Bugs Bite

CHAPTER FIVE: A Void To Rule

What is fear? ______________________________________

The man calmly whipped his cane in the air, and Avish thought he could see a faint black smoke curling by its blunt edges. Like a dark little cloud.

'Bhoo -'

The man in black placed a willowy finger on his lifeless, demented lips. He took a step ahead, nearing Avish with chilling intent in his one good eye, the seaweed shine overwhelmingly overtaking. Becoming a chamber which coaxed you in but didn't let you out. But even as he groped for a rein to his brain, Avish could not help but think that no, the resemblance was not with a chamber at all, no; chambers could be unlocked.

Could pits . . . be unlocked?

'Shhh,' the man crooned. 'Close your eyes.'

Avish did not dare protest.

The month was May, summer at its peak - yet suddenly each breath he drew in was cold. Entered his throat, went down into his stomach, filled his groins. Like gaseous frost. He shivered in spite of himself.

Contrary to this was the man in black, whose presence commanded to be felt, eyes shut or not. And that presence, that presence radiated such terrible heat, such tantalizingly crafted heat - like to a fire which is neither dead nor dying, but not kindling all the same - that Avish was sure this heat had been manufactured by the man in black. Because this was no natural heat, no. This was witchcraft.

Between this and the chill, he'd chose the latter any day.

'Focus on my voice, boy,' the source of the unnatural heat whispered, reminding Avish his eyes were still shut. 'Only my voice. Let all other noises fade away. Let them leave. Let them go.'

Avish felt a strange silence caress his ears. As if the man had hexed sounds to be muffled. The void he saw intensified.

Boy. He called me boy.

(he hates you he does)

'Concentrate on my voice, and my voice alone.'

Darkness. Quiet.

'Now. Inhale.'

Avish gulped as he did. The void was now the purest shade of black he'd ever seen.

'Imagine a curly white smoke-'

He could see it, heaven's, he could see it!

(a wisp in the void . . .)

'-rising up, up to your chest as you inhale-'

(oh my god it's real REAL REAL the smoke is real)

'-turning into pure stark energy as you exhale-'

(I am trapped trapped in the void trapped in the void trapped trapped trapped)

'-and now rule the void. Mold it.'

(mold it yes make it better)

'The void is yours.'

It's mine.

'It is yours,' serenaded the voice. 'Yours to rule. Yours to destroy.'

'Mine,' Avish mumbled, realizing just how he much he was at peace with himself at the moment. How he could stay in the void forever.

Something touched his face. Could things be hot and clammy at the same time? Well, this was it. It felt so sickly, so wrong, it jerked Avish out of the void.

Now he found himself in an even deeper one. The man's good eye.

Avish could swear he saw the galaxy in that seaweed pit. He could legitimately smell the universe, a moldy old tang, like the parchments of a dust-laden book, mixed proportionally with the right amount of sweat and oil. As mythical as that was, Avish thought it smelled worse than yak's piss.