Ollie sipped at their coffee, staunchly ignoring the undulating mass of tentacles hovering directly between Mrs. Jessum's tall brown rabbit ears as they waited for the light to turn green. The creature wobbled a bit, stretching a tentacle out in Ollie's direction slowly, and they shifted to their left slightly, staying just outside of its reach.
Mrs. Jessum, of course, remained blissfully unaware of the eldritch plane-hopper she'd acquired at some point in time. Maybe Ollie would have helped remove it somehow, move it along to a different place or plane, but it seemed incapable of understanding them, and it didn't seem to be causing the old lady any harm so they'd decided to leave it be.
They started across the street the second the lights changed, leaving Mrs. Jessum and her attachment behind. There was something they had to do, and despite the efforts certain denizens made to attract Ollie's attention, they stayed focused. Tentacles hung from the branches overhead, shifting in the light wind and uncurling down towards them as they passed. The dogwalker that passed them had several dogs on leashes, and several more plane-shifting four-legged multi-eyed “dogs” accompanying them off leash. They brayed a tonal greeting at Ollie as they plodded past, and Ollie tipped his head at them, and the dog-walker, in acknowledgement. The SwirlBird, a massive cloud of nebulous greenish-reddish hued gas dotted with stars, chirped at Ollie from its perch on the local antique stores sign, its gases lighting up like lightning within a thunderstorm's clouds in greeting. They spared the creature a smile, tossing their empty cup into a bear garbage can as they hurried past towards the pizza place further down the street.
They ducked into the alley behind the pizza place, stepping around puddles with clear distaste as they made their way to the dumpsters. Not their favorite place in the world, to be sure, but for some reason Y'lga refused to turn up anywhere that didn’t smell at least partially like rotten food. Approaching the dark space between the two dumpsters, Ollie pulled a large paper wrapped object from their satchel and crouched down, peering into the dark shadows.
"Y' lga, are you here? I found it," Ollie said, ears perked as they unwrapped the paper to reveal a large, faceted crystal swirling with hues of pink and purple. The shadows shifted, and suddenly multiple thin filaments shot out to curl around the edges of the dumpsters. Ollie leaned back a little, trying to avoid the wildly waving filaments, and held the crystal it in front of them. An excited chattering burst from the shadows, grating in their ears and making them wince.
"Yes, here it is," Ollie lay the crystal on the thin dark web the filaments had formed before them. " You really need to keep better track of those."
The chattering vacillated rapidly before that filaments were sucked back until the shadows between the dumpsters, taking the crystal with them and leaving Ollie all by themself.
"You're welcome," Ollie sighed, sending back up and wiping their hands on their pants.
Finally. Y'lga had been harassing them for days to find his lost eye, and Ollie had to trespass into far too many backyards the past couple of nights to find it. At least now they wouldn't be followed round by the stench of garbage or have those creepy filaments popping out of every shadow anymore. Well, not until the next time Y'lga lost an eye, but Ollie welcomed the break.
Fixing the strap of their bag on their shoulder, they headed for the street, hurrying so that they could get back to the shop before the end of their break. There were only two of them at the shop that morning and Ollie didn't want to leave Jessica alone longer than they needed to.
One step left to reach the street, and they were hit by a sudden and overwhelming sense of something, something ill defined but very real, massive, like it was the source of its own gravitational field. They stood in place, one foot lifted and poised to set down on the concrete, hand still clenched around the bag strap, but their body was being pulled in several directions at once. The air around them shattered, they could feel the shards of it flying past their face and see the shimmer of the sharp remaining edges before them. The world looked very much the same, but at the same time very much different, in the space created by the shattered air, and Ollie realized with a sinking feeling in their gut that it wasn't the air shattering, but a planar pane, and that whatever they were seeing before them might very well not be the world they knew.
The booming reverb in their head confirmed that suspicion; Ollie couldn't quite tell what the meaning behind it was in that first blast, but it set their heart racing, their bones shaking, like they were a bell that'd been rung. The sensation came again, and this time the scene before Ollie's eyes changed, long dark tentacles of dark, shimmering color stretching out-out-OUT from a central point of the view before them and into their own world, surrounding them on all sides as at the central point a large glass-like dome filled with swirling gases stretched into view, distorted as it emerged, reflecting a myriad of colors that Ollie wasn't able to name much less comprehend. Their senses were overwhelmed - every single one flooding their body with a rapidly cycling mixture of excitement and fear and despair and awe. They didn't know if they wanted to greet whatever entity was making itself known so loudly and inescapably, or curl up and cry on the ground before the horrible majesty of it.
They couldn't do either, as the creature's appearance seemed to have frozen them in a moment, but they felt the conflict of both choices all the same.
When that booming, reverberating pressure came upon Ollie again, though, it held meaning. Ollie could feel the creature's worry, it's request for assistance. The tentacles weaved through the air, but held no menace.
"W-what...what do you need?" Ollie managed to squeak out past the pressure and the fear and the shock.
The tentacles waved in a dizzying and slightly unsettling way, and the glass like dome swept in closer to Ollie so suddenly it left them reeling with dizziness. The gases within the dome swirled faster, changing colors rapidly until they suddenly parted and showed a series of images:
A house, two stories with an interestingly olive paint job; shadowy silhouettes of four people, two adults and two children; a mass of fungal-looking growths, with tendrils growing haphazard in all directions; and at the very end, the image of a small, circular multi-colored globule with a glass dome at the center of it, accompanied by a poignant and gut wrenching sense of longing.
"You want them back?"Ollie asked, by this point not only hearing but feeling their own pulse in their ears, like a rapid-fire pressure change. "And it has something to do with that house, and...and family?"
The reverb was so massive in response it was Ollie could do to stay focused on the situation, and the vision, at hand.
"Okay," they replied, because they didn't really have a choice. Because, when faced with an eldritch creature that could literally crash through planes and manifest so wholly that a person's entire body reacted unwillingly to the intrusion, there was no way to say no.
The creature's tentacles waved through the air again, excitedly perhaps, and the swirling glasses within the glass dome strobed with various colors. It left, and Ollie felt it like a physical thing, like there was some unseen part of the creature that had dug inside of them when it appeared and now it was pulling each and every part of itself out of them one by one. The air seemed to piece itself together as the creature pulled itself back into wherever it came from, and in a moment Ollie was left standing at the entrance to the alley once more.
Around them, the world continued on as if nothing had happened.
Ollie took a deep, steadying breath, and headed back to work.
-----
Ollie clocked out of work at 4pm with the plan of going home and trying to make sense of the vision they’d been given by what had to be a higher level creature.
They were met with roads full of broken glass instead.
Not, not real broken glass, that everyone could see, but the ethereal kind that looked real enough to trigger Ollie's “danger” senses. Just walking to their car felt like a hazard, the glass sticking out of the ground like large, glittering stalactites, all sharp edges and deadly points all around them. It got worse once they got in their car, the glass rising out of the blacktop in all sorts of rainbow oil-slick colors, with only a very clearly defined path open for them to drive.
And all the usual noise, the tree tentacles and the Swirlbird and the slavering dog beasts with too many legs, were quiet, skulking in corners or just plain gone. Whatever this new creature was, it must’ve been strong, or seemed strong enough to the others that they preferred not to interfere.
Ollie wished they could treat that fact as inconsequential, pretend to be unafraid, but the terror they felt in their inner being was very real. Once, a long time ago, they thought the creatures couldn't affect the world, or at the very least, could affect it enough to hurt anybody.
They'd been very, very wrong.
"All right," Ollie said, taking a deep breath and trying to calm the fluttering of their heart. "I guess we're doing this now."
Slowly, they pulled out onto the street and drove down the narrow path created by the shards. Their heart was beating fast despite how hard they tried to control their breathing and downplay the whole situation - they couldn’t tell if the pounding in their head was their pulse or the creature from before, attempting to reach out to them in some way again. Trying to maintain a regular driving speed while avoiding the glass shards was difficult; they didn’t think the shards would actually damage their car but they weren’t too enthusiastic about testing that theory. The shards looked deadly, gleaming far too brightly in the late afternoon sun, every single edge looking razor thin and horribly sharp.
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The path carved through them led Ollie down the winding Main Road and past the elementary school, further away from the town center. Cars passed them on the road, driving unnervingly straight through the shards of murder glass without pause, and each time Ollie could feel their heart seize up, for a second, until they saw the car and occupants were safe. The glass couldn’t hurt other people, it seemed, but there was every chance it could hurt them if they tried to waver from the course set before them. There was always a chance. So Ollie drove on, down tree lined streets and past houses that stood bordered by low fences or bushes, cheery looking and peaceful and horrible to see when you were trapped within the confines of a transdimensional creature’s manifestation.
The houses moved further and further away from the road as Ollie traveled towards the outer edges of town. The trees were larger here, with thick trunks and heavy branches. The sunlight was filtered heavily, with shadows shifting across the sidewalks and large front yards. The shards of glass gleamed just as brightly, however, surreally highlit in the darker area. They led Ollie to a driveway about halfway down Miller’s road, and as the car turned onto the stone-paved drive the glass shards abruptly vanished.
Their disappearance gave Ollie pause; for a second they looked back, wondering if maybe there was a chance they could drive away without hindrance. But - they remembered the pleading in the creature’s call, the way it so desperately reached out to them. They should help it, if they could. If they didn’t, well, it might come back even stronger the second time around, and more insistent. It might be driven to do things it refrained from doing this time. Ollie wasn’t sure they wanted to toy with a creature so strong that all the other local denizens went into hiding when it came calling.
So Ollie drove slowly down the driveway towards the house. They weren’t sure what to expect; the visions had been so unclear, but between the silhouettes of people and the odd fungal growth, they couldn’t have foretold anything good. The house itself looked absolutely fine, as cheery and clean and welcoming as any on the street, which only made the dark sense of unease swirling in Ollie’s gut even worse. There was a bitter taste on their tongue as they got out of the car. They eyed the windows, the front porch, the stained-glass inset in the front door, looking for shifting shadows or figures or anything, but there was nothing. Everything was very still, and as Ollie headed down the walkway and took the several steps up to the front porch, they realized that they hadn’t hear much of any sound since they’d arrived. No bird calls, no cars passing by, and as they looked up they noticed that while a slight breeze moved the tree branches overhead, the sound of rustling leaves didn’t reach them no matter how much they perked and angled their ears.
The tension in Ollie’s shoulders tightened, and the prickle that had been tickling at the back of their neck woke in a full-fledged tingle racing ice cold down their spine. The immaculate lawn, the perfect porch, the cheery and inviting house all held much more, and much darker, undercurrents now. As Ollie’s gaze returned to the front door, heart fluttering in their chest, they realized that they might be dealing with something far stronger than they ever had before.
They hesitated, eyeing the colorful floral stained glass before them, almost thinking of retreat again, but something glittered at the edges of their vision, like tiny glass shards, and drove those thoughts away. Steeling themselves, they stepped up to the front door and knocked on the wood.
In response, just as their final knock sounded, the door swung slowly open.
Behind it there was only the empty foyer, an area rug on the hardwood floor. Ollie could hear the strains of the TV playing from somewhere inside the house, but though they waited, no one appeared.
So they took a step inside, then another. As they passed the front door they expected it to slam closed behind them, like in every good ghost story, but it remained open. Somehow, that was almost worse, the opening that should’ve made Ollie feel safer to know that escape would be easy feeling like a taunt instead. Refusing to look behind them, Ollie headed on down the hallway, reaching the first open area of the room in several steps. The sound of the TV was loud, and as they peered inside they found that they’d come upon the living room. The TV was set inside a large entertainment cabinet on the near wall to their left, the front window had a window seat in front of it with a cheery floral design, and in the middle of the room stood a large, dark beige couch upon which two kids were sitting. One looked to be around five or six, a girl with dark blonde hair and dark brown eyes dressed in what looked like a rainbow unicorn outfit, complete with a headband holding up two white ears and a golden horn that looked almost comical alongside her floppy golden puppy ears. The other was a slightly older boy, with dark brown half-perked dog ears poking out of unruly brown hair and dark eyes, dressed in a hoodie and shorts. They were both staring intently at the TV, and though Ollie must’ve been directly in their line of sight, neither one of the kids responded to their presence.
The tingle at the back of Ollie’s neck hadn’t gone anywhere after it’s jolt down their spine, but it got all worked up again, the hair at the back of their necks prickling upright at the sight of the kids.
“Uh, hey?” They tried, looking for any sign of reaction, but the kids remained silent, eyes fixed on the TV screen.
It was then that they heard movement from deeper within the house. Eyeing the kids warily one last time, Ollie turned way and headed further down towards an open doorway ahead. Something was very strange, obviously. Something was not quite right at all, and Ollie could feel it around them like it was in the air. A presence seemed to surround them, and they couldn’t help but feel watched, or tracked. As they looked around themselves they could see that though the walls looked freshly painted there were odd cracks at the top, near the ceiling, a dirty white like the paint had crackled to reveal the primer or drywall beneath. The further they went, the worst the crackling seemed, branching almost spider web like across the top foot of the walls.
But Ollie pressed on, because now that they were there what other choice did they have? Maybe the tiny creature that was supposedly caught inside this house was having a physical effect on it, and the sooner Ollie could get them away, and back to their home plane, the better.
Beyond the doorway they’d noticed they could see cabinets, and a granite countertop, and even before Ollie could make out the sound of something getting chopped on a cutting board they realized it must’ve been the kitchen. With a slow, hesitant step they crossed the threshold, eye’s shooting around the room to take in as much of their surroundings as they could as quickly as possible.
The granite countertop gleamed. All the appliances looked brand new, and they were all white and shining. The sink was empty, though there were dishes set on the dishrack that still dripped. And, just like in the hallway outside, all along the top foot of the wall where there were no hanging cabinets, there was the odd white crackle in the paint.
Ollie’s eyes dropped from the cracks on the walls to the island counter in the center of the room. A dark haired woman was at it, head lowered slightly as she sliced and diced a large red onion on a multicolored chopping board. Behind her on the stovetop a large pot was boiling, the steam rising in the air, a wooden spoon on a holder set on the counter next to it. She didn’t look up when Ollie stepped closer, but her dark pointy ears swiveled towards them and she spoke in a soft and gentle voice,
“Have a seat in the dining room, or the living room if you like. I’m just getting dinner ready.”
“Oh, uh, thank you?” Ollie replied, watching as she smoothly scooped up the onion on the wide blade of the knife and spun around to deposit it in the pot. “I wouldn’t want to be a bother, I really only had a couple questions.”
“Oh, it’s not a bother, please,” The woman said, stirring the pot with a wooden spoon. “I insist.”
“Thank you, really, but if you’d just be able to answer a question or two that’d be great,” Ollie pressed on, feeling the chill running down their spine race back up again, the pulse in their ears pounding a little louder. They suddenly did not want to be in that place even more strongly than before, they wanted to bolt and never look back. Something was creeping along their skin, something was making the air heavy and thick to breathe, and they wanted to be gone. “It shouldn’t take long.”
“Oh dear,” The woman replied with a sigh, turning back to Ollie. Her eyes were as dark as the eyes of the kids on the couch, her smile soft and inviting, but at the corners of her meticulously lipsticked lips streaks of dirty white pulsed slightly. They looked identical to the crackles on the wall, spreading across the lower part of her face in a geometric spiderweb. “Not before dinner.”
“I, I don’t think I can stay for dinner,” Ollie squeezed out through a constricted throat, backing away from her. “Really can’t, have something to get to actually…”
“Silly,” She said, smile widening and head tilting a little. “You don’t have a choice.”
Ollie was at the doorway by then, didn’t know if it was worse that she wasn’t following them or not. They took a step back out of it, determined to get out of there right now, only to find their way blocked by the two kids. They stared at Ollie with little identical grins and glassy dark eyes, the white streaks on their cheeks pulsing heavy and fast.
“W-what…” Ollie struggled to breathe, the air almost too thick to breathe, like pudding, catching in their throat and making them cough.
“You can’t leave yet,” The kids spoke in unison, sickly sweet.
“I...I have to g-go,” Ollie choked out, breathing hard, vision beginning to jump and shudder.
“Don’t worry,” The kids said, hands outstretched as Ollie reached them, fingers grabbing at their shirt and pants. “When Daddy gets home he’ll explain everything.”
Ollie pried their little fingers off of their clothes, shoved them maybe a little too harshly away from themselves but they were barely able to tell. The world was spinning around them, the walls were closing in and flying out before trying to crush them again, like they were trapped within a wild kaleidoscope. The air was far too thick, congealing in their throat like a mass of mucus. They wheezed and gasped, struggling to find balance among the rapidly shifting world around them, but the open doorway to the outside never seemed to get any closer. They were on the floor suddenly, maybe they’d fallen or maybe the floor had come to them, but they couldn’t get a hold of anything. Everything they reached for slipped away from their grasp, the floor buckling and parting before their hands like something fluid and gelatinous. They couldn’t breathe, they couldn’t breathe, their vision becoming ringed in darkness and pulsing with light as a horrible screeching filled their ears. Somewhere within that light they thought they saw something, a horned silhouette, with too many sharp angles, but they couldn’t tell what was real anymore-
-until someone was grabbing their arm, forcing them to stand on their own two feet. The world kept trying to slip away again, the floor bouncing and rolling beneath their soles, but somehow, Ollie found themself moving. Somehow, someone was leading them out, towards the bright doorway and away from the crackling of the walls and the dark eyes and dinner.
“Who-” Ollie tried to get words past the stickiness in their throat and mouth, “Why...who are…”
Outside, against the backdrop of the trees and bushes and manicured lawns, they could make the silhouette out a little better - human shaped, with human clothes, and an animal skull head with multiple carving horns. Ollie had seen them before, they thought vaguely, the pounding and screeching in their head rising to pulse with the black spots in their vision - they knew who this person was, they thought.
They tried to ask something, again, but they’d already blacked out.