Getting Home

Part 56

I watched him go, out of my life just as easily as he had come in—

And now look at where I was.

"Henry? Can you hear me?" I said outloud.

Nothing but that low, pulsating hum.

I turned back around, facing the stage. The giant sacs had begun to lower again, still buzzing and vibrating, their long tendrils wavering. Hatching.

There wasn't much time.

So...

I guess I was just supposed to start...

Singing?

It seemed so weird and unnatural to do at a time like this... how could I sing at a time like this?

But then I realized it was perfect.

Being able to go out on your own terms, while doing what you loved? Singing was the only thing that ever truly had brought me peace, and made me the happiest in life—

So it seemed fitting that's how I'd go out.

Could be worse, I thought. Then I thought how weird it was to not hear him anymore— and a wave of sadness came over me, a tear breaking free to silently roll down to my chin.

I miss you so much already, Henry.

The entire building suddenly jolted, almost knocking me off my feet. More cracks appeared in the walls and supports, pieces of wall and debris clattering to the tiled floor. There was a colossal crash somewhere down one of the corridors, a bone-thudding sounded more like an entire floor collapsing than a crash.

Hurry up! You're running out of time!

I swallowed. I guess this was it. It was such a weird, scary disconcerting feeling... like nothing I had ever felt or experienced before—

Accepting that I really was going to die.

Here we go.

I opening my mouth wide, taking a deep breath—

A person began dripping down out of the skylight.

At least, I think it was a person. The bulbous shape slowly emerged the broken skylight, and it took me a moment to realize it wasn't being dropped out from of the dark entity—

It was being lowered.

Two more tendrils reached down gently from the dark entity above, supporting and holding the shape which was pulling more clear of the black ooze, becoming more defined and clear—

It was a woman.

She had red hair; it looked like she had once worn black, round glasses—now they were fused into her face, melted into her skin. What looked like white, dirty cloth poked out from the places the dark entity didn't completely covered.

Her head was lolled limply to the side, her eyes closed.

Oh my god.

She hovered up above in front of me, held up by three, thick strands of the dark entity. Her mouth opened, and a voice floated out—a voice that was creepily feminine and garbled.

"We have found... an equal. Where are... my sisters..." the woman said.

I was terrified—I didn't know the dark entity could do this. What if I lost myself to it? I couldn't imagine the horror of becoming like this person, being controlled and manipulated like a meat puppet—