Straid Questenbaum: The 34 sons

Chapter 7: Ripple

A slit, opening, a doorway to this dark eggs embrace, then, darkness, signaling the doorway to be no more, this dark space, it has a purpose, a purpose of preparation for my role in all of this, what can it be? And what will I find within the confinement of this structure riddled with questions, the exercise included relaxing and focusing, seems simple enough, is this some sort of sensory deprivation chamber meant to stimulate meditation or something? Could be something else or something more, the world has proven it hosts stranger realms and concepts then what I've ever anticipated. My eyelids scraping towards my wet windows as they close, and my breath pulled down into my lungs spreading oxygen throughout my very being. Let's begin.

From the void of absolute darkness, colors? Pressing towards my closed eyelids, what am I seeing? Flashes of a city drowned in a ghastly Fogg and an everflowing shadow stretching across the horizon with its numerous nameless maws and tendrils? A dark space with an almost glowing red ground? A flowing flower field plunged in the color of a deep blue infection? Whatever it was it has passed before me replaced by this realm, a wast still ocean stretching to the tuches of its bright blue horizons, a blank and reflective space.

Has the exercise succeded? Is this what is supposed to happen? Is it something important that I can see within this realm and that's why they call the conduit to it the observatory? Wherever this is. What's this? A sound? A tingling sensation spreading upwards from the bottom of my spine, from the core of my very being, ripples, spreading trough the water beneath my feet, where are they coming from? Will they lead me to a hint? Partway to the roads, I must take? Or are they gonna lead me to some vision of partial truth, encrypted by the rules of this realm? I know I will need it, whatever it may be, the determination for truth itself might be as bottomless for me as this realm is.

Ten, eleven, twelve, several other flowing waves cross paths, completely incomparable to the minuscule ripples left behind by my own steps, this whole experience is strange, to say the least, but if I keep my focus I will undoubtedly be rewarded in the future, to observe and to reflect has always been a pivotal act when it comes to deconstruct and control situations, leaving you with a grasp around the strands linked to the potential outcomes and as a result, the immediate future. There in front of me, shadows, standing still six, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, thirty, thirty-two, like faithful followers in a congregation, and beneath their so still feet the ripples erupt, shaking the very core of the ground. Something floating into my mind, like it rode the vibrations themselves, an image of a fleshy vase, a vessel throbbing and bulging from whatever was kept inside its being. The flesh and veins of this vessel, it's decorated with shards of golden shells broken apart from something that once used to be complete, like some sort of e... 
"!!!" What the hell was that hellish noise? Like thousand fingernails slashing and breaking on a chalkboard, tormented screams of the fallen, "!!!!!" please make it stop. 

Silence, an absolutely assaulting quiet, the previous shapes in front of me are now gone, replaced with a scorched horizon, and from the reflective yet bottomless pit beneath I can see a reflection, a red-winged shadow, like a burning angel above, and at the end of my vision where the ocean meets the sky stands a person? Who is it? I must find out... What? Flowers? Red as this bleeding sky flowing trough this ocean, like paint clouding a mirror, sweeping from that person's reflection, ravaging what was once clear with its obstructive change. From deep beneath a disturbance shifting countless flowers, sending countless waves to the surface, accompanied by a chill shifting from my face then slumping down trough the rest of my body, I can't move, No No No No something is wrong, fuck no no, no no, fucking hell what do I do? 
"Who are you?! What do you want?!" Did I fuck myself even more? That person, no, whatever he was, he twitched slightly.
"Another one, I was just getting hungry".

A splash, a massive shadow, bursting from the unknown depths slashing its countless tendrils around my neck arms feet and stomach, truly strung up like a lamb to the slaughter. God save me, burns pain, pain squeezing my life out, as the tendrils and its massive host bears its numberless maws previously hidden by its own thick and unnamable mass, slowly gnawing into me. The burning of my flesh-tearing, a burning, followed by an incomparable cold assaulting the core of one's senses. What is that? Churning around in my insides, is it searching? Some sort of diabolical tongue, these vibrations through the air, I know them don't I? "!!!!!" No, No, Please... That tongue, I guess it found what it was looking for, that pierce shaping a murderous suffering within my insides as it thore something out. Is this how I die? Strapped up in an unknown realm, slowly devoured by some hideous entity. When was darkness ever this cold? 

A frozen wasteland, stretching as far as one can see, filled with the cadavers of arctic wolves, arranged in a strangely familiar symbol, it is, yes, a sun cross. A sky, wind against my flesh is this frozen wasteland the afterlife? No, the wounds are still here, a hole in my side, and empty space where something once was and circles of flayed flesh on my neck arms and feet. Something must have happened, as for now, no blood flows from this hole, I don't know what to think, is there any truth or certainty to this at all? Does this mean I failed them all? No, the only sound logic in an erratic nonsensical world is that there are nonsensical rules and loopholes hidden within its secrets. I need to just figure them out, I must find my way back, and to regain reason, and gaining safety for those around, all I can do is to hope, and to try.
"June, Theresa, I will find my way back, even if I'm buried deep within this realm.".