Posted by I had uploaded this story here before, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with it. Over the last few years, I’ve tweaked and revised the story, shifting it in a direction that I’m much happier with. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.
As I died, countless thoughts and regrets crossed my mind as I fell away into utter darkness.
I try to move around in the darkness, and while I don’t know how successful I am, I do learn one thing: death has transformed me. I try to move my arms, but instead only flick a mass of tentacles. I try to walk forward, but I have no legs. Instead, I swing my “arms” as if I were swimming. I eventually begin to move, but it feels as if I am crawling through pudding. Then the hateful lights surround me. Everywhere I look, pinpricks of white light sear my pupils; I instinctively hate it. As I continue to paddle forward, the proportions of my body become more and more apparent to me. I am fat and bulbous, a pulsating blob of flesh. I have no eyes nor mouth nor nose, but I see those stars as clear as day. I enjoy the coldness of the abyss as it blankets my flesh. As I paddle along, I begin to smell something utterly repulsive: the stench of rotting flesh. The stench grows worse and worse until I finally realize that it is me. As soon as I make that connection, the stench vanishes. I continue to paddle forward. Then the thought hits me like a bullet: I had a body different to this one once. Yet, no matter how much I try to remember that form, it eludes me. I wiggle one of my tentacles, testing this form. It’s natural to me. I continue my journey through this barren abyss.
Eventually I begin to encounter small floating spheres in this vast black void. I swim past them. They brush past me. Some are rubbed to dust beneath my weight while others are pushed aside. These spheres all vary in size and placement, with some being imperfect red ovals while others are green spheres. Some are large enough that I can see them long before I reach them, while others are so small that I never even notice them as I swim past; only the faintest of impacts alert me to their presence; they tickle.
Finally, I reach a pale blue sphere. This one strikes me as particularly ugly. I want nothing more than to move past it, but at the same time, I am compelled to stay and watch it. And so I do. I sit there for God knows how long and watch that little dot spin. As I watch it spin, I notice an even smaller grey sphere floating around it.
In the deafening silence, I reach out and grasp that tiny grey fleck, bringing it towards me and into my maw. The thing is little more than a grain of rice to me. Once I have done that, I take my leave of this hideous blue dot and continue my swim.
As time passes on, I notice that some of the spheres are also the lights that I had seen as I have been swimming along. Some provide a nice sense of heat while others give my bulbous body nothing but numbing chills. I swallow one and feel the warmth disperse itself throughout my bloated form. A guttural laugh escapes my stomach and my flesh jiggles.
Soon the lights around me begin to disappear and I enter total blackness once again. There is nothing but an unending void behind me. I push forward, never slowing my gentle swim
through the sea of nonexistence. I am content here. This is where I belong. This is where the darkness gently caresses my apostate form.
Just as quickly as I had entered the darkness, I leave it. This time I am met with a blinding light. Naturally I wrap my tentacles around that light to blot it out forever and bring back my comforting darkness, my precious darkness. Once I do, I find myself in that heavenly darkness again, but this time I am not swimming in a primordial sea. Sharp, brittle knives penetrate and eviscerate my corpulent form. It should hurt, yet it doesn’t. The darkness shields me. Instinctively, I move forward, grinding rocks to powder beneath my expansive form. I enjoy this cold, dank bedchamber of the earth. I close my countless eyes for a moment and numbing oblivion envelops me. Eventually I awaken. Something inside of me urges me to push forward, so I do. I creep onwards through this inky barrow until hellish light eventually comes into view again, but I cannot devour this light. I hate this light as every cell screams out in agony, but I must move forward; my nature compels me to do so. Once at the mouth of this cave, I survey this new land.
Green trees poke out of the ground all around me. In the distance, a small-town rests at the bottom of this hill, just outside the confines of this forest. Gentle birds, just awoken, twitter in the air. I hate this beauty. I stretch my spindly neck around a tree, and I notice a red and black blur weaving between trees. It moves slowly and methodically, constantly pausing behind bushes and crags. I watch it approach. I should move, but I want to encounter this being. His gasp rends the air. The hunter stands in front of me, rooted in place. His arms shake erratically as he readies his shotgun.
He lowers the shotgun, his face contorted into a silent scream. The sun reveals my grotesque aspect for the whole world to condemn. Between my bulbous, corpulent body and my writhing tentacles, there is more than enough to terrify him. He readies his weapon again and fires. I feel the bullets enter my body, but nothing ever becomes of them. In response I tilt my body in slight confusion because I remember this sensation, but this time, something about it is missing. This time it tickles. The man drops his gun and flees. As soon as he is out of sight, my stomach roars as a gnawing hunger makes itself known. I do not need food or sustenance to maintain this form, but I still have the desire to consume. And so I will. I begin to make my way down the mountain and towards the small town. I take my time now, enjoying the harsh sunlight as it burns my pale skin. I know that the next stage of my travels will come in time, but not now. Now I am allowed a slight diversion. Once I reach the outskirts of the town, I force my form inside of a tree until nightfall. I refuse to let my prey escape again.
Once the protective twilight descends, I leave my temporary dwelling and creep towards the first home. I easily squeeze between the cracks and slowly begin to navigate around the house. Photos of a young woman rest on the mantelpiece. She smiles as the sunlight beats down around her. A part of me is struck by some vague nostalgia. Just as with the pale blue dot earlier, I am compelled to stop and stare. Rage briefly burns through my being, then pity quickly replaces it. Then it is gone. I am not made to feel these weak emotions.
Eventually I continue onwards. As I creep closer and closer to her bedroom, she stirs. She is beginning to sense that something is wrong, but it is already too late. Her bedroom door clicks, and she shuffles about within. A chair scrapes across the floor before lightly thudding against the door. I squeeze myself underneath her bedroom door with ease. She tries to scream but my tentacles are faster than her feeble voice. Before she knows what is happening, my body has devoured her, soul and all.
I devour house after house, methodically carving through this small town. But this next house is different. Even as I approach, it radiates stillness. My native darkness completely envelops this mausoleum of wood and plaster. The wooden deck dares not creak under my girth. I creep silently inside, but nothing awaits me. I travel from room to room, but not a soul rises to meet me. Even the living room is dead as the night. I flick a tentacle in frustration and penetrate a wall. Small bags fall out that were hidden within. They leak powder onto the wooden floor. My curious tongue absorbs a bag instantly. I remember this vile substance. It brings death.
My sable tendrils lash out in revulsion. I desecrate every inch of this forsaken home, annihilating everything I apprehend. My appendages cleave through everything with ease. Then I strike something hard and cold. The metal still tears with ease, but fragments cut into my flesh. I scatter green somethings over the room. I remember this worthless parchment. It also brings death. My fury redoubles. Thing after thing breaks before me as I spasm about. My impotent rage only upturns more filthy lucre. My blood boils. I want to find the man who resides here and punish him for his transgressions. He would make such a delectable morsel, but he is nowhere to be found.
The other houses are mostly the same, save for one—the final house I visit. As soon as I creep underneath this door, the lights flash on around me as bullet after bullet enters my body. The hunter and his posse continue to unload shell after shell into my skin. My stomach lets out a piercing growl as terror grips them. Then my tentacles do. I will simply enjoy my buffet here. Many fall into despair, weeping and screaming as they throw their spent metal away. One foolish soul tries to rush me with a large hunting knife, so I instantly devour him. In that brief moment, the light of sanity vanishes from all in the room once and for all. Dread washes over them as I advance, my bulbous form swelling to fill the room. Deafening silence tolls as I mete out oblivion to these sacks of meat and fear. The only man who seems unaffected is the hunter. I will deal with him last; he deserves that much. It is not long before just the hunter remains, yet I pause for the smallest of moments as another thought strikes me: the cries. The cries elicit yet more unwanted nostalgia. A strange pang ripples within me as I briefly pause my slaughter. I understand this suffering.
But I do not care.
The hunter shakes uncontrollably, and his eyes fill with a blank gaze of nothingness; his previously calm mien has been completely shattered. He mutters constantly to himself about how this whole situation is impossible and should not be happening. My existence breaks his mind. I am not bound by the same rules that he is. My mere form is a violation of his notion of nature. He does not even scream as my maw swallows him whole.
When I am done in the town, I return to the cave. I worm my way deeper and deeper inside until I have reentered the void. Then I continue onward. I do not know where my journey will go, but I accept that. I do not care where my journey will take me. All I know is that I am a leviathan, and it is my purpose to devour.
Broad Scope Entertainment 