Corporeal Nightmares

53

A little girl in pigtails sits humming to herself, bony wrists twisting as she plays with a collection of wooden pegs. Some are round. Some are square. Some are more erratic shapes: a lightning bolt or a heptagon. Alone in a sterile white room without furniture, just shag carpet and an assortment of toys, she looks up through tired eyes and smiles at the black, reflective window every few minutes.

The door to the right of it opens.

A stout man in his early thirties wearing a lab coat enters from the darkened room behind. His eyes are ringed with fatigue, but face otherwise expressionless. As the door clicks shut, he crosses his legs and sits next to her.

"Hi Abby. You're very good with those."

Abby shyly shrugs, half-smiling. She keeps humming as she surrenders the blocks to him.

"I'm Eric."

She shakes his extended hand in an exaggerated motion, smiling a little closer to a full grin but remaining focused on the other toys. Her corduroy overalls seem too big for her, one strap falling off and being constantly replaced by small, nervous hands. Her eyes dart as she clings to a cartoonish rabbit.

Eric pats the rabbit's head. "And who's this?"

"Mr. Buggles. He keeps me safe."

"Who does he keep you safe from?" The bespectacled man scribbles some notes onto the alabaster clipboard as Abby squirms and looks down. He's taken an inquisitive tone she knows well; wanting to know about the man.

"You're a brave little girl, you know that?"

Her humming stops as she begins to breathe heavy.

"I'd like to ask you some questions about Reegar, is that ok?"

After an extended pause, Abby nods, hard and fast.

"I'm sure you don't like talking about him, so I'll make it quick. Reegar is a he right?"

She nods again.

"What does Reegar look like?"

"Like an angry squid!" Frowning, she crosses her arms.

"Abby." Eric's voice urges her on. Abby's arms drop loosely to her sides.

"Do I have to?"

"Please, just this last time."

Huffing, the little girl clenches her eye lids tight, like they're trying to keep something inside.

"Tell me what you see."

She's in the dark place. He only comes when it's dark. She hums. A few lights appear in the distance but they are dim. Like stars in the city. She walks a few steps before she is defeated by her fear. She sees him.

In the closest of the lights stands a figure. It looks like a man but then it begins to fall, caught by three claws that have extended from the center of its torso, still a dense black mass. Propped up by the claws, the figure's head twists at an impossible angle, blossoming out into a dozen foot long tendrils. They writhe erratically. Then they stop and slowly point in Abby's direction.

Dropping flat to the ground, the razor-limbs retract leaving only the outline of a black sphere in the pale light. A black sphere rushing at Abby.

A few meters from the petrified little girl, the sphere unfurls into a hundred, thin appendages ending in snapping mouths, like lobster claws. Reegar looms over her as she lays down. Shadow limbs wrap around her body, some of them hurt without cutting. Some cut. After twenty arms snare her, as high as Reegar has shown her to count, his head snaps open. The tendrils snake towards her face. Too afraid to move she huddles shivering as the creature leans in and whispers.