Eidolon

Chapter 7: Never the Same Again

Autumn in the Pacific Northwest tends to be cold and wet, and today was no exception. A thick fog had enshrouded Arcadia City, and by the time Alex left the school grounds, it was hard to make out anything more than thirty or so feet away. The trees of Ellison Park were visible even across the street, though, black and leafless, standing out against the haze like a series of black veins on ashen flesh.

She had taken off her wig and put it in her backpack, and was wearing a hooded jacket over her costume to help keep warm. She didn't see Lucas at the entrance to the park, nor his car, so she retrieved her cell phone from her jacket pocket and shot him a quick text.

Where are you?

When he didn't respond immediately, she decided to venture into the park itself. Probably he had parked on the other side of the block to avoid all that traffic as the buses left, and was making his way back on foot to meet up with her. She decided she would meet him halfway, and set down the paved path to the other side.

She was so lost in her own thoughts as she ventured through the mist that she completely failed to notice how empty the park was. Had she thought to look around, she might have noticed there wasn't a single other person present. Even on a foggy day like this, it was certainly out of the ordinary. But she didn't. She continued walking, gripping the straps of her backpack, nervous with anticipation.

What finally caught her attention was a peculiar shape in the haze that slowly came into view through the fog as she approached. At first, her mind could not make sense of it, a large gray lump that moved slightly, shifting as it made disturbing wet sounds. It wasn't until it shifted its weight in her direction that she realized what she was looking at, sending a shocking chill down her spine that froze her in her tracks.

The creature was vaguely humanlike, with sickly gray flesh covered in dark, varicose veins. Its torso was thick and bloated, but its limbs were long and spindly. It was crouched on the ground, but must have been very tall because even in this position it was about level with Alex's shoulders. Its head was round and bulbous, with no neck to speak of, and it was making unsettling noises: a slurping, squishy crunch, then a gulp, and a soft splat. It was like an animal feasting on a carcass.

A cold panic seized Alex as she realized she was not far off; the creature was picking apart and eating from a crumpled figure at its feet, a pool of bright red blood spreading out across the grass beneath it. She gasped and stepped back, and the noise caught the thing's attention. It turned its head to look at her, and its face was something out of a nightmare. Its mouth was enormous and full of long, pointed teeth, twisted into a rictus grin. Its eyes were small and beady, with only two tiny nostrils for a nose. It made a horrible gurgling noise from deep in its throat as it rose to its full height of something like eight or nine feet, and began moving towards her in a lumbering gait.

"No, no, no, no...!" Alex whisper, backing away. Her foot slipped in the wet grass, and she fell down hard on her left shoulder. She tried to scramble back up to her feet, but continued to slip and stumble in the process. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of what—or rather, who—the creature had been feasting on.

It was Lucas.

He lie there, motionless in the grass, his face drained of all color. His lifeless eyes were wide open, his mouth frozen in an expression of terror. His costume, some kind of renaissance garb, was sopping with dark red blood. His left leg had been ravaged, half the flesh stripped from the bone, leaving it a glistening red mass.

Alex screamed, a shrill and incoherent sound that echoed through the empty park. No one heard her. She rolled over onto her back, feeling a sharp stab of pain as the corner of one of the books in her backpack dug into her spine. She ignored it and propped herself up with her arms, then scurried back in a sort of ridiculous crab walk.

"No!" she screamed impotently, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. The creature loomed directly over her now. It began to lean forward, outstretching one of its long, emaciated hands towards her. Its mouth opened slightly, revealing a huge, black tongue lashing back and forth behind the rows of dagger-like teeth. One of its thin, bony fingers just barely grazed her left arm, its claw-like nail drawing blood in a long, shallow scratch from her wrist to mid-forearm.

Something inside of Alex snapped.

She felt the sensation of something wash over her, an eruption of warm, vibrant energy that then seemed to rush out of her body and forward towards the monster. In a blur of motion, the creature's arm was wrenched away, tearing out of its socket in a spray of putrid, brown-black ichor as it spiraled through the air and fell to the ground some ten feet away. The arm thrashed on the ground like a fish that had been dropped on dry land. The monster reared back, howling in a disgusting, high-pitched gurgle.

A familiar shape now stood between Alex and the monster, a small, pale, feminine figure. She had seen it before. In fact, she now realized that she had seen it many times. It had been the unearthly, doll-like reflection she had seen so many times in her dreams, and even in her bathroom mirror that same afternoon she went out with Lucas. Only this wasn't a dream, or a hallucination. This thing was real, and it was standing protectively in front of her, slowly advancing on the monstrous abomination that towered before her.

"What are you...?" she whispered, not really expecting an answer.

I am Alexandra Gray. The words were not spoken; they were more like an impression on Alex's mind. I am you—your other self.

The loathsome beast lunged forward again, swinging its other long-fingered hand in attack, but her other self simply held out a hand and snatched the offending limb mid-strike. It—she?—yanked hard, pulling the creature down so that it's face was level with hers. She then snatched hold of its lower jaw with her free hand, released the seized arm, and grabbed the upper jaw with that hand. Without any visible effort, she pried its massive mouth open, heedless of the terrible teeth or lashing tongue. There was an awful cracking and tearing sound as she pulled it far past the point that it should be able to open, breaking the jaw. More of the rancid ichor spurted like blood from the tearing flesh at the corners of its mouth as it vainly flailed its limbs while trying to pull away from her. Despite the obvious difference in size, it was clear that the creature was completely helpless in her iron grasp.

Alex found that she could move again, and without a moment's hesitation, began to run. Her legs pumped with an intensity that she had never known before, carrying her out of the park in a matter of moments. If she had looked back, she would have seen her other self dismembering the monstrosity, ripping it limb from limb with her bare hands as it dissolved away into a vile, black foam.

But she didn't look back. She didn't so much as pause as she bolted across the street, heedless of traffic. She didn't think about where she was running, she just knew that she had to get away from that park and the horrors inside of it, the further the better.

Her lungs were freezing from her labored breathing, her face soaked with smeared tears that she tried to wipe away with her jacket sleeves. She wanted desperately to believe that what she had seen was not real, that it was all some terrible nightmare or hallucination, but she knew better. Deep down inside, she could not deny the terrible reality of what she experienced, no matter how impossible it seemed. She wanted to wake up, to return to the way things had been only days ago, but that wasn't going to happen.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

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