The Red Man

by Alex Meleg

creatures created an opening in the circle for it to leave. It gestured for me to follow.

  The mesh of unending alleys and small streets terminated in a large piazza of sorts. In the center of the piazza stood a massive milk white gazebo that towered over me. My eyes skirted around the structure, unable to focus long on it. The creature tugged me towards it.

  The air vibrated around me as we approached. Swirling clouds formed out of the nothingness within the gazebo. They coalesced into a three dimensional image. A pure pulsing image of clean night skies shimmered with roiling clouds and waterspouts forming over blue waters.

  A torrent of memories and images in my head. Laughing students, long hours in the library, correcting hundreds of tests. A man, me, a face I couldn't recognize. On a beach, playing in the surf, sun.

  The image folded in on itself and faded away along with the memories in my head. I saw dirty huts and a broken cobbled road leading into dead lands. I fell to the ground and clutched my head. After a few moments the headache faded. I regained my composure and looked at the creature.

  "Do you have a name?"

  The creature sat in front of me and wrote something in the dirt. I was surprised to see the word VEECH.

  "My name is Martin."

  Veech smothered out his name and trotted off.

  "Wait, what's going on? Where are you going?"

  Veech stopped, came slowly back to me and sat on his haunches. He cocked his head to the side like a bird. After a few uncomfortable minutes he scratched something in the sand.

  I guide follow to big gate you decide.

  "Decide what?"

  He scratched out the words except the phrase you decide. He pointed at the ground, pointed at me, and sat back. I was as confused as ever.

  I followed Veech through the maze of streets and alleys. The city was large, far larger than I'd guessed. The only buildings I saw were the mud huts, none of which had any light coming from within. Veech slithered around corners and vanished into shadows. I could barely keep up. We ended up at the edge of the city on a jutting plateau of red rock. The drop was sheer and the wastes beyond stretched clear to the horizon.

  We walked through silent craggy badlands draped in tepid daylight. Night never fell and sleep never touched my eyes. Veech hardly looked back at me so I tapped him on the back. He stopped and without moving any other part of his body turn his head to look at me.

  "Veech what are you?"

  He sat up, clasped his hands together and looked at the sky and the ground. His words were crude and oddly shaped.

  Like you.

  "Like the same species? You understand me and write in English, what are you?"

  Veech quickly wiped out the words and wrote sorry in the dirt. He ambled off on his many jointed legs and ignored any more of my requests for information.

  We veered towards a black smudge in the distance that reflected the faint light. The smudge became a black water lake leading into a sparse forest. Burnt husks of trees loomed over us with claw branches. The trunks seemed to breathe. Large fungus like growths opened and closed, exuding hot fetid air. Veech warned me away from them and walked towards the forest.

  The smell of old rot wafted from the lake which rippled with the consistency of coagulated blood. Veech sat on his haunches and watched me walk to the edge of the lake. I bent down to get a closer look at the strange water and recoiled as sharp odors invaded my nose. I backed away from the water towards Veech as he made his way into the forest.

  Deep pools of black water were interspersed throughout the forest. Ahead, a small child sat calmly submerged up to his shoulders in a quiet pool. Shiny black hair framed a smooth white face. Eyes unblinking obsidian ovals. I pitied him, I was at the edge of his pool staring at my reflection in his eyes, they were the key. If I just moved a little bit closer.

  The child mumbled something under his breath and lifted a sludge covered hand out of the water. I clasped the child's small hand in mine, slick and warm.

  A familiar hand on the nape of my neck. Veech violently yanked me away from the child. The warm haze in my mind broke and I saw the child for what it really was. Its jaw unhinged like a snake. Out of its maw shot a thick searching tendril. Cracks opened in the boy's skin where smaller tendrils wriggled around, frantically searching.

  Veech continued on. He'd often swivel his head around to watch me with his eyeless gaze, I didn't think he trusted me much after that. I walked close to him and distanced myself from any pools we passed. Obsidian eyes hungrily followed me from pool to pool as we passed through the forest. A high pitched hiss of anger from the boy marked our exit.

  In the distance a red rock plateau rose out of the bed of a deep valley. Thick waves of heat smoldered and pulsed in the distance, distorting the view. At the top of the plateau was a piece of fabric blowing in the wind. A marker? Veech pointed at the plateau.

  “Why do we have to go there, can't we go around?”

  Veech slowly wrote in the dirt.

  Need direction central guide stone.

  “So you just need to get our bearings? What's so special about that hunk of rock?”

  Guides use it forever make vision large.

  At the base of the plateau Veech latched onto the rock face and climbed, I followed suit. The rock was like stiff sponge between my fingers. It gave when it looked solid and broke and oozed when I grasped too tightly. The pungent odor of rot wafted off the rocks. We eventually reached a twisted trail to the top and followed it up.

  At the opposite side of the plateau the blue fabric I'd seen in the distance was actually a creature. As if it sensed my thoughts he, it was definitely a he, craned his neck to look back at us.

  His face was a foamy blue color. Hair like wispy strands of dried seaweed with small shells and items affixed to long braids framed a cherubic face. His lack of eyes was the most striking feature, blue skin seamlessly filled in the space where his eyes should be.

  The slick panther like gait of the Blue Man unnerved me. He slid over to us and regarded Veech, sneered.

  "Brought fresh meat for the chopping pit I see," he said.

  Veech stood between me and him.

  "We all started out as something else. Human or otherwise. Come with me and I'll show you a better path than this crawling worm can."

  Veech raised his hands and drew in the air. His many knuckled hands contorted into strange shapes.

  The Blue Man responded in kind "I too can speak in the ancient g'calte. But I follow none of your dead precepts guide."

  Veech backed away, grabbed my hand, pulled me back with him.

  His voice resonated, like a broken record echoing in my skull.

  "You seek a gateway? I was like that once," he chuckled. "Gateways are an easy way out of these lands. But, if you are patient, you can find other paths to freedom."

  I gave him my full attention. In fact I couldn't take my eyes off him.

  What did I have to lose? The Blue Man exuded wrongness, like the boy in the pool. But his offer was intoxicating. What if Veech's path wasn't the only one?

  "What can this world offer other than slow death?" I said.

  He snickered, his dry lips cracked. "I can show you, but you'll have to follow me," Veech had vanished.

  I let him lead me down the plateau. I was a sleepwalker and the Blue Man was the light at the end of the tunnel. We passed by tall creatures on skinny twig legs that swayed in the breeze like plastic flamingos. Massive snake like creatures ate holes in screaming rock. Black trees with blood red fruit literally called out to me.

  The journey was punctuated by his watery smell. Over hills and sandy dunes I followed that smell. Never stopping, never getting anywhere.

  His unnatural voice pierced my reverie like a volley of arrows.

  "We're here. My home and personal collection"

  I stood in the center of a large room. Faces carved with unnatural precision covered the walls. No, not carved, the faces twitched and wailed. The floor along the w
all was lined with living statues writhing against their restraints. I'd backed into the corner of the room, animal fear clouded my brain, why had I followed this monster? My exposed hand brushed up against the wall.

  Unbelievable pain shot up my arm. I collapsed against the wall. I screamed, it was like acid being pumped into my body.

  The Blue Man's hot breath wafted into my nostrils. Like salt and dead fish.

  "I'm a skin collector you see. I live in this choir of pain because it gives me pleasure," he took a step back. "You should have listened to Veech my friend," he strolled out of the building, humming to himself.

  Hours passed. This land, it consumed everything it touched, How could anything free living survive in such a hostile environment? The tendrils were deep inside, consuming and changing me. Through the crawling pain I fondly remembered a light coming at me from the end of a dark tunnel. The Blue Man's laugh was all that light promised.

  A hand gently caressed my thigh. I painfully wrenched away from the touch. Through my mental haze I saw Veech.

  "Veech? Why did you let that thing do this to me?"

  Veech shuddered and wrote in the sand. I struggled to read the words. I guide not force.

  I sighed and let my let my chin rest on my chest. Veech edged closer to me, a small knife in his hand.

  He sliced the tendrils holding me to the wall with surgical precision. I shivered as the parts already inside me slithered deeper into my body, away from the knife. The punctures closed shortly after. Growls, yelps, and screams erupted from the surrounding walls as he severed each one.

  The last tendril was