"He will come for you now"


The words echoed in my mind. Even now. After all these...


Weeks.


Days.


Hours.


Minutes.


Seconds.


Even after all this time had passed. The words still poison my mind with the same venom, as though it were the very instant, that I received them. Becoming a mantra of sorts. Almost hypnotic. Entrancing. They possessed every waking thought and haunted my dreams. It was a curse. A plague. An obsession that gradually consumed me. Like a slow, smoldering burn. I was powerless to stop it. Though truthfully, I didn't even try. For it was far easier to embrace it. To get lost within it, transfixed upon the mystery as I sank; deeper and deeper, into the numbing void. Succumbing to its power, I let it take control. Bewitching and enchanting. It pulled me in. Revoking my grip on reality. I stood at the cusp of madness and gazed down into the abyss of oblivion. The very ground crumbling beneath my feet as a tremendous wind, pushed upon my back, pledging a sinister oath, to send me over the edge. Into the brink of no return.


It was in this instant, that I found myself overtaken by fire. Yes. Fire. Abruptly and quite suddenly. The wind had ceased. The cliff and the treacherous drop into impending insanity. Gone. Nothing remained. There was only me. As an inferno erupted. Encircling my very being, it danced about, threatening to ravage me and reap its rewards of flesh, meat and bone. Making promises of ashes to the long parted zephyrs, patiently awaiting what was to come. I heard a scream as I dropped to my knees, only to realize that it was coming from me. Foreign was the sound that erupted from my vocal chords. Desperate. Frightened. An animalistic howl.


Locks of hair, tumbled forward, instantly ignited, they burned quickly from my skull. Leaving nothing but charred remains, to disintegrate. While the fiery blaze closed in and the scorching heat, seared my skin to a crisp. I pondered, momentarily - how did I get here? A fleeting wonder sizzling within the raging inferno. The flames rose upward, towering above me now. Like a hideous monster made of fire. It parted a portion away from itself, as the shape of a jaw seemed to open wide. I stared up into it. Trembling, my mouth agape. Silent. Too frightened to even scream as the fiery demon crashed down upon me. Engulfing my entire body, it swallowed me. Completely. Whole.


A witch devoured by fire. How... cliché.


I opened my eyes and discovered that I was on my living room floor. Consequent to this occurrence, I immediately fell upwards to the ceiling. Well, this was new. It appeared that down was up... and up was down. Fascinating. Yet this bewildering transformation, couldn't be processed for long, before the rest of my flat got caught up to date with the situation. First to arrive was the sofa, that came crashing to the ceiling. Followed by everything else. Suddenly I found myself dodging knick-knacks and diving away from falling furniture. Every time I caught a breath and almost gathered my bearings, I had to spring into action, leaping and vaulting over the accumulating wreckage, as I avoided becoming a part of it. At long last though, the wave of chaos had subsided and I was left with ruins and remnants, my belongings rendered to nothing more than mementos of the turbulent pandemonium. As above, so below. My living room was a painting of utter destruction and devastation, in its finest hour. Though I surmised that the rest of the flat wore a similar fashion.


Meanwhile, I was also harnessing a corresponding, new look. As I felt the ends of my wits, come dangerously close to being met. I flopped down onto a pile of cushions, wood and fabric, that used to be an easy chair, brushed a mussed up tussle of hair out of my face and began to laugh. Even when I noticed a large bulge, growing from the center of my living room floor; that was currently playing the role of my living room ceiling, I still cackled away. (Hey! Another cliche! How very.) The absurdity of it all, definitely caught up to me and I abandoned myself to it, tenfold. Watching as an obscenely, massive lump, protruded downward from the carpet. Expanding in both height and girth, it swelled and stretched, increasing in weight as it sagged like a heavy hump of... who the fuck knows what?!?!?!


The excess sack hung before me. Pulsating as it continued to grow. By this point, I began to think that maybe moving, might be the most appropriate action as my laughter finally silenced and my eyes widened. It was then, that I felt two hands on my shoulders as I was roughly lifted to my feet and yanked away from the rubble, that once was my favorite chair. My body harshly turned around, I now found myself; face to face, with a man that I've never seen before.





"Who are you?"


"Right now, I think you've got bigger issues to worry about, than who I am."


"Such as..."


"Um... well, for starters. Everything else that's currently happening in this room."


I went to place my focus on the huge, hefty, hanging carpet tumor but the man stopped me, rolling his eyes as he hastily spoke.


"I think you've got something of mine. Something I lost."


"That depends. Did you lose a sword?"


"As a matter of fact, I did! Would you happen to know where it might be in this fuckin' crazyhouse?"


"My bedroom."


I pointed past the throbbing protuberance.


"Of course."


He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as his eyes; momentarily, darted between the swollen object and me.


"Okay. We can do this. Now, I'm not going to lie, it's going to be pretty damn gross but if you move fast and don't think about it, you can avoid repeating the process and then... if you're lucky, just spend the rest of your days trying to forget it ever happened."


"Right. Wait. What? What's going on? Avoid repeating what? What exactly will I need to actively try to forget for the rest of my days, if I'm lucky? What's happening?"


"This."


From within the confines of his black trench coat, the man produced a gun and proceeded to fire; several bullets, into the center of the bulge. It erupted on impact, instantaneously flooding forth a sea of ooze. Drenched in a foggy, opaque, mother of pearl slime, we both made a dash for my bedroom. I turned and shut the door behind us as I saw another bulge begin to sprout downward, from the floor. Gross was putting it mildly. Pivoting about on my heels, I narrowed my eyes and set my sights on the stranger and crossed my arms. In my mind, his knowledge of what was going to happen translated into him being responsible, somehow.


"What's going on? Who are you?"


"Again. There are more urgent topics to focus on. For instance, where's the sword?"


My arms dropped to my sides as my expression softened.


"It was in a wooden box under my bed."


Simultaneously, we both cast our sights, to the bedroom in shambles. A haphazard wasteland of broken bits of wood, plaster, stone and glass, covered in photos, books, clothes, undergarments, jewelry, linens, candles, curtains and a mattress, lay before us. However, the ornate wooden box, with the sword in it, was naturally... no where to be seen.


"Ordinarily I'd be able to know exactly where to look. This place plays tricks though. You wouldn't happen to know a locator spell, would you?"


"What?"


"You're a witch right?"


"How do you know that?"


"Just a hunch. I'll go with that as my answer, for now and explain later. Most likely."


Suspicion and confusion, enwrapped my thoughts but I complied with the stranger's request. Raising my hand high, I recited an ancient incantation, mystic words of spellcrafters, long since passed. From the wreckage, the wooden box stirred. I felt its energy as it moved and lifted itself, beyond the rubble. Rising past the debris, it stopped and floated in an elevated, suspended position. Simply levitating, several inches in front of us. The stranger smirked and grabbed the box. Swiftly opening it, he removed the sword and held it out as he admired it, in all its glory. The crimson jewel; that sat in the center of its crossguard, took on a radiant sanguine glow, while he moved the sword about in his steady, firm grasp. It was almost as if... the sword knew him.


D.D


The initials flickered within my thoughts. Yet before I could say a word, the stranger directed his attention to me.


"Ready to get the fuck outta here?"


I nodded my response and with a quick slice of the sword's blade, the stranger cut directly into what could only be described as the very fabric of reality. A bright red slash, hovered in place as the stranger reached his hand through it, causing it to open wider as he looked back at me.


"After you."


"Where does it go?"


"Home. Hopefully. Your home."


"What????"


"It should lead to your home. At least, I'm 97%... 95%... uh, roughly 92% sure, that's where it will lead.


I said nothing but stood firmly affixed to my place, motionless and making zero effort to change that.


"Come on. We have to get out of here. I know, I don't want to spend another minute here, let alone another two years. You, on the other hand wouldn't last ten minutes in this place, before your mind would be replaced by pudding. So we have to go."


I furrowed my brow, reluctantly stepping one foot forward and then stopped. The stranger sighed deeply.


"Look, if I was going to lead you down a dangerous path, I would tell you to go back out through that door. If I was going to hurt you... well then, I'd just stab you with this big, fucking sword that I'm wielding. However, I want to leave and out of the kindness of my heart, since you did me a solid by returning this sword to me, I'm attempting to help you. Meaning, I have your best interest, in my sights. Trust me. Nothing bad will happen and I'll be right behind you."


I didn't know what came over me. Or why I trusted his words. Perhaps, it was the fact that the door, exploded off its hinges, revealing the massively, bloated sack, trying to break its way into the room. Maybe it was simply the curiosity of what was next. Whatever the case might have been, I surged forward and leapt through the glowing scarlet gateway, into the unknown. And landed flat on my bedroom floor.


Everything was back to normal. Nothing was broken, damaged or even slightly askew. The ceiling and floor had even returned to their proper alignment. Silently rejoicing to myself, I jumped to my feet and twirled around in glee. My gaze quickly falling onto the stranger standing in my bedroom. The celebratory dancing faze had passed. Now only questions remained.