The Melted World - Worlds of Creators: Book One

3 - OOOO

At first, Colin closed his eyes. His world had vanished, leaving him alone to watch his beloved place suffer until complete disappearance. He would miss it, his beloved place, not having the guts to stay for the rest of the show. The Earth of so many dreams and conquests said goodbye, finding him and nobody else to give farewell to. The existence he loved so much ended with Angeline's departure from the office, with Mr. Alden's melting, with his parents vanishing. He was now just flesh waiting for its decomposition. To jump, he stepped on the window's pane. The Voice never stopped speaking.

"I hate it all... And I have nobody to hate with me..."

He opened his eyes to make sure he had a good basis for a free jump. He caught something moving below, something fast, hopping on the asphalt, a black shape. It jumped high to reach the building in front of his. Skinny legs, many of them, a big head, dark and fast. It lowered itself and threw its body towards Colin, aimed at the hole in the office's window.

Colin tumbled backwards by the reflex of his fear, falling on the chair behind him, in front of the computer, smashing aluminum and plastic. Half melted solids, they bent softly at his grip. The creature, whatever it was, big as a man, lighter than a dog, passed over him. Its feet hurtled over Colin, a feather duster walking by itself, probing every particle of his body while it spilled floor chunks when hitting the tiles. Colin protected his head with both arms, his eyes shut, unable to look at what assaulted him, at what swept his skin with the energy of frenetic feathers.

When the invader left his body in peace, hopping to the room's corner behind the computers, Colin glanced around in fright, expecting a big bird or a monstrous bat. Laying still on the ground, he turned his head at the creature's destination. His heart pounded with thunderous beats, drunk with adrenaline. At that moment, death seemed certain, varying only in the nature of its coming. He would hate if it came in alien ways.

Between the tables' gap, on the floor, he peered at the wall, holding his breath. A row of black rods leaned against the corner. Long, black cylinders, dark broomsticks, moving one over the other, sliding on the floor and doing their best to keep the body they held above them in close contact with the wall. They made liquid noises, struggling with the melting tiles, and where Colin couldn't yet see, over the computer tables, he heard acute sounds of teeth banging on metal.

Taking courage to face the newcomer, fearing the outcome of his confrontation, he took hold of the chair's seat next to him and stood up in a quick impulse, using it as his shield. A deformed head stared at him, terrified and scared, its bloody eyes colored by the terror of an incoming slaughtering. It had two big round eyes with tiny pupils, a mouth stretching all over its cheeks, reaching nearly what would be the creature's eyebrows, if it had them. Pointy teeth came out of its lips, each far from the other, fragile, useless. It had no nose, and no members besides the dark rods that grew from its torso. Layers of soft fabric covered the equivalent of its chest, decorated with the colors that burned the sky, red, purple, yellow, orange. It had hair, moon-dust gray, clamped in curly meshes sculpted in the shape of spheres and horns.

"It's horror, pure horror! Much worse than anticipated, much, much worse!" it said.

"What... What are you? Who are you?" Colin asked, holding the chair high, covering half of his face.

"It's so bad I can't believe it! Really, I can't! It is raw power, isn't it?" it said, looking straight into Colin's eyes.

"Are you running away too?"

"It's hard to resist it! I didn't think it would be this difficult!"

Through the window's crack, the horizon glowed, violet streaks taking over the red of explosions, its vastness free from the colossal blue pillar. Colin lowered his chair on the floor. The Voice still resonated in his head, it still reminded him of misery and uselessness, human, voice, animal, creature, all worthless pieces of matter, Colin being a terrible person, the worst of all, isolated from everybody, friendless, despicable by nature, not one dear individual left to his care. The cornered beast, however, occupied the office with him, alive.