Ka La Ka Dum libraryofshadows

I

Alton Bloom walked to the edge of the path, when he noticed that his front door was open. The lights were out in the house, but the sight kept him on edge, as he entered. Alton walked into the house. He turned on the lights and saw a pair of dirty footprints. He followed them out to the kitchen, where he saw the refrigerator door open wide. A carton of milk leaked down the shelves from an opening marked with jagged edges. Everything inside the fridge was either half-eaten or torn to shreds.

“Darius!” Alton yelled. “If you’re here, tell me now. I’m bringing out the revolver!”

Alton brought the weapon out to his side, as he crept toward the dining room. Something moved on the far side of the table. He could see the silhouette of a person shrouded by shadow. Alton flicked the light-switch and it turned on with the ceiling fan. His friend, Darius, sat at the head of the table with a pool of cold stew resting in front of him. It smeared all over his face and hands, as he clawed at the pile of brown muck. He did nothing to acknowledge Alton, as he shoveled more of the slop into his mouth.

“Darius?” Alton asked. “What have you done to yourself?”

Ka La Ka Le Ka La Ka Dum His heart remains in eternal gloom

Darius turned his gaze. He lowered his head, but kept his eyes focused, as he centered his attention on Alton. He said nothing, as he pushed a book of fables along the side of the table. It fell at Alton’s feet, opening to the first page of a story called ‘The Eternal Queen’.

“She left this here, didn’t she?” Darius asked.

Alton nodded. He kept his eyes on Darius. He couldn't help but feel as if Darius would leap over the table and jab his fingernails into his throat.

“Have you read it?” Darius asked.

“She told me not to.”

“And you listened?”

“Of course.”

“Good. She doesn’t want you. She’ll come for me.”

“Is that good?”

“No, but it’s the only way.”

“This is the only way the story ends, isn’t it?” Alton asked.

“It’s how she wants it, so, this is how it has to be.”

II

It’s not the same dream every time, but it’s the same place and always the same outcome. My mind wanders into this restless slumber. I can still feel my body in our world, but my soul departs for a world beyond our comprehension. My soul tears away, because the beauty of that other world is impossible for it to deny. It wanders, until I lose control of it. My soul abandons me and enters this realm of eternal nightmare.

Beyond the shores of Apsu, dreaded sea of the eternal fate is the Island of the Endless Road. Creatures of nightmare call this world their home. During daylight, they suffer in the heat, before night returns and they retreat to the forest. They’ll follow the road, until they’ve fallen into its trap. Those who carry on, those who continue to crawl through the wilds learn to hide between the shadows.

Darkness invigorates those who follow the endless road. It is their greatest enemy. If you follow the darkness you lose more of yourself. Every day brings you closer to damnation, yet, there is only one road to follow. This is fate. There is no escape from the inevitable. Darkness calls its minions to prove their devotion in blood. They gather in orgies of sex and violence to honor their gods. Night brings the tide rolling in, which tears away at the Endless road. Those who follow darkness hunt through the storm, killing all they find, until it recedes. They assume they've done enough to appease their gods and thus, continue along the road.

The waters return every night to tear their world apart, as they rush deeper into madness. Most carry on, as the tide pulls back. In this world, there are only three ways to go. They can either return to their suffering or continue to follow the Endless Road. Some settle into their own communities, surviving through cannibalism and ritual sacrifice. Others make themselves out to be demigods and place others in shackles. Everything changes depending on the return and departure of the tide.

Always, in the back of their minds, is the specter of darkness and its inevitable return. It pushes some further along the Eternal Road. The road is quite deceiving in daylight. It looks promising and you assume your eyes are weary. After a while, you give in and accept that, maybe, in some way, you have a glimmer of hope. A little bit further out on the road and you start to think that maybe the road is carrying you along. It’s guiding you on your way. It wants you to get where you’re going, so it allows you to listen.

The Eternal Road carries this hum It goes as this “Ka La Ka Dum” For those that hear must know its glory And never tell its endless story.

They make their journey by day and hide into the night. Where they hide they set traps, for the darkness carries with it the sacred names of myriad predators. If they've learn to trust the land they’ve made a mistake. It looks so promising during the day. It's natural to accept it as your protector. Into night, the land must survive. Nothing that you experience with your senses can be trusted, because, in a way, this place is only a dream.

The trees emit a scent that allows them to control the minds of those who breathe it in. Maggots and rodents are the first of the infected. Once the scent enters their nostrils, the tree can manipulate them to fulfill its needs. It uses flies to chew into the flesh of weary journeyman, where they burrow and lay eggs. It bathes in the eggs for several days, warming them with its heart-beat. After the second day, it runs out of air. The eggs sense its death and chew through his heart. They regurgitate as they go along and eat that away after, until nothing remains. The flies then burst within the flesh to cause infection, until the creature dies. Hundreds of corpses rot into the land, which is supported by a web of interconnected roots. Each tree ties its roots with any others around it. Their roots continue to twist and become gnarled screws that push deep into the ground.

III

Ka La Re Kala Ka La Re Dum

Creatures that wander along the path don’t understand that it is, in itself, a trap. It’s meant to confuse and deter you from finding any hope or a sense of relief. You'll walk around for miles, until you realize that the path you came from is no longer there. Those who follow the Endless Road are truly lost, for by the time they realize they’ve fallen into a trap it’s far too late. The trees close in around them and form Ka La Re Kala Ka La Re Dum, which is ‘the whispering madness of the Eternal Queen’. Their cries of torment echo all around you, until your mind breaks beneath the guttural sound. Each of their voices carries an echo from beyond the wall of madness. It shatters logic and reason, until you're made into a drooling mess of fear and confusion.

For those who know the secret worship the Eternal Queen. Ka La Re Kala Ka La Re Dum. And pray for her protection from the nightmares unforeseen. And in her castle on the coast of Ka La Re La Ser She leads an army of the damned to torture the impure. And once their souls are broken and beyond the point of healing It’ll be in honor of the queen that they continue with their dealing.

The creatures feared the night and offered it sacrifice. They did the same for the queen, because she controlled their dreams. She could move within their minds whenever they fell asleep. She could manipulate their thoughts and push them into madness. Her pleasure came from tormenting those she controlled, be it the trees or flies or rats or snails. She broke them so they would obey and then tortured them some more.

And what might it have been that the Endless Queen would ask, but everlasting devotion to her cause. Those who denied her demands fell asleep and never woke up. They died after she ripped their minds to shreds. The trees ate what remained, along with the flies and maggots, before the roots consumed the rest.

Her slaves built her a castle along the coast. It looked out to the Sea of Apsu, but the coast was far too high for the crashing waves to reach. The Eternal Queen enjoyed waking up from her chamber of nightmares to see the waves receding. The sun crept over the horizon and illuminated the world in fire. She’d look out along the coast and want for nothing, as she could see that, from this vantage point, she had everything. It’s at night when her psychosis returns and she hungers for blood. Every night, she emits a howl that tears through the minds of all who have fallen under her spell. It knocks the life out of them, but their souls always return.

The Eternal Queen demands sacrifice. Her followers are more than agreeable. The forest is her playground. She moves it around for her own amusement. The Eternal Queen enjoys watching her followers spill blood. She manipulates the forest to create an arena of genocide and torture. Every creature must work to appease her. They must make who they find in the woods their victims. She doesn't want them dead, but suffering. Their nightmares become all the more potent when they're in pain.

Those who survive can’t shed a tear for the madness and depravity they’ve seen. They become master hunters. The queen enjoys their devotion, not only to her, but the purest form of insanity, Ka La Ka Dum. Savagery becomes their nature, until it’s ingrained in their being. They wear it as a badge of honor and carry out any depraved act that the queen demands.

IV

Ka La Re Kala, Ka La Re Dum.

She ordered her servants to expand her castle along the coast. They forged walls of mud and mortar to secure a retaining wall along the coastline. They built the castle up from within the ground and then extended upward. Hundreds of new rooms filled the tower, until it pushed deep within the ground and extended into the sky.

The tallest points of the castle were where the queen liked to go to send out her signal. Her followers far and wide would hear it much clearer when she reached the tallest point. She made her servants build the castle higher, until her signal was at its peak. Her powers became potent enough that she could manipulate her follower's every fear. She could make them fear nothing or everything. She could shatter their minds or make them an impenetrable wall of blind devotion and apathy.

The queen enjoyed making her followers suspicious. They turned on each, because they never shared any sense of unity. Their devotion belonged to the Eternal Queen. The world around them made them suspicious and helped feed their paranoia. She’d let them find each other. Inspired by fear and blind devotion, they fought to the death and spilled blood in her name.

Some souls no longer wanted to leave the Endless Road. They were her most devout followers. They knew the reward of keeping her happy was to inflict the same pain on the rest of the world. It became an obsession, not only to appease her, but to cause harm to anyone but themselves.

For the longest time, I was one of them. My dreams were more a glimpse into immortality. I became invincible. Terror hardened me into a beast of wrath and animosity. I felt a pain so indomitable I had no choice but to strengthen myself against it. My muscles hardened to steel and my mind centered on survival. My heart beat a single pulse and breathed within its own walls to keep them sterile. When it exhaled, a breath of poison killed everything inside me. The next inhale brought everything back to life. Thus, the cycle perpetuated itself, as I died every time, only to return to this place. I lived as one of her victims turned to a savage for her amusement, until I learned to breathe.

The Eternal Queen chose me, because I could breathe in her reality. Most could only breathe on an unconscious level. I learned to settle my heart with a simple breath and that has made all the difference. She chose me. The Endless Road opened and I found safe passage to her castle. None who received such a fate ever returned, while my fate was an ‘Eternal Return’ to her, until the end of time. Our love was a connection of broken parts that an impossible energy forged together and made to fit.

Ka La Ka Dum Ka La Ka Tet, The doomed and depraved are very well met.

I broke her down over time and she did the same to me. We were rougher around the edges, but more so around our hearts. It was impossible to love her, because I feared her. She was a monster from the pit of her soul. She’d imagined my death more times than I’ll ever be able to imagine. Still, the vapid emptiness in the dark of her eyes drove me to the brink of madness. How could any man in his right mind not push his terror aside and pull forward?

Every night, I returned to her. Every morning, I woke up with my entire body gripped with terror. It took all my strength to relax the tension in my body. The cartilage had to snap out of place and once it did it became like putty. I had a thought that this was death and waking meant I came back to life, but it meant so much more. Mine was the path of 'the eternal death'. She was pushing me further into her world, until I lost sight of my own and could never return.

It appeared that in all our meetings several days would pass me by. Yet, whenever I returned to work the next day, no one noticed that I was missing. They all claimed to have seen me. I lost track of days. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of a meeting or walking down the road. I’m losing hold of myself in public places and it’s getting worse. I urinated on myself in the market the other day. Nobody noticed, but I have no memory of it. I remember walking into the store, but never anything beyond staring at the apples on the front end. I woke up outside the store with my receipt and a circle of piss drying between my legs.

“What do you think is happening?” Alton asked.

The Red Queen is trying to drive me mad.

“Why would she want to do that?”

Because, I was the only person she’d ever love and I broke her heart.

“I thought you loved her? Why would you do such a thing?”

I saw her as something more than she actually was. There was something humanizing in my perception. I was a monster in that world, capable of savagery on a grandiose scale. Within my heart, I'm still me. I thought I was something else after worshiping her for all this time. It turns out there was a fine grain of humanity resting in my core. It came back to life one day, when the Eternal Queen had a momentary realization of her greatest fear. You see, she fears the Water’s of Apsu. Water is her greatest fear. She never told me why, because, despite being her only love it was beyond her to set aside her paranoia.

Her servants had built her castle into a sturdy tower that looked out over the Sea of Apsu. It stood on the edge of a cliff resting high above its waters. The waves were pulling out further into the sea, as they buoyed and lost control. In our most fateful moment, the ripples that receded from the shore returned in one wave. It struck every floor of the tower at once and echoed thunder through the halls.

Terror gripped the Mad Queen and she unleashed the truth behind her mortal form. Her body unwound and her arms uncoiled to reveal thousands of strings. The arms connected, forming a new illusion to occupy my senses. She revealed her true form, and unfolded the illusion to reveal a giant spider. A lower jaw sank to reveal rows of sharp teeth. It hissed when it sensed I was afraid. Another wave crashed into the cliff and tore the tower in half, before she could kill me.

That’s when I woke up. That’s why I’m here. I’ve been having these dreams for a long time, but I’ve only recently made it beyond the forest. The Eternal Queen has me. Now, she’ll make my life into a nightmare worse than anything I can imagine and the proof of it is in this book. It has her entire story and mine wrapped together. She journeyed through time to get every detail of my life and hers to be as precise as she can. She’s leading me into a trap by crafting time into a noose that will wrap around my neck. My fate rests somewhere in this book and I don’t think I have the strength to read it. Whatever she will do to me, well, it will be done. I can’t fight, but knowing the exact time and place of my death will ruin the surprise. There’s no chance of preventing it. I’ll amuse her with my terror and hope it’s enough to appease her wrath.

“She’ll kill you because you don’t love her and she’ll kill me because I’m in the way. So, I’ll ask again, how can I help?”

You must write down everything you see.

“Why not film it? No one will believe any of this unless you film it.”

Who would ever believe such a thing, even if they saw it with their own eyes?

“Then, what good is writing it gonna do?”

Those who need to read it will. They’ll understand the true meaning of these stories and be able to stop her.

“Stop her from what?”

You’d have to read to the end of the book to find out.

Ka La Ka Re Ka La Ka Dum Where blood is written, so it must come Ka La Kala Ka La Re It is written, thus ends the day.

V

My mind wandered and I returned to that world, because she would never, ever leave me. She demanded sacrifice, as she would for all her children. My obsession led me back to her. Curiosity and desire got the better of me, as I slipped further into madness. When I awoke, I was by her side, staring out to the horizon that ended before the Sea of Apsu. The closer I came to her the further she pulled away.

Something pulled on me from another reality. One of my dreams wanted a chance at return. She gave me this as a final opportunity and I’m certain that neither of us knew what would happen at the end of that road.

I followed this other reality, which led me along the Endless Road. My mind went numb and a signal in the back of my skull led me through this place. The trees and stars offered clues. She demanded sacrifices. I killed in her honor. I ate their hearts to gain their strength and to show her that I could still be the brutal savage she desired. I used the blood of my victims to make crude markings over my face and chest. It might not terrify her, but it would at least appease her appetite.

The path aligned with the tower. The top half of the tower had fallen into the sea, but the rest remained. The days of its terror passed, but the Eternal Queen would forever control their hearts and minds. I followed through the tower, until I found the only locked room. I knocked several times and did what I could to move it. It moved for a moment and I gained some hope. I put all my strength into it. The door disappeared under my weight and I fell through the opening. I crashed and fell over a railing, barely catching myself, before I could plummet to my doom.

I pulled myself onto the side of the tower only to see that the door had returned. I was trapped on this balcony, where the Queen would keep me. I knock on the door, because it’s what pleases her. The Eternal Queen demands sacrifice, so that's what I'll do. I’ll stay here and knock for as long as it takes to make her happy.

Ka La Kala Ka La Me So much for my fate this day. Ka La Kala Ka La Dum It is what it must become.

VI

Alton awoke by a sudden bump in the night. After all he’d heard he decided to wait it out in his bedroom. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about his friend's fate, but that he knew there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t go against the wishes of his friend and keep him from meeting his fate. At the same time, he wondered if there was anything he could do to help.

Footsteps shuffled down the hallway. Someone knocked on the door. Alton remained quite still and the person knocked again. When he didn’t respond, they nailed something into the other side. It burst through for a moment, leaving a crack, nothing more than a sliver, in the door. An eye full of crimson lightning looked at Alton, before it disappeared.

The creature ran down the hall, laughing as he went. Alton left his bedroom and almost stepped in a pool of blood. A trail of blood followed down the hallway in footsteps of bright crimson. They spread out along the floorboards and up the walls to the ceiling. Several red palm-prints followed with them. They formed a circular pattern that wrapped around his friend’s room.

The lights flickered. He twisted the doorknob and opened the door. Darkness washed over everything. He held the doorknob for comfort, until the lights returned. He saw in that flash, his friend hanging from the ceiling. Someone tore him open from his stomach, through his torso and legs, all the way down to his feet and fingers. A long trail of string led out of the wounds and dangled above his solar plexus. They used his veins to make a noose, which wrapped around his throat and along a fan in the ceiling.

The ceiling fan turned on and spun Darius around, like a toy in a child's jewelry box. His veins remained sturdy, as he swung around again and again.

Ka La Kala Ka La Re All that is nightmare is sure to stay. Ka La Kala Ka La Dum To the darkest fear we must succumb.

Submitted August 14, 2017 at 08:05PM by Sin_Crow_7 http://ift.tt/2w3hgNv libraryofshadows