Behind (Micro-Story)
A heavy fly buzzed about. Desperate for something a human could never comprehend. Seeking refuge in a person's ear canal frozen on their knees in his private study. His mouth agape, he remained frozen, unaware of the fly desperate to inhabit his skull, for he was, in no uncertain terms, no longer in his original plane of existence. His mind was tumbling down an existential canyon without a bottom. From his body, he could feel it. A cosmic vacuum that was somehow perpetually “behind” him and “within” him. He could sense a “voice” from a direction he didn’t know existed.
In an instant, the length of a normal conversation that housed infinite instants, he discussed his fate with a being that he didn’t need to question, engulfing him in every way. “Where am I? Now(here) Nowhere? What?” He tried to talk to the presence he could only peripherally shudder at. But the response came from somewhere within himself. Deeper than himself. A place that was more him than he was. The question couldn’t be disconnected from the answer, so in a way, he felt insane for talking to himself.
“How is this happening? You are the closest of my ‘cells’ I can communicate with. ‘Cells?’ What do you mean? I am….” A sharp pain ran through his head in a way that he’d never felt before as his nose bled. Similar to the feeling one gets from overeating far past one’s limit and not even wanting to look at food ever again. Thinking about anything became near impossible as even the most basic thoughts turned to sand in the hands of his mind. He couldn’t escape it, yet he knew if he stayed here any longer, he would lose his mind or become a vegetable. Even the deepest part of his brain seemed to forget how to breathe. All he could do was witness the calamity in real time.
“Listen to me. This hurts! I won’t let any harm befall you at this moment. Ughhh.” He wanted to clutch his head to stop the pain, but he was paralyzed. His brain felt like a ripe orange being pierced over and over again to extract its juices with a squeeze. “What’s happening!? I need you. I am engaging in an interaction (But as the word interaction rang through his mind, he could feel the more profound implications of the word. This entity meant something like having a multiversal war and having a sexual relationship simultaneously. A concept that a human mind could not even begin to fathom.) with another entity of my caliber. I am uncertain if the entity is separate from me or just me. Perhaps it is both. Either way, you will lure them out and…”
A part of himself that he didn’t know existed screamed from the unobservable edges of his consciousness. Every piece of his unconscious mind screamed as if the tsunamis of a hurricane battered it. Every word of this entity shoved it deeper into his mind like the fly burrowing into his ear. “You will lure them out. And then I will be done with you. Your pain will end. As I pilot you, you may continue to feel the pain you are experiencing now. But don’t worry, you won’t mind. What are you? I am an entity that spans multiple universes. Imagine it like being stuck in the border of two countries at once but exponentially multiply that. You are a piece of my body. A body that worms through entire sets of multiverses. It is difficult for me to speak to you because, from my perspective, you do not have time. You are a line of events laid out and completely still. Please, I have a wife. You will be fine in your time of the past with this wife of yours. From this point forward, you will not have anything to return to.”
The man’s mind was beginning to fade and melt back into a primordial ooze—the last bit of who he was exited from his eye as a single tear. “You have been searching for truth all your life. You want to know what death is but have never realized you are not alive in any true sense. You are too in tune with the truth to relate to your kind any longer but too far away to converse with me. This allowed you to handle an infinitesimal piece of who I am. When I use you as bait, you will have served your purpose. You will soon return to me.” His mouth was still agape, and the entity fell to the ground, struggling to learn its new motor limitations without breaking its shallow vessel.
