They are haunting my dreamworld

The creature mimicking my father froze upon seeing all the other creatures in the swamp. Then, all of a sudden, he was in front of me. His eyes… God, his eyes… I could see all of hell’s fury reflected in them. He took hold of my neck and started to tighten his grip. His intentions were clear… I didn’t oppose him, I could finally have sweet relief... If it weren't for my accursed savior.

She was beautiful… raven hair and ivory skin… she was dripping wet. She was embraced by tiny tendrils coming from the swamp, delicately gripping her neck and arms… I recognized her by her necklace. It found a new vessel.

She walked towards the creature, rather seductively, and stopped at inches from his face. I think I heard the impostor whispering “not again” causing the woman, and the others, to laugh. The creature let me go; he clearly had something to deal with. She smirked when the man smugly came to her.

She did something that left him frozen. She showed him her necklace, and she broke it with a clenching fist. The man was shocked… It couldn’t be possible. She threw away the pieces in her hand with a grin in her face; the man could only stand there, unbelieving at what his eyes showed him. “You are next” She said.

Thin transparent strings rose from the water. They pierced the skin of the man, like fishhooks… they went deep through him and slowly reeled back, ripping apart the shape of the man like paper. He was clearly distressed; he couldn’t leave, the woman wouldn’t let him… he could only scream… and soon after, not even that.

He saw me… I know he did. He turned and gave me one last look. His eyes, once they were green… now they were a deep shade of blue… The tentacles caused horrific gashes in the body of the man, as he slowly began giving up. Those tendrils were like maggots, scurrying and invading every wound in his body.  

All of the man’s limbs were damaged beyond repair. It would have been quite the mess… but there wasn’t any blood. Yet, I could see how life was slowly drifting away from him. The only effort he could do was to keep his head above the water, trying not to look as the pathetic and helpless little kid he really was.

With a cold smile in her face, and with eyes that shone with glee, she caressed his worn out face, even kissing it, before pushing it under the water. She calmly spoke to him; telling him all the horrifyingnthings she had in store for him… she said that this is only the beginning. Evolutive Flow… No more. All shall know of what it is capable… it shall never be ignored again…

Of the thirteen, there is no forgotten one.

He is lost in the darkness

I got to escape from the water’s domains… it held me and two others as prisoners in a swamp, were it experimented on us, treating us like filthy guinea pigs. The other two were acquainted with all this madness; an assassin for the Nightwatch and one of the Cleric’s gangsters. The former was beyond redemption; all that was left was a mumbling mess counting his every hair. The latter, was too calm; he simply stared at the sky, sitting on a rock and insisting that “Father” will eventually come for him, all while drinking from the tainted waters as if they were fine wine…

I left the two servants, but I kept seeing disturbing things… I saw a beautiful woman, impossibly so, with blood dripping from her chest in the vague shape of a dress. With her there was a man; he was horribly deformed, with sickly green skin and black scales replacing hair… the woman and he… they hadn’t shame.

I kept moving… I saw a satyr. He was playing a harp, sad notes coming from the strings. I thought I heard a soft mourn coming from his mouth… before he abruptly dropped his harp on the water. Or something came from the water… I didn’t turn back to watch. I had to keep going.

The swamp was rife with the water’s creations… all fauna was altered beyond recognition. The birds could have easily been mistaken for lizards, with all those scales and protrusions… the crocodiles had gills and enormous muscles… The aberrations I saw didn’t deserve to be called fish…

But that was nothing with what I found next. The water is smart. It is vengeful… it won’t stop. It didn’t suffice with the creatures living in its swamp… it had one more trophy to collect.

That ugly bastard, I hated feeling sorry for him. He looked like my father, but he obviously couldn’t care less about impersonating him correctly. He was mocking me, presenting me with a caricature of my beloved parent.

When the impostor saw the deviant couple, the satyr and the gangster… it went into a rage. It shouted in an unknown language… so eldritch that the gangster and the assassin fainted after hearing some words. His words were like a tornado going through my ears, but other than that, I couldn't feel anything else. It seemed to be talking to the other creatures… but no one listened.

Even thought I hated him, he didn’t deserve that… I know what it feels like. Everyone you know, suddenly acting against you…

The End of the Son

For some reason, I decided to take my child to a park. I knew it seemed a bad idea… that this fall was very chilly, but something kept telling me to do it…

We sat on a bench. We were under the shadow of an immense tree… and my child’s eyes glowed with relief. A faint smile appeared on that worn out face and I think that I heard a soft whisper.

I felt the tension on my chest slowly disappearing, even more than when the kid first appeared. And a soft smell, like incense, drifted in the air…

After coughing a little… My child hummed my silly song… I hummed with him, I think he smiled when I did... but a sharp pain silenced him. He clutched his chest, his face wincing with agony... He stopped singing and returned to his usual, distant self, shuddering after the episode.

After some awkward moments, my little child broke our silence... "Why?" He said, his voice hoarse from so much coughing. "Because I... don't want it to happen again." I replied, trying my hardest to not cry. The little one started distancing from me when I said that... tears bubbling in his little gray eyes... "Me too" He said as he tried to gather strength... but the pain was too much for him.

I didn't feel the chains on my chest anymore... but I still felt hurt... For a minute, I was tempted to leave the kid there and actually, I nearly did. The kid was expecting it... he wiped his tears and a particularly powerful coughing fit overtook him. I felt ice crawling inside my veins as I went farther from the bench... as I walked away, I started to forget... and for a minute... I dismissed my own flesh and blood as just another hobo kid.

But there was this pain, this grief, as if I failed at something... I saw my child, he was crying... I realized that I failed... After some minutes, the cold faded away... and I remembered my little soldier... There was a soft weep in the cold air, as well as a smell of tobacco, neither disgusting but not too pleasant... and I rushed to my child, like any concerned father would do.

My little one was getting tired... I sat on the bench and he leaned closer to me, eventually falling asleep on my arm. I could hear a faint "thank you" coming from somewhere... and I noted that the incense, the tobacco... even the cold... were gone. There was sadness in the air, not grief... only sadness. I didn't know from where it came... but I felt pathetic... impotent... and the chains returned.

“His name was Tim” A voice told me…

Tim was fast asleep… he was so tired… the little tree branch scratching his face didn’t trigger any reaction. It was getting cold, so I took my jacket and gave it to him… little kids shouldn’t be cold…

“I know you were hurt… by someone else… I see it by the way you carried yourself… if you had let me… here’s what I’d do… I’d take care of you… I also have lost…”

I know he listened… even when it has been one hour since he fell asleep.