7/28/10

The Instance Is Relevant (The Transmogrification Continuous) Part II


Two four legged beasts, the color of coal and the size of lions, flash up from a large hole and fix their piercing hot white eyes upon Lendal. Earth is flowing, funnel like, up from the pit into the sky above them. He backs slowly toward the door, shotgun aimed at the creatures. They snort in unison, begin a low growl, and lean back on their haunches as if to spring.

Lendal turns on a dime and sprints through the door.

“Shut the fucking door!”

“What!?! What’s out there?”

“Just shut it! Shut it now!” He could not disguise the urgent terror in his voice, and Tanner is quickly affected by his fear. The door slams shut.

“Back away,” Lendal orders, pointing the shotgun at the door as he slowly backs up. Tanner obeys, moving quickly to stand a few feet behind his resolute roommate.

BA-BOOM!!

Something massive slams into the mahogany front door, knocking pictures off the walls and sending violent vibrations throughout the house.

“Shit, Lendal. What was that?”

“Some kind of creature. I don’t know. They look like really big fucking dogs, except they aren’t. If they want to get in here, they will. Go call the police!”

“Call the police?! What am I going to tell them? There are some really big dogs trying to break into our house?”

“No, no. Just tell them someone’s trying to break in. We think more then one person. Come on, hurry up!”

Tanner places the 911 call on his cell. While he talks to the operator, Lendal cautiously approaches the front window with the shotgun at the ready. It had become eerily quiet out front, the sounds of earth being moved had ceased. With the barrel of his gun, he moves the curtain to the side and peeks out slightly. What he sees freezes him. It is so unusual, so terrifyingly strange, that he drops his shotgun in horror.

A face molded and crafted by eons of time and the depths of space and mass. Fronting a head somewhat bigger then a lions, black fur lines its edges, with leathery pointed ears arching outwards, rotating and straining for sound. A deeper, polished, hue of black is the complexion of the skin, with large rolling wrinkles like a Shar-Pei, a nose like a gorillas and a gaping fanged mouth that is almost human like, except for its humongous size and hard leathery lips. And its eyes, golf ball sized orbs of light, as white and as deep as stars, piercing his soul and paralyzing him in their gaze.

He is at the behest of this creature; it can burst through the window and tear him apart if it chooses. Lendal simply can not move and can not break the hypnotic gaze that the creature has him locked into. A deeply agonizing feeling overtakes his mind; the gravity of the creature’s presence is forcing its way inside his inner consciousness. Lendal shuts his eyes and furrows his brow, concentrating in a vain attempt to keep the creature from consuming him, but it is inside him on some strong telepathic wave, collecting information. It has now fully seized control of Lendal and begins to take him upon a journey of epiphany and vision. His mind hurls through the blackness of space as distant white lights flash by him at incredible speeds. Then, through what must be clouds of cosmic dust and rainbow nebulae, until he arrives upon a planet of black terrain and volcanic mountains. Now pulled beneath its seemingly inhabitable surface, through lava encrusted rock and down through cavernous layers teeming with alien life forms.

Glistening four legged greenish creatures with lustrous skin, about the size of rhinos, with translucent dome like bumps rising in rows about what could only be their heads. Bipedal humanoids about two or three feet high with thick jagged bodies that look hard and rigid, working in rows of twisted, bright forms of vegetation three times their height. Whispering, incorporeal entities twisting and turning in the zephyr. Twirling tentacled things with spiked orifices dancing along the ground. Lendal is amazed as the life forms pass by him on his way to what has to be the white hot center of the planet. It is here that his journey pauses. A churning orb, pulsating with an amalgamation of energy forms, is sizzling and convulsing. Parts of which routinely lash out violently at the surrounding core of the planet, cracking fissures as shock waves roll and then explode throughout the mantle and crust on the way to the surface. The planet is dying.

As suddenly, Lendal is again looking out the window into the terrifying creature’s eyes, frozen in fear.

“They’re on their way,” Tanner’s voice is echoing in the distance, getting louder and then steady as it returns to normal. "What’s out there? What do you see?”

He stays frozen, blocking the creature from seeing his roommate, and from Tanner seeing it. “Not right now! Upstairs, in my room, in my closet, on the top shelf is a box with the word ‘heavy’ written on it in black magic marker. In that box is a Daewoo Maxi 223 SBR and a couple clips. Bring it down here.”

“What!?! You have a semiautomatic assault rifle in your closet? Aren’t they illegal?”

“The hell with that right now.” Lendal is trying to speak calmly so as not to startle the creature. “Go and get it, and if you think you can lock and load it safely, do so.”

“The police are comin’!”

“I don’t care about them right now. Just do it.”

The creature’s brow furrows, but it does not relinquish the hypnotic gaze that has Lendal transfixed, even as its partner approaches from the yard. It stalks from the darkness of the night into the bright light of the porch. He can now see what the rest of these creatures look like. The head fronts a long, stout torso of coarse black fur covered muscle, with a leathery skinned underbelly and chest. It moves upon four long and brawny bare skinned appendages that end in large metacarpi with six elongated digits each. Once it reaches the side of its companion, and gets a good look at the frightened human peering at it from the window, it opens its mouth and rolls its lips back over its fangs, releasing a short high shriek that causes Lendal to shake.

“I have it!” says Tanner suddenly behind him.

He does not turn around, “Were you able to put it together, buddy?”

“Locked and loaded.”

“Good, good. I’m going to slowly back away from the window and let the curtain drop. Keep that pointed at the window, if anything comes through, start firing and back away.”

“What exactly is going on out there?”

“That will have to wait, just trust me. Really Tanner, I just don’t know.”


...TO BE CONTINUED.

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