Multifaceted
A story for Day 1 of The Halls of Pandemonium Challenge. The prompt was a single event from 3 POVs.
The Brain
Katie set her coffee down next to her console, stood and stretched. Another day in space almost done. I can’t wait to go back to my quarters and relax.
She remembered the conversation she had earlier that day with the new researcher. The blond one. She bit her lip. Maybe she’d see him on the way? She smiled and shook her head as she sat back down. There will be time for that later, right now I need to focus on my report.
A warning chimed on her console and a notification popped up in front of her report.
She squinted at the terminal.
!!! WARNING !!!
SUBJECT EXCEEDING SAFE ENERGY LEVELS
A guttural roar reverberated through the room. The sound permeated every part of her as though matter meant nothing to it. Absolute terror flooded every fiber of her being. It can’t be. It’s been dormant for so long! How is this possible?
A raspy voice that was not her own filled her mind. Five.
The wall she was facing exploded. Ripples in space like heat distortions flew past her. They smashed into anything they hit and carried it along. Chunks of the steel wall, desks, chairs, clutter, and another researcher she hadn’t known was there. He was dead before everything slammed into the opposite wall and it burst open like punching a hole through paper. Immediately, everything began to be sucked out as the greedy void of space sought to slurp up all it could.
Four.
Gravity flipped ninety degrees. The hole into space was down. She grabbed her desk, but it was falling too. She screamed, but it was barely audible over the rushing wind, even to her. She desperately looked for anything not falling and spotted a smooth metal pillar below her. She reached for it and got both her arms over it, but started sliding off the cylindrical pillar immediately. No no no no no! She brought her knees up and tightened her grip as much as she could. She stopped sliding mere inches away from falling off.
Three.
She was too scared to move or try to get a better hold even as her muscles burned, but she found herself looking up as if compelled. A horrifying creature was descending slowly through the air towards the hole. Its head was long and fleshy, like if a horse head had the skin of a worm. Its mouth was an empty hole with four fangs that curved in towards its maw from its cheeks. Two bulbous all-black eyes seemed to stare everywhere simultaneously. Its neck was long and connected to a veiny, hairy, limbless body that undulated in a way that made her queasy. This was the creature they had been studying. The one they had been starving.
Two.
A security officer slammed into it from below like a bolt. The impact sent them both tumbling towards her.
No you idiot! Not this way!
He beat the creature’s body with his stun baton savagely.
The creature roared again, both in their minds and out. It craned its neck around and put its mouth on the brave man’s back. The fangs stabbed through his gear and into his body like they were spring-loaded.
The man screamed but it was muffled by the lack of oxygen in the room already. A horrible sucking sound could faintly be heard and the man’s head and limbs disappeared into his clothes, as though he was a turtle or snail retreating into its shell.
The creature’s fangs withdrew and the empty clothes were pulled down towards open space.
One.
She as she watched her horror found new heights. The creature still tumbled towards her, but its neck withdrew towards its body and the veiny-hairy mass convulsed and warped. It shrunk as it compacted, sprouting two arms, two legs, and other human features. The head was the last thing to transform. When it hit the pillar she was on, the naked body of the security guard scrambled onto it. The only thing that didn’t change were its eyes. They were in the right place, but completely glossy black. It stared at her. Then licked its lips.
Zero. Your time is up Katie, time to become one with me.
She tried to scream, but her whole body felt frozen by unrelenting panic.
It seized her throat with its man-arm and lifted her effortlessly. It placed its other arm over her stomach and the four fangs emerged from its forearm, stabbing deep into her. The blinding pain released her from her paralysis and she screamed, kicking wildly but hitting nothing. A strange sensation came from her stomach, like she was being pulled. All of her, all at once. Thoughts raced through her brain, memories and regrets alike. One thought rose above the rest. Is this what it feels like to die?
Then everything was dark. She tried to open her eyes, but found that she could not. She tried to scream, but had no mouth or even a throat to do so.
Be still Katie. All will be answered in time.
The Brawn
A middle-aged man with thick arms and ginger hair leaned against the wall near the door. He wore a standard security officer uniform and yawned for what was probably the hundredth time. Door duty was the worst. He knew that this was an easy job that paid remarkably well, but sometimes he missed his Spacer days. He snorted. Miss those days? Reminiscing about watching my friends get vaporized or blown to pieces? And all so one company could dig another company’s rocks from some god-forsaken asteroid. God help me, or whoever is listening.
The door next to him slid open with a hiss. An old man with gray hair that only went around the sides and back of his head stepped into the room. His glasses were bigger and thicker than telescope lenses.
“Greetings Robert. How are you doing this fine evening?”
Shit, this guy remembered my name but I don’t remember his. Uh… “I’m doing fine Doctor…” he squinted at his name badge. “Markson. All’s quiet around here.” He flinched internally at the obvious pause.
Doctor Markson chuckled. “I’m sure it is. Quiet is your job, but I imagine you wouldn’t say no to a little excitement now and again?”
He smiled awkwardly. “Door duty does make a long shift feel longer.”
Doctor Markson chuckled some more and patted his shoulder. “Hang in there. I’m sure your shift will be over before you know it.” He shuffled off towards the only researcher in the room. The young woman with the short black hair and brown eyes.
I can’t remember her name either now that I think about it.
She was sitting at her console, her eyes glued to the screen. Something about her intensity seemed more than normal. An old familiar feeling crept up his spine and into his chest. Dread.
A guttural roar reverberated through the whole room. He felt as though his very bones were vibrating inside him.
A raspy voice unlike any he had ever heard filled his mind. Five.
The wall directly in front of him exploded. A nearly invisible force flew through the room like a freighter, crashing into and carrying everything in its path with it. Including Doctor Markson. The man had no time to realize his life was over as it slammed into him. The force hit the outer wall and smashed straight through it. Everything in the room began to be pulled towards the hull breach into open space.
Four.
He began running for the switch that would slam an emergency containment door over the entire wall. It was on the same wall as the breach. Gravity flipped as he was running and suddenly, he was falling towards the switch. Or he would have been, if not for the pull of the void. His trajectory shifted and he was going to miss it entirely. He looked around desperately and saw that the researcher woman had caught one of the two pillars in the room. An idea popped into his head. He was about to fall past the other pillar. He tucked in his legs and, as he passed it, he kicked out as hard as he could towards the switch.
Three.
He landed next to it and began sliding towards the breach. He stayed as flat against the wall as he could and hoped that the soles of his boots had enough traction to keep him from sliding too fast. He grasped the switch handle and pulled. The emergency door whirred as it activated. Then he heard metal scraping metal and the mechanism, wherever it was, began buzzing and beeping. Damn, the door’s stuck! He glanced at the hole in the wall. The torn metal edges around the hole were sticking out into space. Well… shit. He looked up and saw a horrible fleshy blob of veins and hair descending towards the hole. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew it shouldn’t escape.
Two.
He got his legs under him and jabbed his emergency stim into his arm. He felt the adrenaline and other chemicals flowing through his veins like liquid warmth. He leapt, far more powerfully than he could normally. He pulled out his stun baton as he soared, yelling his defiance. He slammed into the blob, hating the way it rippled. He gripped a fistful of hairs with one hand and beat the thing as hard as he could, repeatedly. The charge in the baton zapped with each strike and soon burn marks from his blows began to appear on the thing’s hide.
The thing roared again, both in his mind and out. He wondered how a blob could roar, then crippling pain lanced into him from behind. He screamed as a strange sensation began in the middle of his back. Like every part of him was being pulled at once.
Suddenly everything was dark.
One.
He was nowhere, and also everywhere. He had no body, but his mind still existed. He tried reflexively to move anything, an arm, a finger, even his nose. Nothing responded. Then suddenly a bright light appeared. He had no eyes to adjust, but the light settled into dim images. As though he was trying to watch something through too-dark sunglasses. He saw the young researcher. She was staring at him in total terror.
Zero. Your time is up Katie, time to become one with me.
An arm grabbed her around the neck and lifted her up.
That’s my arm! He tried to stop it, to move anything, but nothing happened. He couldn’t even feel anything.
His other arm pressed against her stomach, then four long fangs sprang out of his forearm and stabbed her.
No!
He watched in horror as her head and body retreated into her clothes. Then her empty clothes were released and the fangs retracted back into his arm. Suddenly everything was black again.
Stay right there Robert. You’ll get all the excitement you crave, and more.
The Beauty
The creature had been semi-slumbering for a long time. Fed by a steady, but carefully controlled, trickle of energy. The wardens of its prison had been studying it, looking to advance their own ends. They only gave it enough to keep it alive, just barely. But it had learned how to starve itself slightly in order to store up energy inside, secret and hidden. Just a little put to the side over decades of captivity. Its former forms had long since passed away, leaving only itself. But now? Now it had enough to escape. It knew it could not open a Tear from inside the station. Somewhere inside was an inhibitor machine that dampened its abilities. But if it could get outside…
It sensed the minds of the people inside, watching them for days and figuring out where the closest point from it to the exterior was by monitoring where they went. It had to be careful not to touch any of them, not until escape was certain. It did not need them becoming alarmed and doing something it couldn’t counter. Once it was sure of the closest point to space, it waited until as few humans as possible were in its path.
Finally. The conditions are right.
It drew its stored energy to the surface. The effort strained it, pain threatening its focus. It faced the direction it needed to go and released the blast with a roar. It watched as its containment field distorted around the nearly invisible energy, then burst. The blast traveled slowly, but it was unstoppable. Pushing through barrier after barrier. Satisfied that escape was now inevitable, it decided to taunt its captors. It broadcast its thoughts to the entire station.
Five.
The panic and confusion were delicious as it initiated the next step of its plan. Most of its stored energy was used for the blast, but since it had no appendages right now, it needed some way to help it get out. With all but the very last sliver of its reserve, it solidified the energy from the blast into an invisible mass just outside the station.
Four.
The artificial gravity of that mass overwhelmed the station’s feeble machine trying to do the same and everything tipped towards the point the creature had chosen. It floated out of its destroyed container, slowly and majestically. It congratulated itself on finding the most elegant way to travel. It didn’t even need to borrow the form of another for this! It chuckled to itself; a raspy wheeze of a sound. It focused its mind on the direction it was going. Two humans were in that room. A young female named… ‘Katie’ and an older male called… ‘Robert’. It would laugh as it passed them by. Unless they were sucked into the void before it got there.
Three.
It arrived into the room and beheld the female. It knew the male was below somewhere, most likely about to be pulled into space. It regretted that it would not get to steal their forms, but in its current state it could not reach them within an acceptable margin for error.
Two.
It was nearly there, only a little further…
It sensed the male’s approach just before he hit it. The stick the male beat it with stung more than it should. It roared its frustration. Its annoyance was quickly replaced by delight as it comprehended the opportunity it had been handed. Then it reached around behind the male and latched onto his back. The male had no idea what was about to happen. It sucked the male into it, feeling the body joining its own and the fresh new mind now sharing in its flesh.
One.
It immediately began the transformation, reshaping its own flesh to resemble the form it had just consumed. It was only after the transformation that it became aware it was tumbling towards the woman. Elation coursed through it as it realized how truly fortunate it was this day. It hit the pillar she was on less than elegantly, but scrambled to a better perch and stared at her. The fear in her eyes was delicious and it licked its new lips.
Zero. Your time is up Katie, time to become one with me.
It picked her up and placed a hand on her belly, then sucked her up as well. It stopped broadcasting its thoughts and turned its attention inward. It suppressed Rob first. Apparently he could access its vision when it was using his form. He had a troublingly strong will. Stay right there Robert. You’ll get all the excitement you crave and more. It hoped that might confuse and pacify the overly strong man.
Then it turned its attention to Katie. She was trying to scream. Be still Katie. All will be answered in time. She stopped screaming, but it could tell she was more alert now and trying to calm down and study where she was. That curiosity would only be curbed by her panic for so long. It sighed. What a troublesome pair to restart my collection with. It flexed Rob’s arm, feeling the corded muscles. Then again, there were some advantages. It felt a flicker of annoyance that its countdown had been interrupted. It had meant to be out of the station by ‘one’. It jumped off the pillar and dove towards the hole into space. The room was fully filled by the vacuum now, so it floated more than fell towards the false gravity source it had made. The moment it was out of the structure it ended the gravity, reusing the energy to open a tear in the fabric of reality. It turned back towards the station looking for a camera. It found one and gave a cocky salute before leaping into the tear.
As it entered, it felt a surge from Katie and suddenly it was tumbling sideways. All of its new sensations jumbled and writhed until it slammed face down on something wooden. Somewhere completely different from where it had been half a moment before.
This was written for a challenge! Every Like, Comment, and Restack helps propel me upward!
Then help yourself to all the other stories written by a myriad of super-talented writers participating as well!
Thank you for reading! ❤
Very well done.
Holy WOWZERS Daniel. 😳 so good! Omgosh so good!