Manifold

What is this? What’s happening? The old man thought in his cell, his thoughts wandering. He couldn’t remember where he was exactly, or how long he was here. All he could remember was the recent memories of his family specifically his son and grandson.

         Jacob and Ronnie.. where are they now? Are they dead? Alive? Maybe it would be better off if they weren’t.. not with what has been happening here.. it has been a living nightmare.

         He could remember only bits and pieces of his recent life, a sky turning black, something rising from the earth, blood, tears and screams. What in god’s name happened? He knew he was in here, locked in here, trapped, because of a result of this situation but couldn’t just remember...

         They put you here you old fool, a voice in his head said, they put you here to die because you fucked around with their plans. They said killing you right away would be too kind; they would make you suffer for it.

         Was that was what he was doing here? Waiting for the suffering to begin? What was it he did anyway exactly...? He had a hard time thinking, his brain didn’t seem to have any hard facts or material to cling to, even his sight was altered.

         “Let them do their worse..” he said, through a voice that sounded like it was coming out of some kind of sander, dark and horse, “Let them go ahead and take me apart, kill me, whatever. What do I care, I lived a full life anyway...”

         He wondered and his thoughts went to his family again, was that what they intended to do? He didn’t think he was with them last... he remembered being alone, but maybe that was it.

         As he lay there, he felt an odd feeling, his skin was getting cool, but not unbarely, it was quite comfortable. His vision was getting darker however, and his mind wandered more and more in the blackness trying to get his bearings.

         This is it, he thought with a mild joy, I’m dying.. heh, what a hell of a way to go... I guess it’s kind of a blessing really..

         But he wasn’t dying, somewhere out beyond his body where he couldn’t see, he could feel this strange ruckus going on, something was happening. The odd alien shapeless creatures that invaded their world, their home, and caused this living nightmare upon his planet seemed to be upset. What were they upset about? He could only get bits and pieces; there was some limited feeling of telepathic thoughts but none that could really be easily described by a human. They were angry, panicking about something, something about him.

         Probably because I’m slipping away, he thought, I’m dying before they have a chance to punish me, maybe they’re trying to save me right now to make sure they get their chance to bring me to justice? Except he didn’t feel like that was right either, he didn’t think he was slipping away in the sense that he was passing on, but that he was being pulled somewhere, but where to exactly? It felt like such a disconnected feeling now, much more strange than what he experienced before, like someone was pulling him out from his body, something.

         Suddenly, he felt himself in this odd blank void expanse, darkness before him as if he was laying down with his hands pressed against his eyes, but much more clearer and focused. This strange red shape in front of him, massive in the blackness, like some sort of galaxy swirling in space, but the stars looked all bloated and grimacing. The air felt almost like it was sucking his lungs out from his body, but there was no real pain.

         What in god’s name- Suddenly he had a realization; he was somewhere else, somewhere totally different. He was no longer in his cell anymore, not really, he felt himself in two places at once. The whole fabric of space and time skewed at this point, his point of existence with this strange energy pulsing and moving forward, towards him.

         The mass of this strange growth of energy was getting even clearer now, glowing in the dark. It looked like a mould of some sort, some kind of organic bacteria only that it had this ominous feeling of dread and assimilation to it, like the words itself were engrained into the heart of this ether.

         I should get out of here, he thought, but.. where would I go?

         Was this why the aliens were upset, because he was here? It felt like it, but it felt more than just that. Not only was he here and not suppose t be here.. they had no idea what was going on either. This never happened and shouldn’t be happening, and they were afraid. Really afraid.

         I guess whatever this is, it’s coming for me.. if I’m going to die then I’m not afraid, I’m ready no-

         Just then the essence moved forward and expanded, growing like an ink stain, parts of the redness moved forward growing away from the main mass like it was bleeding through. This stark feeling was coming towards him now, transmitting to him even stronger.

         Not only did this force feel alien it was more alien than the creatures in his own head, the feeling of it, the thought of it, it wasn’t even part of his own reality. What was this massive strange creation coming from some un-named unknowable part of space and time, some other force from some other universe why here and now? Was it really a blessing? A blessing from God?

         I’m not sure, but if this thing is going to kill me, I sure as well wish it would just get it over with... He thought, I sure as hell am not getting any younger, and I sure as hell am not too eager to go on living this way...

         The old man wondered if he was giving up, if this was some kind of submission, but figured that it’s not like he was asking the aliens to kill him or submitting to their will, or giving his family to them for that matter. The energy from the force of the energy presence was now getting stronger, like heat, he could feel it all around his body, not in a sensation that would be attributed to a mental sense, but a physical tingling he could literally feel outside his body away from this dream. Although he supposed he could be being tortured, he didn’t think so. No, he knew he wasn’t, this essence was ensuring it wasn’t through his brain. This odd ribbon like cut now almost taking up all of his vision, clear little pink and white dots that looked like stars danced in front of his eyes totally being absorbed by this expanse and he could feel it wasn’t long now until whatever this was it was going to take him.

         Then almost with sudden and more tremendous force he felt something come down on him, the whole feeling of gravity and speed racking his head back and forth with something in front of him screaming at him, several things screaming. It was those wretched monsters, those aliens trying to get him to awake from his slumber. They could feel the energy too, and the old man got the sense they believed that he was behind all this in some way, that he summoned whatever it was this was and were trying hard, really hard to get him to stop.

         “Wake up!” The alien creature said in English, it’s strange tongue twisted the words in its mouth as it spoke to him, coming out more like ‘whak hup’ than anything else, “Wake up you old bastard!”

         Fright over came the old man, he was wondering why the hell they weren’t simply trying to kill him? Maybe they were, it felt they were shaking him hard enough, but the place he was in seemed to be admonished from any kind of pain for the time being. The energy coming closer and closer, he could feel the light reflecting off his wrinkled skin and suddenly started to get a clearer understanding of what this was, as if it was telling him.

         The feeling that this space, this energy was totally alien, not something meant to be was clearer now than ever before, and something else was as well, the understanding of the force behind it, driving it. It was like looking into something beyond infinity, the word infinity wasn’t enough to describe that it felt like as the wave started to pass him, it was like, trans-myriad. Beyond the boundless, beyond that which could be called vastitude, but not enough to be called all encompassing, not in his universe. Not yet.

         The energy from the myriad was suddenly coming into his body, draining into it, being forced into him. It was going directly inside himself, into what it’s hard to say, but whatever it was that was part of him tied to a physical being was now bursting and being completely altered, or even created. Something beyond that which could be explained in any physical or mathematical law, it was being saturated in this strength of this sickening space time that was bleeding into his home plane like a child being forced to eat something when he isn’t hungry.

         Suddenly his mind wandered and time slowed, he remembered back when he was in church as a child, right when he was taking communion and being somewhat afraid. He heard of other children talking about eating the host.

         “That’s the body of Christ,” his friend said, “I heard the priest makes you eat the body of Christ, then makes you drink his blood. Do you really think it’s his body? I sure hope not, if it is I might puke..”

         Much to his own relief, it wasn’t any kind of strange flesh, though the wine was red, it tasted similar to that of grape juice, but the words of the priest rang true in his head:

         Eat this bread, for it is my body.

         Drink this wine, for it is my blood.

         Another sensation started to fill him like electricity, the wonders and screams from the aliens seemed to be a thousand years away. This energy in his body growing, and growing being fed more, and something else... something far more unsettling.

         This dark presence, it was with him now, within this space but outside it, it’s filth and hatred almost poisonous to him as it filled it’s being almost all around this place close to his body.

         He could feel screams of terror and pain in his bed, in his bones, hot blood on ragged skin splashing on the floor, the cries of fury and hatred, oh the hatred, the undying unrelenting hatred. It was similar to being in a storm of teeth and claws, gnashing and tearing so quickly like helicopter blades at anything that even comes close to it, that even graces this beast with the audacity of someone else’s presence other than itself.

         It grew and grew, time bent and warped and he was trapped here, trapped in this red glowing void that was fading now to black, the redness of the energy that appeared before not disappearing but simply dying down from his sight like his eyes were adjusting to a bright tv screen. The hate of this creature, whatever it was, it was unbearable and was starting to cause him physical pain. He could feel his stomach wrenching with the anger it was feeling, it was almost unbearable to the point of suicide. He had no idea what this thing was, but any one, any human, would have probably died from such an intense emotion. Was this what the aliens were doing as his punishment? No it couldn’t be that, they were scared shitless before, he could sense it in his head, this was them. It was their screams; they were dying in fury, but from this creature, this black dark mass infused with hate.

         To simply call it hate or anger would really be to portray and trivialize the idea of the emotions that were being fused into his body but there were no other words to describe it properly. There was no sadness or feeling of sympathy or empathy, no feelings of guilt, just this endless well of cannibalized emotions with screaming gibberish and no words, no words that anything he could put out with his own tongue.

         And then, as fast as the feeling came, he was gone. Gone from the hate that he was experiencing, and the dark emotion that plagued him, gone from floating without any bodily form in this blackness of space, and gone from the feeling of the ancient wave that originally brought on this whole mess. Although, the new found energy was still there, and his eyes shot open. For a moment he thought it was a dream, that he was still dreaming even though his eyes were staring up at the ceiling of the cell.

         I’m in my bed, I’m at home in my bed. He said, but as his thoughts came back to him he realized he was still in the cell and that part wasn’t a dream. Unfortunately, surprising enough for him, that wasn’t the worse part, the rest wasn’t a dream either.

         He turned his head and seen the bodies, countless numbers of bodies. The strange disfigured bodies of the aliens, which were 8 feet tall and taunt with muscles, lay all over in a wrench in front of his cell bars, the bars themselves broken and bent caked with black purple blood from the creatures. Their faces frozen in pain and other unnatural emotions even considered for their own race laying in a charnel of mass decomposition along with their own captives that looked in equally brutal shape.

         The bodies of men, women and children, he seen one small human arm that could only belong to a child, but there was not real telling what was what when it came to the hulk of dead mass in front of him. All it was really was one big pile of rotting meat, like a giant blender came along and sliced everything up, even the walls had scars, he could see some flesh was fused inside of the concrete, cracks were all over the cells, and some bars were bent back like pipe-cleaners.

         The man leaned forward and vomited, the smell suddenly hitting his nose, the smell of rotten sweet flesh and sour shit sticking to his tongue and throat as he continued to empty his stomach of what little contents it had.

         “God, oh my god!” he said holding his mouth against a handkerchief, “Oh my god, what could have done this?”

         He was in wars in the past, and witnessed some fucked up shit, but nothing like this, everyone was torn apart and looked like they were in the most horrible pain when he died. One face was looking right at him, a girl.. she must have been pretty once, hold on was she when she died? 15? 18? Did it matter? Her face and hair looked totally dry and absent from blood, her blue eyes wide open in horror and pain along with her brow bent upward. He could see her eyebrows, neatly plucked on her head twisted skyward along with her forehead, her mouth ajar in an open scream.

         Oh my god what is that thing--? don’t hurt me god-what God no this can’t be!!! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!

         That’s what she thought before she died, and she was laying there, her body absent as whatever it was came along and swiped her head off quick and easy like a water melon, tossing it free on the side so fast no blood had a chance to even stick or sully her hair, her sweet fluffy brown hair.

         “Oh god, oh sweet jesus.. I got to get out of here..” the old man said once more and averted his eyes from the young girl as he stood up and stumbled towards the cell entrance.  It was impossible not to step on anything not dripped with blood or flesh of some kind in the hall, there were bodies all over, the bottom of the smooth tiled floor was totally covered with both human and alien remains.

         He decided to take his chances and not bother to look down as he walked across the floor, trying his best not to trip on anything. The squishing sound of flesh behind heard under his shoes along with the feeling of warm blood seeping in his shoes like lukewarm water.  Did, did this just happen? He thought as he went over the bodies, but felt this idea was moot. He wanted to get out of this place, had to.. it was too much to bear, worse than that black hate feeling he had in his dream.

         He finally got outside, and as he did so he stood froze, and began to scream. Only one would hear this scream, the rest were all dead. Killed in horrible horrible ways. The sky was an orange black fire, huge tails of black smoke flew up into the sky, and dark single huge black puffy clouds full of rain hung motionless in the sky. Bodies were all over, alien, human, animals, it didn’t matter.

         The trees were burnt black but weren’t dead, they were transformed, burnt with the same black hate that encompassed this world.          The buildings that were still standing up straight were askew and crumbling, cracked with the force of whatever tossed them aside like simple toys and decorated with colourful red as it dripped down from spots of impact. Most of these splotches were turning purple or were blackened with heat and fire, it was blood and flesh. People being thrown into them like some kind of sick game of target practice, their guts painted the walls of concrete buildings while other glass sky scrapers standing were all smashed in but had red tears dripping from the gaping holes of the broken windows like eyes weeping from a battered lover.

         All of these things were horrible, but they were not the reason the old main was screaming, the main reason.

         Above all this was something, some black shadow hovering there above what remained of the city, odd flickering like hundreds of wings around it. The air warping, bending light like haze on a hot afternoon, but upon closer inspection he could see what they were, what they really were and oh my god- Those are hands, fucking hands! Fucking goddamn hands! Not just hands but claws, the fingers mutated and bent in a sharp pointed angle, tense and twisted ready to tear anything apart that came close. Ready to consume anything, to punish anything that came close, punish it for feeling the way they did, for being the way they are, for being human and feeling such self emotions as pain, hate, angry, lust, fear. For giving it life, for bringing it into existence.

         He could see it’s body, it’s skin looked hard and strange and gleaming like crystal or metal. It’s face was something that was too blurry but he could tell at the same time full of nothing but contempt, it appeared to have eyes but no eyes, it was blind to everything but it’s own intentions, it’s own blasphemous existence, but it could see enough to know where it was. It could see more than it’s victims ever could, and it’s face twisted unnaturally at the fact that it was being observed.

         Odd massive extensions came out from what looked to be the back of this indescribable being, Were those it’s wings?  The thought whispered across his mind as the spread up into the sky, tall and dark like shadowy buildings. It’s shape was becoming less distorted,  it now looked clearly human, the shape of its creators, that in which birthed it into this brane of the universe.  It’s long legs shooting out from below the many arms and claws that enveloped it with it’s shadowy clubbed feet sticking out below, the surface clear and blurry at the same time, the details unknowable  to any one person to witness it without the mental fortitude to keep their sanity.



         The last thing the old man saw, was the odd figure jumping forward towards him, the space and air burning up and jumping away leaving this void of black air around it. The most merciful thing, some would argue, would be the fact that he died from fright before he could get a clear look at it’s face.