Sempiternal

Parasitic Man and Mazes

In my mind’s eye, I knew exactly what was happening to me- scrambling to form one complex cipher which would trace the medium connecting my mind to the mindscape before honing in on my target- Cosmos, but what I witnessed was another thing altogether. I perceived myself as having retained my human form whilst getting sucked through a dark abyss into who knew where.

Oh wait, I knew- Cosmos’ mind. If I were to base what I would expect next on conjecture, then I’d probably get a panic attack and flop to the ground unconscious because… guess what was inside one’s head? Well, their brain, obviously and I did not want to get up close and personal to that repulsive, throbbing mass of a muscle. In reality though, I’d merely entered his mind; something which not only reflected his reality but helped project is as well.

An amalgam of emotions flooded me when my feet found solid purchase; I’d seemed to be floating around in obsidian darkness for eons and this shift in surroundings caused me to be instantly overcome with vertigo. The conduit, my sole passage of travel,  had all but dissipated and I found myself standing alone in front of a copse of trees.

 

I was all geared up in military get- up; I had the whole enchilada- the outfit, the bullet- proof vest, the combat boots, even a helmet which threatened to fall off my head at any given moment. The only thing I seemed to be lacking at the moment was some firepower. I had absolutely nothing, nada, bupkis. Flexing my fingers and staring at the worn leather gloves now encapsulating my sweaty palms, I took a deep breath and stepped forward; I was ready to catalogue the sights and sounds of this… mission.

 

It was only after I’d taken the leap of faith and stepped forward cautiously that I noticed what I’d initially thought were trees were in fact empty metal husks, all extending high into the firmament, if you could consider it that. They formed their own canopy of interlacing wires, interpolated here and there with a digital thingamajig. Yes, electronic knick- knacks were strung through the canopy of wires, taking precedence in the emergent layer of this warped (digital) forest. But no, it wasn’t a forest because there was only one path to follow- the incandescent platform that seemed to be resting just slightly over the ‘underbrush’. This was starting to seem like a maze of sorts.

 

There was a junction up ahead and I couldn’t help but quicken my pace; perhaps… this would lead me to the core of his mind, where I could communicate with him at will and without… interference. As I neared, the hairs started to stand on end and it didn’t exactly help tamp down the unhealthy levels of apprehension I was feeling at the moment. It came as an epiphany when I realised that the junction led to three different hovering disks, all of which were pulsing with a mottled- green glow. The disks were tiny but apart from that, there was no more ground to cover; the path just fell into… oblivion.

 

And that was when the silent ‘forest’ started to come to life. It began as an incessant and irritating moan but progressed into something more… primal and bestial- oh the demons that lurked within this kid… I spun and true enough, moving ever closer were two faceless people who seemed to meld right into the background and then it hit me, they didn’t have the features of a human but the ridges of their plain, flat bodies and the undulating curves that resembled their perfect hourglass shapes seemed to encompass a distorted view of the ‘forest’ I was seeing.

The view changed as the creatures charged, almost as if they were fun- house mirrors, mirroring the view of the forest. I couldn’t help but shuffle backwards. Cosmos was doing to me what he had done back in the Gym itself; or… was this merely his subconscious mind defending itself from outsiders, just like how white blood cells would respond should there be an insurgence of foreign matter in the person’s body. These, I presumed, were ‘Mindkeepers’, trying to keep ‘thieving’ people like myself out of their territory.