Adena tilts her head in that alien way. "You give us life. And your words will feed us for years to come."
Adena’s leads me to a raised dais at the front of the ballroom. The crowd quiets as I ascend the steps, their eyes fixed upon me with rapt attention.
Public speaking has never been my forte, and the idea of addressing this otherworldly crowd fills me with dread. But I am the Nexus, and apparently that role comes with certain expectations.
I clear my throat, my mouth dry as cotton. "I want to thank you all for your hospitality," I begin, my voice wavering slightly. "Your realm is... unlike anything I could have imagined."
A murmur of approval ripples through the crowd. Emboldened by the response and those couple of drinks, I continue.
"As much as I have enjoyed my time here, I'm afraid I must return to the human world." A sense of importance swells inside me. "My place is there, to continue being the bridge between our realms."
Just as the words leave my lips, a deafening crash echoes through the ballroom.
Screams erupt as a massive, hulking creature bursts through the far wall, sending debris flying in all directions.
My blood runs cold.
It's the eyeless cyclops. The same kind of monster that attacked me in the pho restaurant. Like the one that put Miguel in the hospital. Its single, gaping eye socket seems to stare directly into my soul, its maw twisted into a grotesque grin.
Before I can react, the creature lunges forward with impossible speed. Its claws wrap around me, yanking me from the dais with a force that knocks the wind from my lungs.
I scream, struggling against its grip, but it's like fighting against a steel trap. The monster pulls me close, and for ahorrifying moment, I'm certain it intends to crush me in its grasp.
But instead, it opens its maw impossibly wide and shoves me inside. I'm engulfed in darkness, the stench of decay and rot overwhelming my senses. I gag, the acrid taste of bile coating my tongue.
I feel the creature moving, its massive form lurching and bounding as it carries me away.
Panic seizes me, my lungs burning as I struggle to breathe in the fetid air. I claw at the fleshy interior of the monster, desperate to escape, but the membrane is thick and tough. My nails bend and break against the unyielding tissue, pain lancing through my fingertips.
Where is Shadow? The thought comes unbidden, a desperate plea in the darkness. But there's no sign of him, no whisper of his presence. I'm alone, trapped in the belly of a nightmare.
Fear and despair claw at my mind, threatening to drag me under. Where is this creature taking me? What does it want?
But there are no answers in the suffocating darkness.
Trapped in Nightmare
Inside the monster's belly, time loses all meaning. I drift in and out of consciousness, the rocking motion of its movement a grotesque lullaby. Each time I wake, my lungs burn worse than before. The toxic atmosphere has worn me down so gradually that I can't pinpoint when breathing became such a torturous task.
Then I'm expelled from the monster's body, my shoulder and arm slamming into rock before my head cracks back on the hard ground. I try to gasp, but my lungs seize from both the atmosphere and the blow of hitting the hard rocky ground.
Despite the throbbing pain and choking panic, I scramble to get up, putting the medium-sized boulder between me and the cycloptic monster.
Instead of paying me any mind, the creature sits back onto another large rock.
We're in a dark cave. A lantern on one side of the cave is the only source of light, casting a warm glow on the sandstone surrounding us. The creature practically blends into the color of the cave. Even its mottled flesh reflects the cracks in the rocks. The eyeless cyclops doesn't move or seem to be paying attentionto me. Behind me is a wall, but behind my kidnapper is a tunnel that must lead us back out.
"What do you want?" I croak, my throat dry, the gritty air more aggravating than before.
The creature doesn't answer.
"What do you want?" I scream at the unmoving monster.
After a moment, a long, low, croaking sound comes from the monster. It takes a moment for my brain to recognize or organize the sounds into words.
"It devours. It comes."
"What?" I ask.
