FOUR

The boy inspected the pulsating thing. It was like some sort of cocoon, roughly the size of a grown man. Inside of it seemed to be several green pulsating lights. The cocoon seemed to be covered in a snot-like substance that looked pretty disgusting. The oddest thing though were the hundreds of eyes that covered the cocoon. The eyes looked in all directions, and resembled those of a reptile.

The boy squinted his eyes a bit to protect them from the pulsating lights. He tried to make out what was in the cocoon besides the lights. He could discern some kind of lumpy form. Was it… moving? He came a little closer. That humming sound was quite annoying. He stuck out a hand to touch the cocoon. All eyes suddenly were on him. That was interesting. Were they part of the cocoon or part of what was inside of it?

It reminded him of something from one of Kingsly’s books. He wondered if that thing had inspired the writer maybe? He gentle touched the cocoon. It seemed to slightly vibrate, like an engine or something. He took away his hand which was now covered in snot. That was pretty gross. He may not know fear, he could sure as hell find something disgusting. He wiped his hand on his shirt and felt sorry for it afterwards. This was the only shirt he had left, as he liked to travel light.

Was this thing responsible for the slaughter of that poor cat? It didn’t seem to be though. It lacked the appendages, claws or teeth for that. It only had eyes. Or was it whatever was inside it. It didn’t look like the cocoon had been opened though. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be of this world. Fascinating.

He gave it a little poke with his finger. That intensified the humming sound, the lights started to pulsate faster, the eyes went wild, spinning. He took a step back. Had he hurt it somehow? He hadn’t meant to do that, he just wanted to learn more about it.

Kingsly had written stories about these beings from another dimension that he called The Otherworldly. Beings that defied all human logic, creatures with great powers that lusted for blood, wanted to enslave other dimensions. He couldn’t recall anything like the cocoon but it sure had the characters of something not from this world. He wondered if maybe he would be able to find something about it in Kingsbury’s library. He figured he could have a look.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He left the room and made his way to the study. He scanned the shelves of the library, searching for Kingsbury’s own books. He found an anthology of Kingsbury called The Otherworldly. He took it from the shelf, sat down behind Kingsbury’s desk and started to leaf through it.

The book contained several stories of The Otherworldly, detailing how they tried to leave their own dimension, invade ours and how brave men managed to thwart them. That or be slaughtered or go insane. There were some pictures in them as well. He marveled at the pictures of the strange creatures, beings with fangs, tentacles, wings, claws, bulbous eyes, scaly or slimy bodies. Nothing that resembled the cocoon though. There was one creature pictured that interested him especially. It looked almost like a caterpillar, but with a dolphin-like skin. It was big as a human, had a dozen eyes. It’s many legs resembled those of a green mantis. Caterpillars evolved in butterflies from a cocoon, right? Was he up to something here?

He quickly read through the story that the picture illustrated. It told the tale of a farmer who one day discovers one of The Otherworldly, the caterpillar-like being burrowing through the earth in one of his barns. His livestock has been brutally slaughtered, the smell of death and the flies that had been drawn to it making him puke. He manages to find the courage and strength to get his shotgun and tries to shoot the monster. The Otherworldly instantly heals from every shot though and ends up ripping the farmer to shreds before burrowing back into the ground. So in that one the humans lost.

The boy closed the book. Was that cocoon maybe holding the caterpillar-like creature from that story? It sounded totally crazy. These things couldn’t be real, right? They had to be just imagined things from Kingsbury’s creative mind. They had to! If these things were real, wouldn’t someone have encountered them earlier? Wouldn’t they have been featured on thousands of TV-shows not to mention the internet? But he couldn’t deny what he had seen. That thing really did look like something from another dimension. Or was he just going crazy like Kingsbury?

A scraping sound interfered with his thoughts. Like something sharp dragging across the floor. The sound started to come closer.