his other arm. Before he could react, he was tossed far away.

“Get back to work. I don’t want to hear your voice again.”

Rahul tumbled along the ground, slamming into a wall with a dull thud. Groaning, he tried to stand up, but the pain in his back was too much.

“Good morning, Rahul. As you may have noticed, the situation in your factory is now quite different from what it used to be. You no longer stand at the top. In fact, you are at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Do you remember the child who died in your factory because you refused to properly maintain the equipment? Well now you are in their place. And you better find a way to escape, otherwise you will soon suffer the same fate. Good luck Rahul.”

Rahul looked around alertly, trying to find where the voice was coming from. “Who said that? You better show yourself this instant. I don’t care what you say, this is my factory, and I am in control.” Using the wall, he slowly stood up. He continued to call out, hoping to find the person who spoke. Where could they be?

Looking around he made eye contact with Amar, who scowled and walked towards him. With the pain still radiating throughout his body, he decided to avoid Amar. Where should I go? Think! What did that voice say?

He spotted that the area where he woke up was empty, and that it was right next to one of the motorised spinning rods and by looking around, could tell that someone was supposed to be there. He noticed that Amar was getting closer, so he immediately ran to the empty spot.

Molten glass flowed down the trough, wrapping around the spinning rod, melting back together into one long glass cylinder.

“Don’t you know how to do your job? Now this batch is ruined.” One of the other boys scowled at him.

“Give him a break, he probably hit his head when he fell earlier.” One of the other kids said kindly while walking up to him. “Here this is what you are supposed to do.”

As the stream of molten glass continued to flow, the kid picked up a long metal tool ending in a hook. “You need to run the hook along here, otherwise the glass will stick together, and we won’t be able to make bangles out of it.” After showing him what to do, the kid handed the tool to Rahul and took a step back.

Rahul stood there for a moment, allowing the glass to stack back up, ruining another batch.

Furious, the first kid ran towards him, which caught the attention of Amar.

Freaking out, Rahul did as instructed, running the hook along the glass, which stopped it from melting together. As he continued to do this, everyone ignored him and went back to work. I really shouldn’t be doing this. How dare they make me work like this.

He continued to run the hook along the glass, frustrated at his situation, but too scared to do confront anyone again. This equipment is exactly what these cretins deserve. When I get out of here, I’ll punish everyone involved in this. Especially Amar.

Lost in his anger, he didn’t notice as smoke flowed out of the engine. But his attention was caught when it started to make a loud whirring sound. The rod spun out of control as a new stream of molten glass wrapped around it. The glass warped and spun out of shape, splattering around the place.

What is going on? As he tried to duck out of the way, the molten glass flew towards him, burning through his face. His body fell to the ground.

“Unfortunately for you, Rahul, it looks like you were unable to stop the accident from happening. I was hoping that you would finally realise how dangerous your factories were by having you experience the danger firsthand, but you were stubborn to the very end. You refused to see the error of your ways, and now you have paid the price. Enjoy Hell Rahul, Goodbye.”