Featured Creature: Reunion at the Merrimon Library Part VIII, The Blue Chasm

Reunion at the 

Merrimon Library:
Part VIII,
The Blue Chasm

~ Continued from Part VII ~

The large truck careened toward Alan.  It crushed the bookshelves and scattered books into the air as it plowed forward.  The edge of a shelf hit one of the smaller jellyfish and the thing exploded in a burst of slimy luminescence.  He turned quickly and pushed hard with his legs.  The last thing he saw as he leapt away was the creature entwined with Tim's body pressed flat against the truck's front end.  He jumped.
 

The world twisted around him and a lightning bolt of pain shot up his leg.  The library became a blur as Alan was tossed about.  He landed hard against a shelf and it fell to the ground.  The truck front flattened against the wall with a metallic grinding thud.  There was a bright flash of bluish light and the entire building shook violently.

Alan heard a loud crack and suddenly he felt a wave of cold liquid rushing over him.  It poured into his nostrils and mouth.  He pushed against the shelf as hard as he could to get above it but the force of the wave pushed him off the shelf and away.  His leg sang with pain.  Luckily the deluge ended as quickly as it had begun and he finally came to rest in the corner near the exit.  Alan gasped for air.  He pushed the books away that had washed over with him and lifted himself up with one arm.  He coughed out salt water.  He tried to right himself, but the pain in his leg was excruciating.  He could not move it.

He leaned up as far as he could, looking over the debris of the shelves.  The front of the truck was crushed into an accordion shape against the wall.  The vehicle was a salt truck.  It had carried a large brine tank that had burst when it crashed.  The remnants of the tank lay in a twisted pile behind it.

Alan glanced around nervously.  He couldn't see any of the creatures.  The room was dark and the strange light from the wall was gone.  Snow and sleet blew in through the chasm the truck had created in the exterior wall.  Outside he could see the flash of emergency vehicle lights and hear their distant sirens.

The wall in the corner had returned to normal, but he could not see Tim's body.  He lay down flat as flashlights danced in the corridor leading to the back area.  He heard many voices approaching.  He didn't know if the ritual had worked and the gate was now closed, but he had nothing left to give.  Alan closed his eyes.

~

Alan floated in sea of deep cool blue.  He felt a gentle current pulling him down and deeper.  He did not resist and enjoyed the coolness that enveloped him.  The current slowly moved him over a vast chasm.  He floated in place, gently rocked by the rhythm of the sea.  He thought absently that he should need to be breathing, but it seemed unimportant against the calm vastness of the blue.  Movement from within the chasm caught his eye.  A large shadow slid gracefully through the murk.

He felt a presence behind him and waved his arms.  He turned slowly.  The shadow from below moved beyond where he could see it.  As he turned, he came face to face with Tim's corpse.  It drifted slightly with the currents, its blank eyes staring.  A faint cloud of blood emerged from it's mouth and defused into the surrounding water.  Suddenly Alan wanted to breath, needed to breath, but the surface was so very far away.  He flailed his arms and tried to swim away, but he could not seem to get his legs to work.  The shadow reached up from the chasm, its long tentacles unfurling in a fan behind Tim's corpse.

Suddenly Tim's corpse jerked into motion and came at him, grabbing his legs.  Bright pain flashed through his body and he screamed a cloud of bubbles.  Tim's corpse crawled and climbed up his body.  Alan pushed at it, trying to dislodge its grip, but his need for air was overwhelming him.  His vision darkened at the edges.  The corpse pinned one of his arms as it moved closer.  Its bloated mouth worked unpleasantly as it expelled a turmoil of luminous tentacles that flailed about and stung Alan's face.  Alan stifled his scream and tried to keep his mouth closed tight as Tim's tentacled corpse moved in to kiss him.

Alan woke as the paramedics lifted him into the ambulance.  He jerked against his restraints.  His leg was in a splint now and an oxygen mask covered his mouth and nose.  He breathed heavy, eyes wide with terror.  Seeing his fear, one of the paramedics put a comforting hand on his shoulder and then fiddled with the intravenous feed attached to his arm.  He suddenly felt very tired.  He struggled against it, but a calming dizziness overwhelmed him. Alan's eyes fluttered and he slept.

~ Continued in part VIX ~

 

 

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}