The rain fell heavily on the forest on an autumn night. The nothingness for miles clearly described everything around it. Alone? No.
Standing in the rain, he tried to focus on his senses, trying to see the forest through the rain using only his hearing, but everything became more difficult with so much fear running through his small fragile body.
This was not their first encounter, and he wanted it again. He wanted something more. He wished to know more, for this time to be more intense. He wanted to experience that "illusory" something again. He wanted more.
The yellow raincoat protected his small body from getting soaked by the droplets of water falling from the infinite sky. The trees highlighted his disadvantage in stature, his skin contrasting with the light yellow of the plastic garment, but not as dark as to resemble the navy blue of his sweatpants. He didn't move, didn't make any motion except trembling all over. Fear and anxiety exuded from his pores in such a way that it could be said of the old coat that could no longer withstand the rain. He didn't move.
Around him, indistinct and distant noises, resembling footsteps on the soaked leaves of the muddy ground. "Was the creature approaching again?" he thought.
"A step forward, and I draw closer to you," the boy said audibly.
The creature continued to walk around him cautiously, not too close, not too far. The creature kept walking around, as if it didn't want to go too fast but also didn't want to leave him.
"I can feel you close," the boy spoke. The creature? It kept moving.
"What are you doing here?" the boy asked. "What are you doing in this world?"
Fear gradually gave way to curiosity.
"Two steps forward, and I resemble you," the boy continued without any response.
The steps around him had become more intense. The trail in the air left by the creature revealed its closer proximity to him. Although he desired to reach out and try to touch it, he simply closed his eyes in an attempt to "see" it.
"The weird one," as he was often labeled by his schoolmates. But the reason didn't matter. He was there, and that was indispensable.
"Show me again, please!" he pleaded. "Three steps forward, and I seek myself in you," he insisted.
By this point, the creature was taking shorter, heavier and more precise steps. The rain, although increasingly heavy, seemed to bother no one anymore. Neither the boy, nor the creature.
A sneeze escaped the boy, undeniable evidence that his flesh was already freezing in the low temperature of the forest, mixed with the dampness of the rain. But he remained upright, convinced that he would still meet the creature, convinced that it was the answer to all his profound questions. Convinced.
"Four steps forward, and I enclose myself in you."
There was no intention in the boy to retreat. Although his hands were soaked with tension, nothing would make him give up his purpose. The lightning descended to the ground in the form of rays and thunder, and with each one, the boy shivered all over as if he felt the electric shock coming from them. But no, he didn't feel them. It was only the agonizing tension of reuniting with that dark being.
"This world... is weak," the creature whispered very close to him.
The deep sound of its voice was undeniable; it didn't belong to this world. Neither did its appearance, nor its walk, nor its breathing resemble anything seen in this world before.
"Please! Take me! Make me strong!" the boy begged aloud, exposing his extreme anxiety and fear of the unknown.
"Five steps forward, and I make a pact with you."
The creature not only understood what the boy felt or what he needed. The creature experienced the same sensation. The creature shared the same feeling.
"What is your purpose here?" the boy asked the creature.
This time, the creature walked in a straight line, each slow and precise step sounding like trees falling in front of it. The sound inside the boy's mind was thunderous, but only in the boy's mind. The creature reached out and briefly touched his cape, feeling him for a moment.
"A touch, and I draw closer to you," the creature said as it walked around him.
With a simple touch, the boy felt the most infinite range of sensations a human being could experience: pleasure, agony, joy, pain, excitement, anger, hatred, fear, peace, tranquility, and so on. Everything, and everything all at once. His wide eyes looked frantically in multiple directions, showing possible hallucinations or perhaps true visions.
"Two touches, and I resemble myself to you," the creature continued walking around the boy.
With the second touch, he felt things that the human species wouldn't conceive, wouldn't even imagine in a thousand years. This caused the temperature of his body to rise, even though he remained motionless. His pupils dilated to the maximum, and vapor rose from his body through the thick raindrops, announcing his fervent heat. The boy could now hear everything around him: the drops, the leaves, the earth beneath his feet, the trees, the insects fleeing from the cold water, the insects dying. Everything that lived and everything that had already passed to the other side, to the "dark side," as he liked to call it.
"Three touches, and I find you within me," the creature said swiftly, starting abrupt movements around the boy, creating a static energy field that repelled all the water around him. Bolts from the field struck him, causing involuntary movements in his nerves, but his eyes didn't move.
"I have no purpose or meaning in this world," replied the creature from outside the energy sphere, slowing down an extremely fast run until it stopped in front of the boy again.
"Six steps, and I enter your world," the boy, out of himself, said as he took another step forward.
The creature realized that the field had fulfilled its purpose, and with the tip of its finger, it began to absorb the energy contained around the boy.
Now the creature was energized and faintly shimmering. It stared at the boy, and at that moment, he could see it completely, confronting it.
The creature walked up to him and lightly touched his shoulder, saying:
"Four touches, and I free you within me."
The boy felt the third wave of fantastic emotions, which this time made him rise from the ground, levitating slowly. The rain touched his body again. The night had never seemed so dark, and the darkness so dense. But sometimes darkness embraces you, so you choose between it and the light. The difference is that the light invites you, gives you glimpses, while darkness does everything to possess you. The shadows chase you and hold you. And when the boy found himself in it, he surrendered.
Gradually, a cold and slimy liquid emerged from the ground, seeking the feet of the boy who was ascending slowly.
Approaching the boy, the creature said:
"Five touches, and I make a pact with you."
The viscous liquid began to pull him carefully downward, serving the purpose of gravity, returning him to the ground and unexpectedly making him take a step. The last one.
"Seven steps, and I merge with you. T-take me... Q-quickly!" the boy demanded, his voice faltering, as he fell to his knees on the dark cold liquid that was rising slightly up his body.
At this moment, while the boy spoke, the creature's jaw also moved.
"Six touches, and I receive you in my realm," the creature said as the boy's lips moved too. It was as if they were in perfect synchronization, in perfect connection, or as if they were becoming one.
Now it was clear that the dark viscosity on the ground was indeed the creature completing its ritual. Before completing its transfiguration, it touched the boy one last time and said:
"Seven touches, and I merge with you."
The young boy agonized in pain. His body screamed. But now it was no longer clear where the sound was coming from.
The rain fell heavily over the forest on an autumn night. The nothingness for kilometers vividly described everything around it.
Alone? No. Never again.
