The Guest House

Chapter I

Xarris climbed up the mountain, knees aching and the drizzle pricking his ears cold. Yet, he acknowledged, it beat playing music in a dim room, strangers' eyes scrutinizing him and his every note. He'd always say, "People aren't my thing," when bandmates asked him to join them for a few beers after a gig. Ironically, as a lifelong musician, his success was gauged by the size of his audience, live show attendance, and how big of a room he could sell out.

He shrugged his thoughts aside, focusing on the melodic guitar solo reverberating in his headphones. Mesmerized by the vista, he stopped and perched at a rocky edge. From his vantage point, the valley sprawled into the horizon, all drunk in its alluring lush. A speck of a cloud drifted close, and Xarris exhaled in comfort as David Gilmour's guitar cried a high-pitched tone. He shifted his gaze to the sky; the falling droplets gingerly caressed his face, and the song's chorus reached its zenith. Xarris mouthed the words, I... have... become... Comfortably Numb, as the chorus faded into the next verse.

Xarris' eyes eventually turned to the summit shrouded in rain-filled clouds, and something ineffable caught his eye. A peculiar machine hovered above the peak, and as he peered, trying to comprehend what it was, it released something in a precipitous green flash.

Xarris snatched his headphones away, engulfing him in silence. He stood up and strained to see the mysterious object, now expeditiously rolling down the mountain. He glanced back at the peak but found the bizarre machine had vanished. He darted his eyes to the tumbling object, lest it disappear too, but his eyes quickly followed it as it came to a halt in a grove that became awash in the object's green luminescent glow.

He checked his watch-it read six in the evening, and he needed to reach his guest house by seven. As he contemplated whether to ascend the mountain to his guest house or... the green radiance intensified. Surrendering to his curiosity, he picked up his rucksack and began his descent. As he scuttled down the mountain, he searched for people who might've seen the green light gleaming in the valley. But it was devoid of people- one of the reasons he enjoyed coming here, he realized.

Rucksack on his back, Xarris surmised from the mountain's base that the glowing grove lay on the other side. As the downpour worsened, he perceived he'd never explored that part during his many trips over the years. After trekking and hunting for the right path, he concluded that crossing the raging river amidst heavy rain was his only option. He inspected and found a shallow area with plenty of river rocks to shield him from its frightful flow. The cold water burned his feet as he gingerly navigated the rocky riverbed, and a few dozen steps in the chilly waters numbed his feet.

Midway across, a stone gave way, causing Xarris to lose his footing and plunge helplessly into the river. The icy water pierced him like needles, threatening to carry him away in its vice grip. Xarris jumped out, gasping for air as he struggled not to flow out. Fortunately, a large rock hit his back and broke his momentum. Soggy but alive and out of breath, he continued the treacherous crossing and finally reached the other side.

Letting out a deep breath of relief, Xarris checked his watch-just past six thirty, it claimed-and was thankful that at least the rain had stopped. He knew the remainder of his trek up the mountain would bring him some much-needed warmth, but his wet clothes could get him sick. He decided to change his clothes if the rucksack was as waterproof as the advertisement proclaimed. He placed it on a tall rock in the path and found all the clothes inside were dry.

As he changed into his dry clothes and packed his bag, a roar rumbled over him, filling him with dread. A leopard stood in the path, snarling menacingly and creeping toward him. As his heart fell into his stomach, sweat poured from his palms and back. Xarris remembered that the leopards here were territorial and hyper-aggressive. He raised his arms and backed away slowly, his heart pounding rapidly. As an avid mountaineer, he knew what to do when faced with a leopard, but his research was academic. He never thought it would be put to actual use. He screamed and waved his arms, retreating slowly, but the leopard advanced, unfazed, almost as if testing its prey.

Caught in the haze of his panic, Xarris locked eyes with the leopard, an action he knew was to be avoided at all costs. The beast lunged, enraged, and aimed for his neck. Instinctively, Xarris lifted his arms to protect his face, and the leopard's sharp teeth sank deep, eliciting an agonizing cry. On sheer reflex, Xarris punched out with his uninjured arm, striking the leopard's nose. But the beast clenched his jaw hard, and its claws lacerated Xarris' back to finish its prey swiftly. The pain almost rendered him unconscious. In a last desperate attempt, befuddled, Xaaris jabbed his thumb into the eye of the animal and squeezed as hard as he could. A crude crunch echoed out, and the leopard wailed. The beast finally released him and retreated into the woods.

Xarris slumped against a nearby rock. The lacerations on his back didn't seem to bleed as much, but blood was gushing from his wounded arm. He improvised a bandage from a spare T-shirt to stem the bleeding. He rested his head on the rock, and his eyes fell on the path ahead. The grove was right before him, only a dozen paces away. The green luminescence was still breathing slowly.

Exhausted and battered from the wounds and adrenaline rush, he slowly gathered his strength and pushed himself to his feet. After all that he had gone through, returning after coming this close would render all his suffering in vain. He shouldered his bag and entered the grove, its colors enhanced by the setting sun.

As Xarris moved closer toward the glow, determination lending him strength, he saw the mysterious object. It looked like a translucent ball, with a point at the center emitting a green light. Cradling his arm close, bandage seeping, Xarris made his way toward it, seeing what looked like a tiny piece of flesh floating in the center of the translucent ball- the source of the glow.

His hasty bandage slipped as he bent down to examine it, and blood dripped onto the object. To his astonishment, the blood was immediately absorbed through the pellucid surface and pulled straight to the center. As his blood met its flesh, the translucent surface turned soft, almost like a membrane and the glowing ceased.

The tiny fleck of flesh at the center proliferated in a white flash. As it grew larger, Xarris watched in horror as it transformed from a tumorous mass into a shape he could finally understand-a tiny, underdeveloped fetus.

Terrified, Xarris stumbled backwards as the twisted, cancerous, mass-turned fetus grew into a baby almost too large to fit within the membrane.

Xarris hobbled away, eyes locked onto the baby as it broke free from the thin film and continued growing expeditiously. It looked human, the amniotic fluid glowing green, absorbed into its skin, growing, growing, growing.

Before his very eyes, the baby grew into a toddler, a child, and a teen and then breached adulthood. In utter horror, Xarris turned around to run. He was hit by a dizzy spell brought on by his blood loss. As he hobbled away from the creature, something hit his neck, and his face slammed into the ground. He slapped his hand against his neck, trying to find the source of the cold drip spreading down his chest, and his hand came away bloody. Thoroughly dazed by the world spinning around him, he tried to pull himself up but crashed back down.

With a final burst of clarity, Xarris made out a man walking up to him. As the man stopped at his feet, Xarris noticed that he was uninjured, wearing familiar, clean, dry clothes. As the light disappeared from Xarris' eyes, the last thing he saw was his face smiling back at him, and as he faded away, he heard his own voice...

"Time to get back to the guest house,".