The Fear You Know

6. The Monster Under the Bed

The wind pulsed across the open grassy plane causing visible ripples to spread out from singular points and peak the grass into rising mounds like the undulating waves of on ocean, slow rolling hills cut away in three directions, each direction looking exactly the same as the first with the same pattern of hills and the same slow movement of the wind through grass.

Beyond that a light blue horizon vanished into the distance colored that way by light refracting through a cloudy atmosphere and downward. A stream of sunlight broke through the clouds and rolled over the hills for a moment before vanishing again, repeating this periodically, almost like a searchlight.

Based on the color of the light, the sun was beginning to set. The clouds were beginning to retreat, and the air around them was beginning to cool dramatically.

Eli took his last few steps forward and slowly began to sink towards the ground, his aching legs and throbbing body desperate to give over to exhaustion.

Peter caught his arm before he could go down completely holding his body halfway off the ground.

Eli's head was throbbing, sweat dripped down his face and neck, and a dull ache had grown up in back and arms. Peter pressed a hand to his face, "You're getting worse." He glanced at the distant, surreal landscape, and dragged Eli back on his feet,

Eli looked around at the three mirrored hill patterns, and then behind them towards the uncanny. "This marks the furthest corner of the Uncanny." His voice felt faint, even to him.

The Lost had been visible for some time now, but the actual border to the edge of the uncanny had still been some miles distant, long enough for the sickness in Eli's body to take greater hold of him.

Peter adjusted his Grip on Eli, "Hey uh, eyeball guy...."

Wink poked out from inside Eli's bag and looked up at Peter with an expression of mild disdain.

"Eyeball, Guy?"

"Sorry, It's not like we've been introduced....anyway, you're slimy right?"

Eli rubbed his groggy aching head, "That is hardly a comforting way to start out a conversation, Peter."

"Not slimy, Pleasantly moist." Wink interjected

"And now it's getting worse." Eli muttered doing his best to stand straight, though the ground around him seemed to be tilting slowly to the left. Just watching was making him nauseous, and he closed his eyes. Peter ducked under his arm to support him upright as Eli wiped a drop of sweat from his chin.

"Moist or slimy, either way would you try to cool him off."

Eli cracked an eye curious about the look Wink was likely giving Peter, but had to close his eyes again almost immediately as the ground continued to spin.

There was silence for a moment, and then Eli shivered as he felt something slither onto his back and then ooze around his neck. Wink was, in fact, slimy or moist, and the dampness did help to dispel the raging heat on his face and neck. He wondered briefly what he must have looked like, supported by Peter and wearing a minor fear around his neck like some sort of gruesome scarf.

"Maybe we should find somewhere to stop." Peter began, but Eli shook his head.

"No, we have to keep going." It wasn't simply his desire to return home that was making him so eager to keep moving, but somewhere between the time they had seen the lost, and the time they had made it to the border, he had spotted a distant band of the roving Outbreak on the horizon. He couldn't have been sure that they were looking for him and Peter, but the feeling in his gut told him they didn't want to find out.