Ringing ears, bloody nose, damp ducts.

A flash of red, a stained mirror, and a world full of muck.

Monsters of the abyss.

Only conjurable by the vast imagination we possess.

And they are conjured,

unknowingly.

*tak*

Elijah placed his trusty dip pen on it's stand. Massaging his wrist, he left the desk and sauntered out to the balcony. He Leaned on the rail and took a deep breath.

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Before him lay a suburb or what was left of it. Half of the houses were now rubble and the rest were overtaken by twisting vines and gnarled roots. Mysterious was the normal one; completely untainted by the elements.

Elijah's gaze roamed over a deer adjacent to the pristine house. The cute little thing was wandering around, curiously inspecting it's surroundings. Elijah grimaced when a pack of wolves began encircling the deer. "This is not going to end well," he murmured.

The deer halted its investigation and watched innocently as they stalked closer. Suddenly, one pounced. It slammed into its flank, a whirlwind of teeth and claws. Off balance it failed to evade the other rapidly converging wolves. Soon, blood and chucks of flesh were erupting like confetti. The deer, silent throughout all this, broke into a toothy grin. One by one, the wolves burst into blue flames. They cried out in pain, louder than Elijah thought possible. Several long seconds passed, the air filled with their screams. Then silence and the fires sputtered out.

All that remained were a few puddles of reddish slime. The deer enthusiastically lapped it up with a long, grotesque, and barbed tongue. Every last drop of the effluvium was licked clean. By the time it finished, its wounds had vanished. No evidence of what took place remained. The deer continued its business ‘investigating.’ Elijah had an ugly look on his face.