Paroxysm
‘Good morning, guys!’ — I read the text faintly. — ‘Careful with today’s training material from the client, there is a really graphic decapitation in it! Enjoy your days!’
cutscene;
The biometric mass collides into a solid wall as I cruise among the people. Supposedly, they are people. The shopping center is just a pathway. I scurry off as usual, my ears are plugged by the AirPods. Nothing was supposed to touch me. But then, a feeling… creeped near me. Something is approaching. Next to me. I can feel it. I turn my head slightly, my face is static, lifeless.
‘You are beautiful.’ — a baseball cap, reptile-like face and eyes, ample like a frog, surveilling my face and body.
The face distorts in a second, his skin, vantablack; his eyes tear apart, fangs and a voice, corrputed, echoes. He gurgles his throat where black blood boils, and gags on something that isn’t air.
‘You are beautiful.’ — I hear it again and freeze as the monster rises. His body, contorted, the face is ill-shaped; I stare, the light dies out in my eyes.
‘Thanks.’
— I leave in haste. The creature growls behind me as I depart.
The mass of people doesn’t seem to realize the dark entity dripping black blood in the middle of the shopping center’s hallway. Only I can see that.
I travel rapidly.
‘Is he following me? I’m shaking.’
cutscene;
‘Good morning, guys. Guys. Morning.’
‘A really graphic decaptiation.’
cutscene;
sudden flashback;
There was so much blood. And I just sat there. In the pool of velvet nightmare that my body released. And he wouldn’t stop. Everything was flooded. I wanted him to stop.
cutscene;
He’s dying. He barely recognizes me anymore. He’s hallucinating. He’s body is gone. He is barely here anymore.
‘My treasure.’
— these were his last words to me.
cutscene;
‘You need medication. It is the only way.’
cutscene;
‘Focus.’ — I command myself, then exhale.
‘Starry eyes.’
I’m breathing. I am strong. I see him. His eyes are shining. The star-child. Warmth. He brings the heat of a thousand suns.
And he is by my side.
The gripping hand of the dark past releases, just like the ice surrenders itself to the fire. He’s in my mind, and I am liberated. With his presence, he lifts me into the skies, where the dark matter is warm, there I float. He is the stars and I drift within him. He held the galaxies together in a swirling mass of coexistence and placed me in the middle.
Everything disappeared, and slowly, I became whole. The gaps begin to fill up and the restoration of fragments has been initiated. The darkness has blossomed within the light, creating my new home; the stars.
;
Tender warmth, the universe, I swim amongst the stars and planets. I’ve dreamt of this before, or perhaps it was a visit to another realm? He is the same feeling, the warmness of the cosmic seas, where all the mundane pain is non-existent.
Time and space, are disregarded; there is only home, restoration, lightness, and a warm embrace. He is everything that destruction isn’t, he is all that stands against an army of demons, behind me
holding my hand.
