04-05-2018, 02:48 AM
There is a discordant wailing at the edges of Luci’s mind.
She awakens in a squalid subway car, covered in graffiti and trembling on its track. Broken fluorescent lights flicker mournfully, their loud buzzing joining with the rumbling of the subway car.
Luci instinctively puts her hand to her abdomen, but the wound has vanished.
She is dreaming.
A dream within a dream. For a moment, Luci knows peace.
Then she hears the flutes.
“Oh God,” she whispers.
The notes are so faint they cannot be heard consciously. They do not vibrate the air to create sound, like a two-dimensional violin string wobbling to create a three-dimensional sound wave. They are notes produced by instruments being played in many dimensions at once, their quantum waves vibrating and pushing and screeching their way between the quarks in reality, and the neurons between thoughts.
Luci has her eyes closed tight, grinding her teeth madly as blood starts to drip from her nose. Her knuckles are white as she clutches her chair.
The flutes rise sharply in tone and volume, and with a wave of wrongness the train car shudders. A lurch in Luci’s stomach causes her to jerk forward, her head swimming.
The flute notes ring disgustingly between her synapsis as she pulls herself up.
“What?” she calls loudly, her scared voice echoing around the empty train compartment. She stumbles to her feet, clutching her nose, grinding her teeth.
The flutes again rise in pitch, screeching in Luci’s head, and the subway car warps with wrongness once more, bringing Luci to her knees.
Through ragged breathes, Luci picks her head up.
“I’m sorry,” she says desperately to the empty car. “I can’t understand you.”
The flutes hiss in anger, and Luci screams. The subway car crashes, crumpling in on Luci
***
Another level deeper.
Luci is on a very strange planet being bathed in the ultraviolet glow of a dying sun, on the edge of a cliff overlooking an ocean. Luci thinks it is beautiful; ultraviolet is her favorite color.
Down at the bottom of the cliff, standing atop a few jagged rocks, a well-dressed man with skin like night and eyes like madness is staring up at her.
“Hello,” says Luci cautiously, her whispers getting swept up in the wind.
The flutes screech back, and Luci falls to the ground twitching, blood pooling rapidly from her nose.
This time, Luci thinks she recognizes the first trappings of speech.
‘THOOOOORNS,’ the flutes wail.
Luci lays on the cliff, twitching as the notes overwhelm her.
The flutes are unforgiving.
‘DEEEPER,’ they whisper, as the neurons between Luci’s thoughts start to flicker.
“No! No please!” Luci yelps.
Her body acts of its own accord, jerking upwards as though on marionette strings.
Luci’s body drags itself over the cliff and into the ocean.
***
The flutes have not changed their notes. They have gotten no quieter. They still buzz between the subatomic particles that make up Luci’s astral form.
The only difference is now the music seems...pleasant.
Luci awakens beneath a silk golden blanket, thin yet opaque, and glittering brightly.
She holds the blanket to her chest as she sits up, her eyes scanning what appears to be an upscale hotel room. Every time she turns her head, she sees impossible things in the corner of her vision, but as she soon as she turns back to them they dissappear
She hears a man’s confident laughter, and clutches her blanket tighter to her chest as the Black Man walks in.
He is grinning with a maw full of misshapen teeth. Reality warps around his avatar like a black hole, sucking in the light and reflecting none, save for his glowing poisonous yellow eyes and his white teeth. Were it not for his immaculately tailored suit his form would be indecipherable.
“Oh,” Luci says, breathing a sigh of relief. “It’s just you.”
Luci lets her blanket fall and gazes at the Black Man with loving eyes that glow a poisonous yellow, just like his.
“Just me,” he says warmly, out of the mouth of madness with the voice of an angle. “But I feel like I’m missing something…”
“Your tie, of course,” Luci says, striding over to the closet, her bare feet padding against the carpet. When she opens the door, a dozen snakes hanging from a tie-rack hiss and lash out at her.
Luci does not seem concerned by the numerous deep bites she receives, but takes her time, studying the angry snakes. She grins as she sees the perfect one; a panicky little adder in the back of the pile. Luci is calm as she lets her hand drift closer, even as the adder opens its mouth and strikes, sinking deep into her palm. Luci does not flinch, but grabs the adders head with her other hand delicately, pulling it away and holding it by the back of it’s head.
With a housewifes smile Luci pads over to the Black Man, carefully lowering the adder to his throat until the snake latches on.
“Perfect!” the Black Man says soothingly. He adjusts the tie in a mirror, but when Luci peeks in the mirror it shows her unimaginable cosmic horrors, so she looks away.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t understand you before,” Luci says. Her neck is craned backwards, studying the plain white ceiling above them. “I must have been insane. It all makes so much sense. I understand now.”
The Black Man grinds his teeth, tusks, and fangs. The flutes trill.
“You do not understand,” the he corrects in his hypnotic voice. “You are very weak,” he adds, adjusting his collar. “So close to death I could not feel you. So small I could not see you. So quiet I could not hear you. Why have I found you?”
Luci grins coyly as she slides beneath the glittering gold sheet, batting her eyelashes.
“I can think of a few reasons,” she says in a husky whisper.
The Black Man does not react.
“Is this like Alice in Wonderland?” the girl teases. “You have to stay still to move forward? You have to ask the question, I answer it?”
The flutes howl.
“You found me because you see my path,” Luci admits. The notes from the flutes start to get louder, and more distracting. “And if you can see it, He can see it.”
Luci’s insane yellow eyes roll back into her head as she contemplates the machinations of insane gods, her own madness coming up short.
“But,” she says. “Why-”
The Black Man sighs. He walks over to Luci, extending an ink black hand to brush her hair out of her fair.
“You do not understand,” the Black Man repeats in disappointment. His voice is still soothing, still hypnotic. “We must go deeper.”
And then his hand is crushing Luci’s throat, and the hotel room is spinning.
***
The music is so beautiful. The haunting, discordant flute music has become an ecstatic orchestra, filling Luci with warmth and comfort.
Luci opens her brightly glowing yellow eyes and hurries to wipe away her tears of joy. She is still wearing the shimmering gold blanket from the hotel room wrapped around her like a dress.
She is in a desert made of aqua colored sand, the wind whipping it wildly into the air. When the sand sprays against her skin, it breaks into cool water droplets.
Before her stands a mummified pharaoh with a tall, emaciated frame. It wears a massive golden crown glittering with scarab beetles.
“Can you hear the flutes?” it whispers, with a voice like ash in the wind.
Through her tears, Luci nods, the sand whipping at her face.
“What do they say?” it asks as the flutes harmonize.
“They’re saying…” Luci closes her eyes, letting the notes burrow between every fiber of her being. With a gasp, she opens them.
“They’re screaming,” she says dully. “They’re insane, and they’re screaming…”
“You will come to him,” the pharaoh assures her. “And he will show you the light, and you will be one of his flutes, forever.”
A windstorm picks up, the aqua sand begins swirling between them furiously. The flutes scream.
“I understand,” whispers Luci, her eyes glowing very brightly now.
She can hardly see the pharaoh now behind the grains of aqua sand billowing between them.
The sand overtakes her.
***
Luci is falling. The wind whips her hair, the sun warms her skin, the clouds tickle her face.
***
She awakens in a squalid subway car, covered in graffiti and trembling on its track. Broken fluorescent lights flicker mournfully, their loud buzzing joining with the rumbling of the subway car.
Luci instinctively puts her hand to her abdomen, but the wound has vanished.
She is dreaming.
A dream within a dream. For a moment, Luci knows peace.
Then she hears the flutes.
“Oh God,” she whispers.
The notes are so faint they cannot be heard consciously. They do not vibrate the air to create sound, like a two-dimensional violin string wobbling to create a three-dimensional sound wave. They are notes produced by instruments being played in many dimensions at once, their quantum waves vibrating and pushing and screeching their way between the quarks in reality, and the neurons between thoughts.
Luci has her eyes closed tight, grinding her teeth madly as blood starts to drip from her nose. Her knuckles are white as she clutches her chair.
The flutes rise sharply in tone and volume, and with a wave of wrongness the train car shudders. A lurch in Luci’s stomach causes her to jerk forward, her head swimming.
The flute notes ring disgustingly between her synapsis as she pulls herself up.
“What?” she calls loudly, her scared voice echoing around the empty train compartment. She stumbles to her feet, clutching her nose, grinding her teeth.
The flutes again rise in pitch, screeching in Luci’s head, and the subway car warps with wrongness once more, bringing Luci to her knees.
Through ragged breathes, Luci picks her head up.
“I’m sorry,” she says desperately to the empty car. “I can’t understand you.”
The flutes hiss in anger, and Luci screams. The subway car crashes, crumpling in on Luci
***
Another level deeper.
Luci is on a very strange planet being bathed in the ultraviolet glow of a dying sun, on the edge of a cliff overlooking an ocean. Luci thinks it is beautiful; ultraviolet is her favorite color.
Down at the bottom of the cliff, standing atop a few jagged rocks, a well-dressed man with skin like night and eyes like madness is staring up at her.
“Hello,” says Luci cautiously, her whispers getting swept up in the wind.
The flutes screech back, and Luci falls to the ground twitching, blood pooling rapidly from her nose.
This time, Luci thinks she recognizes the first trappings of speech.
‘THOOOOORNS,’ the flutes wail.
Luci lays on the cliff, twitching as the notes overwhelm her.
The flutes are unforgiving.
‘DEEEPER,’ they whisper, as the neurons between Luci’s thoughts start to flicker.
“No! No please!” Luci yelps.
Her body acts of its own accord, jerking upwards as though on marionette strings.
Luci’s body drags itself over the cliff and into the ocean.
***
The flutes have not changed their notes. They have gotten no quieter. They still buzz between the subatomic particles that make up Luci’s astral form.
The only difference is now the music seems...pleasant.
Luci awakens beneath a silk golden blanket, thin yet opaque, and glittering brightly.
She holds the blanket to her chest as she sits up, her eyes scanning what appears to be an upscale hotel room. Every time she turns her head, she sees impossible things in the corner of her vision, but as she soon as she turns back to them they dissappear
She hears a man’s confident laughter, and clutches her blanket tighter to her chest as the Black Man walks in.
He is grinning with a maw full of misshapen teeth. Reality warps around his avatar like a black hole, sucking in the light and reflecting none, save for his glowing poisonous yellow eyes and his white teeth. Were it not for his immaculately tailored suit his form would be indecipherable.
“Oh,” Luci says, breathing a sigh of relief. “It’s just you.”
Luci lets her blanket fall and gazes at the Black Man with loving eyes that glow a poisonous yellow, just like his.
“Just me,” he says warmly, out of the mouth of madness with the voice of an angle. “But I feel like I’m missing something…”
“Your tie, of course,” Luci says, striding over to the closet, her bare feet padding against the carpet. When she opens the door, a dozen snakes hanging from a tie-rack hiss and lash out at her.
Luci does not seem concerned by the numerous deep bites she receives, but takes her time, studying the angry snakes. She grins as she sees the perfect one; a panicky little adder in the back of the pile. Luci is calm as she lets her hand drift closer, even as the adder opens its mouth and strikes, sinking deep into her palm. Luci does not flinch, but grabs the adders head with her other hand delicately, pulling it away and holding it by the back of it’s head.
With a housewifes smile Luci pads over to the Black Man, carefully lowering the adder to his throat until the snake latches on.
“Perfect!” the Black Man says soothingly. He adjusts the tie in a mirror, but when Luci peeks in the mirror it shows her unimaginable cosmic horrors, so she looks away.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t understand you before,” Luci says. Her neck is craned backwards, studying the plain white ceiling above them. “I must have been insane. It all makes so much sense. I understand now.”
The Black Man grinds his teeth, tusks, and fangs. The flutes trill.
“You do not understand,” the he corrects in his hypnotic voice. “You are very weak,” he adds, adjusting his collar. “So close to death I could not feel you. So small I could not see you. So quiet I could not hear you. Why have I found you?”
Luci grins coyly as she slides beneath the glittering gold sheet, batting her eyelashes.
“I can think of a few reasons,” she says in a husky whisper.
The Black Man does not react.
“Is this like Alice in Wonderland?” the girl teases. “You have to stay still to move forward? You have to ask the question, I answer it?”
The flutes howl.
“You found me because you see my path,” Luci admits. The notes from the flutes start to get louder, and more distracting. “And if you can see it, He can see it.”
Luci’s insane yellow eyes roll back into her head as she contemplates the machinations of insane gods, her own madness coming up short.
“But,” she says. “Why-”
The Black Man sighs. He walks over to Luci, extending an ink black hand to brush her hair out of her fair.
“You do not understand,” the Black Man repeats in disappointment. His voice is still soothing, still hypnotic. “We must go deeper.”
And then his hand is crushing Luci’s throat, and the hotel room is spinning.
***
The music is so beautiful. The haunting, discordant flute music has become an ecstatic orchestra, filling Luci with warmth and comfort.
Luci opens her brightly glowing yellow eyes and hurries to wipe away her tears of joy. She is still wearing the shimmering gold blanket from the hotel room wrapped around her like a dress.
She is in a desert made of aqua colored sand, the wind whipping it wildly into the air. When the sand sprays against her skin, it breaks into cool water droplets.
Before her stands a mummified pharaoh with a tall, emaciated frame. It wears a massive golden crown glittering with scarab beetles.
“Can you hear the flutes?” it whispers, with a voice like ash in the wind.
Through her tears, Luci nods, the sand whipping at her face.
“What do they say?” it asks as the flutes harmonize.
“They’re saying…” Luci closes her eyes, letting the notes burrow between every fiber of her being. With a gasp, she opens them.
“They’re screaming,” she says dully. “They’re insane, and they’re screaming…”
“You will come to him,” the pharaoh assures her. “And he will show you the light, and you will be one of his flutes, forever.”
A windstorm picks up, the aqua sand begins swirling between them furiously. The flutes scream.
“I understand,” whispers Luci, her eyes glowing very brightly now.
She can hardly see the pharaoh now behind the grains of aqua sand billowing between them.
The sand overtakes her.
***
Luci is falling. The wind whips her hair, the sun warms her skin, the clouds tickle her face.
***
![[Image: V4Dvvfy.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/V4Dvvfy.gif)