Through the Mirror

by D C Tullis

  A flash of light bounced through the cloudy air in the pattern of a shard. Within it I caught the gleam of Irithril’s armor for a brief moment. I saw her reappear before forcing the edge of her polearm staff-thing into the neck of an attacking Eldritch. By the next second she was gone again. That was when our situation turned into the world’s most satanic rave.

  “Orr'e throd hrii! Orr'e throd hrii!” A handful of the horrors inhumanely throated as they swarmed from all sides.

  “Of course you gave me such a shitty gun in a time like this, Irithril,” Ellie cried out.

  “Just try it,” Irithril replied with an unusually calm smile as she appeared next to Khail.

  “Fine, fuck it,” Ellie grumbled back as she aimed her pistol.

  Suddenly, the gravity in our immediate area began to shift. Its force increased unexpectedly, shoving us a little closer to the ground.

  “That is not helping,” Khail called to Ellie.

  “Give it a second,” Irithril replied for her as she jammed her staff into the chest of of a monstrosity and tore entirely through its fleshy body as she thrust upwards with incredible strength. It’s body went limp as it tumbled to the floor. Seconds later, another two had taken its place.

  Ellie’s pistol shook violently for a second before a confirming click knocked into place.

  “Eat shit!” Ellie howled as she pulled the trigger.

  A beam of spinning light blasted off towards the infected Fae and on impact shredded four of them completely. The gun knocked her back a pace yet she luckily managed to keep on her feet.

  “Goddamn, that fires like nothing I’ve ever shot before,” Ellie said as she wiped the newly acquired sweat from her forehead.

  “My turn,” I called with the intention of sounding badass.

  I dived in and swung wide with my falchion, however, I overextended and nearly lost my balance as I landed the blade awkwardly within one of the monsters’ right shoulder. It entered, but failed to completely sever the limb. The mossy ichor continued to spew as it coated my armor in its grody viscous texture. I used all of my strength to force the blade from its fleshy prison and jumped backwards. As I landed, a sudden strike nearly took my head off. Luckily, I managed to dodge the blow at the last second as I came crashing into Ellie.

  “Dude, wha…,” she began to call before a blow nearly took her head off as well.

  We both dived in opposing directions, barely missing the impact. The lumbering horror that had been targeting us let out an inhuman roar as Irithril sliced its torso clean in half. It tumbled away from us before crumbling into a disgusting heap. I quickly jumped to my feet and resumed a defensive stance as two Eldritch came rushing at me at once. I was forced to move my position further from the pack in an effort to dodge their coordinated attacks. I managed to slide under a wide strike from my right assailant, but the claw from his comrade landed on my armor with enough force to upset my balance. I focused my adrenaline on cleanly swiping its right arm off in return. It staggered back with an unearthly howl as the strike was a success, however, the strike gave its comrade time to deliver a blow towards my neck. My armor blocked it, but I still felt the pressure as it threw me back off onto my ass. The creature lunged towards me and found an unfortunate fate as it dived head first onto the pulsing teal tip of my energy blade.

  “Don’t get isolated!” Khail shouted as he moved his back towards Irithril.

  The entire scene had become a desperate deathmatch bathed in distorting fog, and seizure inducing rave lights.

  Khail and Irithril might have had their asses covered on combat, but the boxing my father had taught me sure as hell wasn’t coming in handy now. The only real help I had was the muscle memory from two weeks of little league practice. Irithril continued to take on multiple enemies at once, crushing skulls and creating chest cavities. I glanced over towards Khail and noticed at some point he had run out of ammo and was now pounding relentlessly with his fists in flashes of crunching glory.

  Even though the fight had seemed to have been continuing on for hours, the elapsed time must not have been over two minutes. We were all battered and bloodied. The enemy, unfortunately, seemed unfazed by the skirmish. Unwavered by our attacks the remaining continued shuffling towards us like waves of bloodthirsty undead.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck” Ellie shouted.

  “What?” I called back as I wiped the sweat from my brow.

  “My gun is jammed,” she replied.

  That was when things began to fall apart, for at the exact moment Ellie’s gun deactivated a hideous beast of implausible demeanor appeared. It was at least nine feet tall with primarily white flesh that hinted at just a touch of light yellow hue. Its head sagged back as if stolen from a monstrous white slug. Its face lacked eyes, nostrils, and nearly every other feature except a mouth which was a terrifying snaggletoothed opening. Its mouth must have been at least an entire yard wide and it bared four sets of razor sharp teeth. Its arms were comprised solely of fleshy tentacles until the tips where its hands should have been. Instead, what protruded out were blades reminiscent of the head of a halberd yet formed entirely from sharpened bone. The creature entered just as Ellie cried out, however, it didn’t target her as I suspected it would. Khail who was occupied and using all of his energy to stem the tide of the onslaught had somehow left his back open. The creature noticed this opportunity and pounced on Khail, slicing his left arm clean off of his shoulder. It slid to the ground below as Khail let out a surprised and wounded howl. Khail’s suit closed around the wound immediately, preventing any further blood loss, and he swiftly landed a clean hit on the tall Eldritch’s waist. It was a fruitless feat though as the monstrosity twisted its arms around Khail’s stature and lifted him slightly off of the ground almost as if mocking him.

  “I will gut you and your entire clan of mutants!” Khail wailed.

  I couldn’t be certain, but I damn near swear I saw the creature crack a smile. At least, as best as a giant hideous space creature can.

  Despite Khail’s struggling, the horrors wasted no time at all. One of the infected Fae shambled over to his left side. Irithril charged at the Eldritch monstrosities but was caught off guard when one of the creatures feigning death on the floor pulled her down with its slimy grip. I wished desperately to charge for Khail, but with a defenseless Ellie standing terrified behind my back I was optionless.

  The infected Fae stumbled over to the massive slug creature and kneeled right next to Khail’s thrashing left arm socket. The slug creature suddenly slid its right bone-blade into the Fae’s largest pack of boils; a patch located right next to his neck. With just a little bit of force the boils burst spewing not a mossy green ichor, but a rotten yellow mess full of small insects instead. Little, deformed creatures with numerous legs, hideous spotted egg sacs, and disturbingly large pincers. Despite their impressive dimensions, these parasitic insects were nimble and small enough to thoroughly explore a body. They began trying to pull themselves onto the suit repair over Khail’s dripping arm socket as he roared in pain, cursing recklessly at everything and everyone.

  “I’m sorry, Khail,” Irithril called as she tried to pull herself up. The creatures in retaliation further entangled her within their sets of tentacles.

  “Fuck this,” I yelled as I grabbed Ellie’s arm.

  I dashed as fast as I could towards the only window in the office. It was blocked by a large metal shutter, but I was willing to try anything at this point. I revved my blade, slashed an X shape into the shutter, and smashed through the barrier so rapidly it left a flaming teal glow tracing my path. Ellie and I dived through to the other side, however, our move had been predicted. The last thing I remember before entering unconsciousness was the flickering indigo lights bouncing off of Ellie’s right hand as we were dragged away.

  Ellie

  Aos

  I awoke to a nauseating mess. Goop of all hues leaked off of me onto the basketweave metallic floor. The whole situation had turned into a terrifying version o
f a grade-b horror flick, just without the shitty acting. I glanced to my left and saw Jason lying unconscious, cuffed to a chair, but still luckily breathing. The creatures had abandoned us in the room, so here was my chance to scout for an exit. I scanned over the small ventilation ducts, the grey stone floor, the futuristic colosseum like pillars holding the roof above us up. They had us strapped into chairs with the same handcuffs we’d seen lying around the testing labs. On closer examination they were still electronic which seemed to me at least like a major security flaw, but who knows why the Fae designed it in such a way. Despite my studying, I spotted no way out. It was a very crappy situation we’d gotten ourselves into. There was nothing else I could think to do, so I called to Jason to wake him up.

  “J,” I whispered to him.

  His chair stood about five feet from me.

  “J, get the fuck up before they shove bugs inside your eyes,” I added.

  He let out a low unpleasant grumble and shook his head into awareness.

  “What the hell happened?” Jason asked me as he cracked his neck.

  “We launched through that window, but they were somehow a step ahead of us. A big one clonked you on your head right as we landed,” I replied.

  “Well that explains why I feel like I stuck my head in a blender,” said Jason.

  I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to bring it up, but I figured he better know.

  “Also, dude, heads up. I’ve already scanned the area. There are no exits except for the door they’re guarding.”

  “Well that’s just peachy,” Jason grumbled sarcastically.

  THUUUUD

  The door to our chamber had been opened and a disgusting seven foot tall centipede-like Eldritch creature snaked through the chamber followed by three shambling infected Fae.

  The centipede creature had four eyes attached to its spiraling fleshy head. Each swum in their socket as they rapidly observed the two of us. Dripping tentacles hung from its throat as it tried to communicate in an unnatural language with the Fae.

  “F'nw li'hee naflooboshu gokaagl ph'bug ph'Chaugnar Faugn 'bthnk hai hrii, shugg li'hee nnnTsathoggua grah'n ron hai nnnzhro mnahn' chtenffog,” were the noises that came from within it.

  “Hafh'drn f'ee uh'e R'lyeh Tsathoggua nawgah'n,” was the response given by one of the infected Fae.

  “Gah… it’s like nails on the fucking chalkboard,” Jason said as he cringed.

  Right as Jason finished speaking, the creature turned to face me again, and made its way towards me. It placed its dripping tentacles on my temple before caressing them for a second and then tightening down with tremendous force. I tried my best to resist the stinky, writhing gray appendages, yet with each squirm its grip only fastened tighter. And then, all of a sudden my head became light and began to swim with effulgent colors and shapes. A disorienting rush of indiscernible information overloaded my head and I was unable to think straight. Then the pain came, not mere stabbing or like time of the month pain, but a real penetrating and violating sense of agony. I wasn’t sure whether I was screaming or not, but I knew my mouth was wide open.

  And then once again the sensation shifted as the world began to fall away. I rose from my body and floated upward through the tiled ceiling into a massive stadium of empty space. My surroundings were pitch-black except for the faint dazzling glint of some far off stars. I felt a sudden frigid cold and found I could not breathe, yet for some reason I had no need to. It was then that I saw it appear. A humongous mess of matter resembling a face. Well… a face doesn’t do it justice. It was an amorphous violet and pink blob of hideously wrinkled flesh leaking gas from unnatural openings around its face. I’d seen a lot of horror movies in my life, but the terror of this creature was almost incomparable. At the center of its face lay one humongous and terrifying eye of pupula duplex stained in a faded shade of marigold. It is simply impossible to describe it with realistic detail in human language. The utter terror and superiority this creature emitted with nothing but its very presence sowed feelings of overwhelming insignificance. It was larger than any being I had known to have existed. The being opened a massive crevice below its eye which had previously been submerged within flaps of greasy flesh. It was a massive sapphire hole which began to absorb the floating debris and planetary waste sifting through the space around it. The being’s face contorted in such a way that resembled an attempt at speech yet no words escaped its hideous sideways lips. But then I heard the creature speaking to me in English of all languages. However, it spoke not through lips and tongues, but through communication directly into my mind. Time seemed to slow down as I tried to communicate with the hulking mass of astral terror. The fractals which spawned the illusion of time in our existence ceased to be cut in effect freezing time in every existence beyond the one I lingered in.

  “Why are you doing this?” I spoke to it.

  “Of what do you mean, human? Perhaps you mean the destruction of that pathetic little world,” it asked wordlessly.

  “Yes, and torturing my... friend and I,” I added.

  “That world is nothing more than another hub of resources as we continue our expansion across all of time and space. Our quest will not falter till we have consumed all that exists.”

  “Okay,” I replied. “But what then, what happens when you consume everything there is to consume?”

  “We will consume each other till none remains but one,” it emotionlessly communicated.

  I trembled at the cold, predatorial absence of empathy. Beyond the mere stature and ability of this Eldritch creature, it had already accepted it was going to consume its brethren. That was beyond messed up.

  “Fine, whatever,” I called to it. “Why are you talking to me like this and holding Jason and me hostage.”

  “Ah, little morsel… what a strange emotion you mammals call “love”. A senseless creation of chemicals within the brain that causes you to act against self preservation in the name of procreation. Pathetic and highly odd,” the being coldly stated.

  “Love…,” I whispered under conflicted and fearful breaths.

  The creature continued its communication.

  “To answer your question, my followers and spawn refer to me, at least on your Earth, as Olk-Elios the Void. Regardless, your lover merely entered a conflict far beyond his comprehension and will have to suffer accordingly. You have an alternative option I wish to present you. I would ordinarily have no way to communicate with you unless I had entered your body with my followers. However, you are gifted and as such incredibly fortunate. You have latent abilities that you humans call ‘psychic’. Few beings, even fewer humans have real ‘psychic’ abilities. My point is simple, I will allow you to live and provide safe passage home should you assist me in spreading the message and fear of my coming.”

  I did not have a chance to answer as I was suddenly roped through the spacial gloom and flung back into my body.

  Alarms blared in the distance and light orbs flashed vibrant shades of red and white. Two of the monstrosities lay spasming on the floor in fits of confusion and agony; the third lay motionless. Jason was no longer in his chair. He was working to remove my electronic handcuffs with a tool. They fell with a sharp clank.

  “J, what the hell is going on,” I asked him. “And how did you get loose?”

  “This little robot-thing just flew in here out of nowhere and fried those bastards. Before it shot off into the ventilation ducts over there, it dropped this tool in my lap and told me to free myself and tune back into the comm link,” he replied.

  I nodded, although I was a bit confused, and tapped the rune on my shoulder. Suddenly, a female voice transmitted through the communications link. “I see you have awoken human. I am the A.I. that runs this facility. You may call me IMRA. Your entrance into this facility awoke me from a forced slumber. I apologize for not assisting you when you were under siege, but the release from stasis kept me in a state of disarray until I became re-acclimated with the situation. I watched carefully as you
were swarmed uncertain of my course of action given that I am accountable for running this place, not helping animals.”

  “A load of joy, ain’t she,” Jason chuckled.

  “Thank you so much,” I replied. “What do we have to do?”

  “Look to the floor,” IMRA replied. “I have unleashed a measure of defense to break your clairvoyant connection to the invaders. It attacks with a sort of energy that only harms those completely under external control. I also unleashed a second safeguard in the form of mechanical insect drones. They enter their targets and eradicate the parasites within. A rather intelligent measure of defense which our engineers devised.”

  “Does anyone survive that?“ I inquired.

  “There is a survival rate of roughly 1.8%. That matters little. I have made contact with Irithril and she has relayed to me your objectives. Irithril and her comrade are both located far away and predisposed at this time, so you two must retrieve both the power cylinders and me from the central security office,” said IMRA. “You each have little time, so you must hurry.”

  ✽✽✽

  “Come on, Ellie, go, go,” Jason called. “Before the rest of the horde notices the lack of connection and comes looking for a Saturday barbeque.”

  I’m hurrying dipshit.

  “I know, I’m going as fast as I can,” I replied aloud.

  We dashed through the white-walled room outside of our temporary cell and entered into a hallway. The text on the wall was unreadable due to its Fae origins.

  “Where are we going, IMRA?” I called.

  “Head down the hall till you see a door lit with glowing blue text on the right and go through it. I have left it unlocked. If you push through the opposing door you shall be on the bottom of the maintenance stairs where you were ambushed last time.”

  We raced through the facility ignoring the lights and diving and dodging over and between the twitching, spasming, and wailing creatures. Fuck them. We reached the door lit with glowing blue text in record time and busted through the door with ease, however, the opposing door gave no easy time.