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STORY
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Dying is perhaps one of thee most overrated of life’s events. Any feelings or care you might have dissipate as the darkness swallows you. Slowly, but surely, it organizes itself into your memory, like everything else. Before you know it, you’ve lost interest in it, and find yourself preoccupied with what you find in front of you:
There was a decomposing cow somewhere off the frame, struggling to stay alive, just to see if the duck would catch a fish.
However, this part wasn't in the painting.
"Beautiful piece, don't you think?" a voice off to my side inquired, "I've always wondered if the cow was just hungry."
"The cow isn't in the picture," I replied.
"Ah, but you know it is there."
I looked down. Standing to my side was a small, peculiar-looking porcupine. It did not move or speak until I returned to the painting.
"So, is it just hungry?" he continued. "Or maybe it just wanted to see the fish. Or perhaps the duck was the cow's student, or its lover?"
"What if the duck killed him?" I suggested.
"Killed him? Over what?"
"The fish, perhaps?"
"Absurd. Why would he be fishing then?"
"Maybe the cow threw it into the lake?"
"With what, its hoof? I've known many cows, and they were all notoriously bad pitchers."
I looked back to my unlikely companion. He seemed afraid to speak to me whenever I was watching. I did not wish to be impolite, so I looked back to the painting.
"There is no answer then?"
"Of course there is! He's focusing on something so he won't die."
"Oh."
"You'll like the next one, but don't take too long."
I looked over to the next picture. It was a photo of a group of Frontiersmen. They were arranged as follows: Mystery-Matt, Quiver, Pseudo, Altezo, Seph, and Sodapop. The edge at the bottom read:
Going away party - We will miss you!
"I heard Sodapop barely made it for the picture! Lucky for him, huh!?"
A midnight sky filled the foreground, one with no stars. I felt a presence in the picture, one the Frontiersmen seemed to ignore. It was all around, just out of reach of them, comfortably hidden behind the edges of the frame.
"Would you hurry up!? It's hard for me to breath when you're this far away!"
The porcupine had been shouting. I suppose my gage of distance differed quite a bit from his. I looked back to the photo once again, noticing a flaw.
"Where's Darkens?"
"Darkens? I don't think he could make it."
Odd, I thought. It seemed awfully rude for Darkens not to attend. Unsatisfied, my gaze slipped to the next piece of art. Something about it caught my interest.
"Wait! That's too far away!"
"It will just take a second," I reassured him. It didn’t help, and he continued to panic as I stepped to the next image. His voice trailed off as I did, eventually vanishing.
It was a picture of a dim corridor, perhaps in an apartment complex. In the center was a door.
Something hid within this picture, rather than outside of it.
I returned quickly to the porcupine. He was where I left him, oddly unanimated. I picked him up to see what was wrong. He appeared dead at first, but then I felt him breathing. It had either fallen asleep or became a normal porcupine. This sunk my spirits only slightly; I was more interested in the painting.
I returned to the door. It was very blank, very simple. The true depth of the painting was yet to be seen.
I checked either side of me, seeing if there was anything worth venturing towards. The hallway stretched on into darkness. I had little choice.
In order to displace myself, I had to narrow my sight, tunneling through my vision. Then I had to expand, so I was closer to the door. Moving in was difficult, like trying to push an upside-down bowl through water.
After a bit of effort, I managed to grab the handle. I opened the door and passed through, closing it behind me.
The room was very cold.
What I could see was in blue-tinted light. A tub, like a spa, was built into the corner. It had been dried out for some time. On the floor were towels, dust, and little trinkets from a forgotten time.
I walked forward to catch a glance inside the tub. I stepped on something strange. I picked it up.
Rubber duck.
It looked very dead, pale and empty. Of course, it was just a rubber duck, after all...
I did not notice the curtain before, or the mammoth creature resting behind it.
Jack in the Box.
The voice was unique. No ear could hear it. Only the mind could trace its delicate fibers from off the skin of the air. Even so, it carried a strength, one I have only known in that which I have never seen.
"Who are you?"
Mucca.
"What are you?"
I am the carcass of a cow.
It lay behind the cover of cloth. I could see what appeared to be tusks. The rest was draped in wet towels, some lighter, and some darker. In a far-fetched way, it was reminiscent of a cow. It just sat, the rags rustling gently about it. Something shackled and clanked, like chains in a wind. A cold, arctic storm silently seeped from its world.
"Why did you watch the duck?"
Because I would live if the duck were to die.
"How?"
The fish was poisoned.
The words triggered an awakening. I remembered the ship, the supper, the Butcher... I remembered everything.
"...Where am I?”
Il Meccanismo Infernale.
I did not understand. It knew.
It is known as Mechanismus; the Buried Device. The Great Machine.
"How do I get out?"
There is nowhere for you to go.
Metal was creaking. The borders of the room were failing.
I have a message.
Geoff’s voice was telling me to wake up. He was above ground, shouting down to me. I was under the surface of the ship, in something like a basement, or a sewer. The roof was grating, separating us through many layers, too many to see past. The words only barely survived the journey.
"I need to go."
It is not your time yet. First, you must help us slaughter the survivors.
"But..."
I feared defiance. Behind its camouflage rippling in the frozen breeze, there was something I did not know. It wasn’t human. It wasn’t a friend.
All I knew of it was what it was not.
"Why are you wearing that stupid cow suit?"
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
"You stole that... you've stolen... too... m..."
My voice was shaking. Something low was getting louder, drowning anything but the speech of the Mucca.
You hear our song...
Louder. It was the voice of the void, tearing at the walls.
You drown in our ocean...
"No..."
To be reborn...
"No... please... please, don't..."
Our mercy...
The barriers began to buckle, as the roaring tide became deafening.
"Please! Please, stop!"
We know what you are...
"Leave me alone!!!"
You sing in our darkness...
I closed my eyes as the walls gave in.
WE ANSWER
Ah Rome.
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Disclaimer
Monster is © Edan Koch. The Universe in which it takes place is based upon Natural-Selection. All characters and locations are fictional. Any association with actual persons or places is coincidental.
Natural-Selection and all artwork, screenshots, text and code associated with it are © Charles G. Cleveland, 2001.