Mana

Chapter 4

     Chapter 4

     Esegiel awoke glued to a watery floor. ‘Where am I,' He thought to himself. He looked around, up, down, side-to-side. He saw nothing, witnessed nothing. There was nothing for kilometers. He closed his eyes, only then, he felt another presence, one of being watched. He opened his eyes again, nothing, but the feeling grew stronger. Again, but the feeling peaked as if something was directly above him. He again opened his eyes, and a single giant serpentine eye looked down upon him in a glare of intrigue and curiosity. It looked calm, but what it was sat upon, wasn't. It was a writhing mass of tentacles, faces, and feelers each one more horrifying and grotesque than the last. Esegiel would've felt something as he stared at it, fear or panic, but he felt nothing, emotionless, null to the giant pupil that looked upon him. 

     ‘What are you?' He thought to himself.

      The eye blinked ‘I already know who you are,' its voice was layered with Esegiel and another. 

     ‘That doesn't answer my question,' 

     ‘You do not need to know who or what I am, but you will refer to me as Escathalaire,'

     ‘That helps a lot,'

     ‘Your input is not required, Ishmael,' 

     ‘What do you mean? This is my head, not yours,'

     ‘Allow me to demonstrate why,' 

     The pupil then lessened in width and grew in length, his chest began to compress and his breath shortened. The mass writhed uncontrollably as screeches of immeasurable pain radiated from every orifice on the distorted faces. Esegiel was able to breathe again and the faces slowly began to cease their horrific screeching.

     ‘This is only one of my coups on your mind, prolong your frail sanity, or give in to my limitless power, the choice is yours, just know. You. Are. Mine!’

     When the monologue was over, the eye shut, and with its closure, Esegiel woke up, bullets of cold sweat tearing down his face.

     "What the hell was that?" He said to himself, confused, terrified, and intrigued by his dream. And for the rest of the night, he sat up in his bed, unable to return to sleep. 

     Later, as the sun rose, Esegiel torpidly trotted downstairs. He sat on a couch in the living room, trying his best to keep himself awake. As he drifted in and out of sleep, his sister came downstairs. 

     “Esegiel! Have you seen the news recently?” Tyra said, grabbing the remote.

     “Huh! Erm… no,” he groggily croaked. 

     She turned on the TV, “something crazy happened at the town hall yesterday,” 

     The television then displayed the town hall repeatedly being struck by lightning as a giant thunderstorm raged on in the background. The news anchor spoke about the phenomenon, her words were drowned out by the rain beating upon the pavement. She kept on speaking, until a giant flash of light radiated from the town hall. The broadcast then cut to another anchor, who was sitting in a news studio. The man then said, “Was this just a bad thunderstorm, or something more sinister? Find out next time after the break.” Tyra then turned off the TV, and she tossed the remote into Esegiel’s lap. 

     “Do what you want with that, I’m getting some food.” 

     His mind had woken up, startled having witnessed what Elliott had described. He jolted upright and with it, an ominous feeling filled the air. The TV then turned on suddenly and continuously began to replay the beacon of light. Heavy footsteps followed by the clicking of nails on the wooden floor echoed behind him and a scaly face came into his peripheral. Escathalaire presented himself in a physical form. An alligator’s face, bones on his shoulder, and tentacles and feelers suspended in animation.