Subjective Awareness

Prologue

Prologue

A haggard suction of air dominated the silence as it had so often before. The dank and dreary earth surrounding the sound was almost animated in its plight to crush all undefiled substances with its viscous breath. Not that it needed any help in saturating the atmosphere with putrid matter something else was exuding a rank odor from every inch of its being. The thing was tremendous in size to the point that it was quite hard to believe that such a being could be contained in solid ground. You would not think to label this something viable were it not for its fortuitous spurts of acidic gas.

Its appearance was more likened to that of a murky abyss; every structure of its anatomy blending in with the rest. It had two eyes on the farthest reaches of its head, which was more than fifteen feet in diameter. Both were black with inky goo glossing over the lens and collecting in the divot where the eye and the eyelid meet. Its neck, if you could even call it that, was merely a wide section of fat and skin introducing the rest of the horrible body.

Running along its back laid a pair of wings, not in the sense of an insect or bird, but rather that of a bat but a thousand times stronger. The creature's legs and arms displayed the manner of muscle that had once been able to flatten building, having lain idle and deteriorated into a blob of tissue. The key component at the end of the object was a thick tail that vacillated ever so slowly back and forth, subtly exhibiting that though its body appeared idle, its thoughts were anything but.

The dark eyes which shifted right and left in unison with its tail snapped up to a pea-sized hole in the upper right corner of the cave. Upon not seeing what had been expected, he narrowed his eyes skeptically and went back to its thoughts.

The opening, however, was not small to the being with its backside pressed against the damp wall. He hated when that thing stared at him. It seemed as though it was trying to burrow a home in his mind that would never leave. It wasn't that he was the least bit fearing; he only wanted to not give it what he wanted.

When the person was sure it had finished its speculation, he diverted back to his original position to look out over the creature. Sometimes he wished he had not been placed here as he took in the mangy beast below, but he knew it was an important job and had been trusted to complete it. He relaxed a bit, his resolve having been solidified, and carried on as he always had.

The thing, though, was not content with the way things played out. Its brain was a stomping ground for violent feelings and curses, revenge plans and careful deliberation.

"How did this happen?!" he thought once more, though he knew the answer. He had replayed it again and again, inspecting every possible eventuality that led to this disgrace. "That vagabond doesn't know who he messed with. He may think it's over, oho there's no way he knows how wrong he is." His thick and cutting words resonated within his mind endlessly, interrupted only by a strange sort of cackle that he longed to make known to the outside. "Now's the point to regain my supremacy, to show the accuracy of my power, and to make that scoundrel regret the instant he shut me in this pen. ME, in a cage!" He scoffed at the preposterous notion that he would ever remain behind such barriers like he was some spineless rodent. "I am not beneath him or anyone! I am the master of this realm and I will demonstrate the reality of that statement irretrievably!" He felt the inferno in the well of his person mounting and he knew he was ready. He spread his ashy lips obliquely, shoving back tufts of the grubby pelt and split his jaws to divulge the ghastly orifice with sinisterly serrated teeth and a thick covering of inky slime. Now would he finally be content.

Gripping the bars of his confines with solid determination, he painstakingly eased his lower body off of the wet ground. With the launch of this hard ascent, his plan was set into motion.