Page 29 of Florescentia

Something from the floor.

It was my Peculiars. Something was coming from the depths, seemingly struggling to fit through the opening Absinthe and Tonic had made together. A massive black form rose, climbing from the void. I wasn’t sure when it would end. The entire thing collected at the back of the room, like a giant metaphysical slug, adjusting as it neared the ceiling and curling to face the length of the room.

I covered my mouth.

Don’t move. Don’t breathe.

The shrieking stopped. My Peculiars scattered so fast, like mice, in multiple fractured pieces.

There was a deep groan. It vibrated in my ears, my bones. I couldn’t even discern my heartbeat. The closest comparison might have been the deep-sea wax cylinder recordings of the last humpback whale before the species went extinct as a whole.

The thing settled, like many things moving under a tarp. The mass moved, shifted.

As much as my body screamed for self-preservation, I could not fear it. I could not worry about being swallowed whole; the alternative would be to let my own disappointments do that for me. I had nothing to lose except myself.

My legs were still shaky from impact as I balanced to a standing position, the pain from my head and a skinned knee just a reminder that this was no dream, and it was my will that was making it happen.

Against every logical bone in my body, I braved the center of the floor, yet I held back any call to it more than I already had.

The thing made that noise again, this time clearer. The overtone was something monstrous, but smaller notes below resembled nonsensical whispers, an alluring conversation just out of earshot. The small tingles of sound stung as my eardrums attempted to adjust.

What is it saying?

“Beast,” I said.

My own voice sounded muffled, to me, at least. I touched my ear. Hot blood stuck to my fingers.

It shifted lower to the floor and spread out. It was almost insulting in gesture, like it was wondering what a puny thing was doing speaking to it.

I took a step back, then planted both feet in place, still caressing my ear.

A part of it stretched forward, then it kept getting smaller, like it was forming a giant limb.

“Stop!” I shouted, holding my hand out.

It flinched, rising like a cobra above me.

This thing could kill me here. I was sure of it. It wasn’t out of the cards yet.

The black form glowered over me, obscuring the room as it drew closer. My markings began to pulse brighter and brighter as it neared.

It shifted, the congealing forms starting to look familiar the more it tried. Long, spindly legs of a grasshopper, yet larger than life. A fin shifting before disappearing, a hand, a maw, then something familiar.

Two white eyes opened before me in the inky blackness, thin and long, then a third in the middle like a marquis. Out of that form was produced a head. It slapped a claw out onto the floor that slowly deflated into something more human, but long and skeletal, before it disintegrated, though not before the next one came out the same as it pulled this new form from the shadow.

It was like a titan; then, as it got closer, it started to hold itself up straight, the bottom half just part of this ever-changing mass. But a torso was clearer, like a puppet held up by the beast. It stared, even blinked.

Then it held out its hand, a mimicry of my stance.

Just its proximity was enough for me to feel its presence. It may not have been touching me, but it was clear that this thing was beyond the earthly senses. It was like a tension: a draining, dreamy feeling that could only be compared to a leech of energy.

It stood before me, a statuesque vision of a man but not to be mistaken for a real one.

With its extended hand, its slender fingers brushed by my ear.

I was frozen, my eyes stuck in a widened state as I tried to make sense of the scene before me. The markings on my face glowed so bright, they almost cast a glare in my vision.

It plucked the iris from my hair and held it between us. The boisterous bloom was impressive even in the dark. The deepest blues and white variegation all throughout the petals.