Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery:
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
- Revelation 17: 3-5
///
12 / 23 / 2015
We're all still wounded and bruised but we recover enough of ourselves to cremate what's left of Masako. I attend it with her, as does my father. She doesn't let us see what happened to Masako's body at any point.
It takes hours but by the time it's over Kana tells me she doesn't want to go back to her house.
My father, in all his generosity, allows her to stay at our place 'til she's able to arrange things with her relatives. The ride back home is silent because how could it be any other way? Kana just keeps her bandaged face peering out the window and she doesn't give me a single glance, not once through the ride home.
When we reach the house she holds my hand as I walk with her up to my room. The moment we enter, I sit her down on the bed and she lets go of my hand as she begins to stare at nothing. She doesn't even lie down, she just sits there and stares. Every now and again I see her eyelids twitch or her fingers shake, but for the most part she's just stationary. Like a doll.
We sit by each other's side in my room for the next few hours or so, and when we reach midnight she sinks into my bedsheets. I turn to look at her, and I see her scooch over just a little, allowing for some space on the bed.
I slip into the sheets with her, just as tired as she is. She's unable to look at me, so it's up to me to move the strands of black hair away from her face. I can still see the green of her eyes through the darkness and through the bandages, and even when she agonizes I can't help but find her beautiful.
I pull her close and she does not push me away. We do nothing more than stay with each other, in a close embrace. And we stay this way the whole night through, managing to sleep only when dawn breaks.
I awaken mere minutes later, in the cathedral again.
It is in flames. Standing in the midst of the flailing white-hot fires is a man with golden hair and a purple suit, the candelabrum burning brightly in his hand. The bleeding stone statue now bears a head with my face. A horrified expression frozen upon its features, it bleeds from its blank white eyes, its small nostrils, its gaping mouth.
A man with golden eyes and a purple suit stands amidst the flames, untouched and unburnt. He carries a candelabrum in his right hand and his expression is blank. His eyes, however, lock directly upon me.
In this flaming cathedral I stand before him and let nothing else matter. For as hot as the fires burn and as wild as they rage, the cathedral does not crumble into cinders.
What do you want with me? Who are you?
"I am you," he says. "I am everything that you are, and perhaps more."
That makes no sense.
"You faced your iniquity and in doing so, you called upon me. I arrived, from the sea of thy soul. But I suppose my existence is not where your concerns actually lie," he approaches, candelabrum still burning brightly in-hand. "You and I seek the same thing. I have come here to offer you a pact."
A pact?
"Do you believe in a god? Do you bear faith in any religion?"
No.
He chuckles. "You should not be so quick to say so. Faiths, religions, beliefs, and archetypes...these stories have flooded the minds of humanity for millennia. Yet in and of themselves, these tales end up creating beings that are unto themselves larger than life, larger than understanding."
What does this have to do with anything?
He encircles me, the candelabrum ever close to fraying my face and hair—
"There is a Sea, beyond this world; a Sea of Souls. Within this Sea, creatures borne from the minds of men thrive. Some of them manifest themselves through individuals blessed with a connection to the Sea. Others are born of a collective will of the masses, forged out of a need for reason and singular truth. Many of the beings touted as gods, spirits, demons, and angels—all of them are made manifest in this realm. Emanations of humanity's unconscious, bred life and power."
I scoff, glaring at him though the flames on the candle wicks.
You're telling me Kana's mother was demon-possessed, or something?
"Oh, ye of little faith," he laughs, "after everything I've shown you, you still doubt? The girl's mother; you must be wondering what made her mad. Does the thought not eat away at you?"
I remember the carnage and my guts shrivel up from all the blood and horror. How could something make that happen?
"Very likely someone," he says. "It's probable that it's someone with the power to drive men mad and cause minds to crumble. A power given unto him by a god."
I very nearly grab the candelabrum and use it to smash his face in, because he's said so many things without actually telling me anything.
In my stress and fear and general disbelief I can only mutter that he must be insane.
"I'm only as sane as you are."
I laugh then, genuinely—I give a big, hearty, nigh-maniacal laugh that lasts far too long.
Alright then. Might as well go the whole nine yards, if I've already gone mad.
So tell me: who could possibly be so petty as to want to attack me and my girlfriend directly? If this person has the power of a god, why would he waste it on killing some random family literally nobody in the country but me even cares about?
"Perhaps they didn't do anything to earn his ire. Maybe it's on you."
And I realize.
The man whose skull I crushed on a pavement must've had a lot of friends in high places.
Long ago, on a dark night, I rescued two women from a raging drunkard who tried to have his way with them. I beat him, battered him, practically tortured him on a sidewalk. But this man was hardly ordinary in himself; Masayoshi Shido was a politician.
I recall what Goro Akechi had said to me, that night he interrogated me: "You've made enemies in very high places."
I raise a hand to my head and shake and tremble, nearly tearing out a section of my hair right then—for, the most terrible thing that could ever be is that this strange, piercing man is telling me the truth and that all this madness might somehow be my fault.
This all must be some mad dream.
I'd rather have gone insane than believe any of this is true.
"I have given you a great and terrible power; one that can call upon the Gods themselves. With it you can burn the planet to cinders or raise it to the highest Heavens."
I don't want any of that—I've never wanted any of this—
"Who would ever want any of this? But if you wish to save that girl, then you must venture into her heart. With the power I've given you, you'll almost certainly be able to rescue her."
From what?
"The hole in her chest that was once her heart. The Navigator is already in your phone. It is a matter of time before you make your choice."
No. Explain to me.
What are you? Where am I? Why am I here, and what is this power that you're telling me you've given me?
Why did you even come to me in the first place...?
"Out of every human that has ever lived, you are perhaps one of the very very few to have ever truly sought what I seek as well. You bear a desire so strong it has manifested into the walls that surround us; weaker men would have suppressed this desire, or at the very least denied its reality. But you seek it, you crave it so strongly that the only thing stopping you is the demands of the world around you."
What could you and I possibly have in common?
"A desire for freedom."
Freedom?
"Your country and its people are all participants in a wretched game, run by humanity's blind madness. This game will not only determine your future but perhaps that of the whole world. As it stands, this realm is on the brink of ruin—only those willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of their freedom have a chance of crashing against the tide."
You say that you are me.
If so then what does that say about me?
Who the hell are you?
All of a sudden there is a black light that destroys the whole world, breaking it apart and tearing it asunder, the sky goes from red to white and the ground starts rumbling and breaking apart at my feet, the world starts shattering like glass though it's made of stone and soil and there's a horrible horrible noise that sounds like babies drowning to death, being drowned by their mothers and their fathers, then I recognize it as the last sound Masako ever made ringing in my ears a thousand times—
The world is dark and empty and cold and I see nothing yet I see everything. The burning cathedral breaks into a million stones, and the fires fade into nothingness as all I see from beyond the broken church are bones littering the streets and giant skeletons hanging overhead. The sky is raining dark red, red like blood, red like Kana's scarf. People are disappearing as they're running all over the place and screaming their heads off, wanting someone to save them, their bodies are fading out and they want to live yet they don't want to at the same time.
The man I see before me has transformed into something impossible to describe, all sorts of alien geometries and indescribable shapes bending into each other and being absorbed into themselves. The creature is blaring out noises that sound like the cries of people burning in an eternal lake of sulfur and it is blaring out these noises through things that look like pores but they slither like snakes and they thrive like anemone.
There are colors I never knew existed, worlds I never knew existed, words that I never want to repeat being rammed into my ears, and unrelenting sensations that cause my heart to pound through my ribs and my insides to freeze over. I am trembling now, and I am on my knees, and I'm covering my head with my hands and closing my eyes because I don't wanna see it I don't wanna hear it I don't wanna know it even exists but I do and I do and I never can stop knowing it exists.
A creature whose arms could span an entire cityscape; his body is unto itself a nation, and it is darker than even the blackest night. His horns scrape against the heavens, his six wings consume the red skies, and the whole world raises its arms for him in both adulation and terror. His red eyes pierce through me and my very essence and I sit there.
And I realize that those large, red, unblinking eyes are in truth mine.
When I wake up I feel like I ought not to sleep again for the rest of my life.
.
.
.
12 / 24 / 2015
I end up treading down the stairs and I see Kana again, sitting on the couch of the living room. She's not even on her phone, meaning she either finished talking to her relatives or just never got started at all. She's just sitting there and staring and her eyes are dead and I'm afraid if I say anything to her, she'll just break then and there.
But what's the alternative?
"Kana."
My voice is husky and gravelly; still haven't gotten used to my cut throat and honestly rather lucky to be as articulate as I still am. The doctors told me to keep my mouth shut as much as possible, to mitigate any reopening wounds. Indeed it hurts like hell just to talk but I've got to. I want to talk to her with my own voice, as much as I can.
Slowly, she turns. She doesn't really emote. She just…stares at me, and nods a little.
"Your dad's out working."
Warily I make my way to her and sit beside her, on the couch. I lay my hand on hers and she doesn't pull away. She keeps her eyes firmly to our clasped hands, as though refusing to face me again.
"They don't want me," she says.
"What?"
"My relatives. They don't want me."
"Why?"
"Mom was…never too close to any of them. She told me that once they called me a 'leftover.' I hoped that by calling them I'd learn if Mom was actually telling the truth or not. She was."
"That's horrible."
Meekly she nods, "…yeah."
Still. She's not looking at me. Though if she's as scared of me as I think she is, then I suppose I can't blame here.
"You wanna head back upstairs?" I ask her.
She shakes her head and leans into me, "Please stay for a little longer."
"As long as you want."
I can feel her smile lightly—a sad, painful sort. "We both know that's not possible."
"Kana."
"You're leaving."
"No, I'm not."
"You'd be crazy not to."
I grab her by the shoulders, "Crazy would be leaving you here, alone."
"Your dad already told me he'd—"
"I'll tell him otherwise."
"You can't just go back to school. Not after the trial or any of—"
"I'm not leaving you."
"I can make my way around," she huffs, almost angrily, "I've been around the block more than you."
"Do you want me gone?" I ask her.
"No," she grunts, "No—I, I don't—I don't know. I don't know, but I know you shouldn't be anywhere near me—"
"Shouldn't be?"
"You're not obligated to be with me," she says in the coldest, most unfeeling tone of voice. "You're not her father. I've got it set up already—you remember Mitsuko? From the Big Bang Burger joint—she's, she's willing to let me stay with her, so you—you don't have to waste your time-"
"You can come with me," I tell her.
"I shouldn't," she says again, keeping her head down like she didn't even heard what I said.
"You can come with me," I say again. "Wherever I go. I can arrange things."
"You're not her father," her head sulks. She's shaking now, trying to force all these words out, "you never were. It's not your responsibility. I'm leaving. You're leaving. We can't be together," she finally says, and it hits like a brick to my chest. "Not after all this."
But still I say, "I'm not gonna abandon you."
Then she whips her head up and glares at me, looking like she hates me, like she's had enough of me, like she wants me gone as soon as possible—and perhaps she really, truly does. "Yes, you are. In a few months you are. And you'll never talk to me again, not after this, because why would you, what is here for you?"
"Because I meant every word I said to you, when I told you I liked you," I say to her.
The cold ice of her expression quickly thaws thereafter, and when she tilts her head down she speaks like she's got cobwebs in her esophagus, "You meant every word?"
"Every word," I tell her, moving closer to her.
"And you're not gonna take it back?" she asks, not looking at me yet not pushing me away.
And I tell her, "Never."
"I'll kill you one of these days," she grumbles through gritted teeth. Tears stream down her eyes as she says, "Being with me will kill you."
"You won't," I draw her closer. "You won't."
"I'm a curse," she growls, burying herself in my chest, "I've always been a curse."
And I just let her empty herself out. In seconds I see myself, holding her in an embrace, looking upon us from the ceiling. The numbness in my head lasts for hours, long after she ends up falling asleep in my arms.
.
.
.
By the time I catch myself, I learn that it's evening. 6:00 PM. Kana's still sleeping soundly, somewhat peacefully in my arms.
During all this one word rings in my head—I recall it firmly from the man in the dreams whose name I refuse to speak.
Navigator.
Navigator.
Navigator.
A red, unblinking eye had appeared in my phone the night everything went to hell, those many many months ago.
The man in my dreams had apparently stuffed it right in there, which leads to a whole host of questions I'm almost afraid to ask. But the man pointed to the possibility that perhaps what had caused Kana's mom to go mad was could've been caused by someone. As it stands there may be some credence to that claim yet.
As Kana sleeps in my arms I pull up my phone and begin searching.
I hope and I pray that perhaps my dreams are just manifestations of insanity, but I stop hoping and praying when I search on my phone for anything similar to what had happened with Kana's mother.
This has been occurring for many months. The first documented case took place in September of 2013.
Ryuunosuke Kurosawa—former head of Japan's Special Investigation Unit—committed suicide by cop. In the middle of Yurakucho Station he, suddenly and savagely, began beating down random onlookers with his bare fists alone. Police attempted to apprehend him, but could not subdue him, and he had to be shot to death. He'd failed to kill anyone in his rampage, though two men were hospitalized, one woman was disfigured for life, and a child little above nine was irreparably crippled below the waist. Autopsy reports indicated his blood pressure and heart rate were consistent with those found in those who'd overdosed on Xanax—but he'd no trace of any drugs in his system at all.
October 25th, a similar incident occurred. Soichiro Kanzaki was an entrepreneur and a hard-worker who suffered a mental collapse, during a business meeting held at his house. He had simply got up from the meeting, ostensibly to go to the restroom. By the time he returned he had a butcher's knife in his left hand, whilst covered in blood. His infant child had been beheaded while fast asleep. With the knife he ended up killing two of his business partners, before ultimately coming to his senses. When questioned he recalled nothing of the experience. His wife committed suicide two weeks before the trial, and he followed her the day he was told of her death. He swallowed his own tongue.
Gonzaburo Takayama was a well-known yakuza boss who had been deemed virtually untouchable. So much so that rumors had even sprouted in papers concerning whether or not he had been bribing the police to turn a blind eye to his more unsavoury actions. On January 4th, 2014, he killed seven different members of his own gang with a pistol, before crippling five of them with his bare hands, and rendering eight more of them crippled or paralyzed with whatever else he had at the time. Cops overwhelmed him over the course of thirty minutes. It had been during a party, intended to celebrate his son Tanaka's birthday—the boy was relatively unharmed.
And many many many more, much like this. Though they only seem to escalate in scope and scale; more recent mental shutdowns have been occurring on the road as of late. Drivers suddenly crashing into opposite lanes. Men in traffic getting out of their cars and smashing up the windows of other cars. Cement trucks driving off highways and crashing down upon people trying to make their way to underpasses.
But there is seemingly no rhyme or reason to any of it. Anyone from small tycoons to crime bosses to rural farmers to janitors were suffering these mental collapses. Many of these people were found to have been out-and-out criminals, but others weren't guilty of any crimes at all, or at the very least had jaywalked once in their lives.
Same description applied to all. Extremely high heart rate and blood pressure at the time of death. Sudden display of increased strength. Bloodshot eyes, veins in the sclera going so far as to explode. Always, always going violent in a crowd of people.
But how.
How could anyone cause such a thing?
Or maybe I'm wrong, again.
Maybe I'm just freaking out over things I can't control, like some goddamned conspiracy nut.
Maybe at this rate I'll end up doing something suicidally stupid and get myself and Kana in a whole 'nother world of hurt.
Maybe I deserve it. But she doesn't.
Sure enough I pull open the menu of my phone and I see it. That red icon.
At the very bottom of the screen. I hadn't bothered to have it deleted in all this time.
Looks like a bloated red eye glaring straight at me. Sclera riddled with bloody veins.
I click on the app, and my screen turns a bright red. The color stays for so long on my phone I'm almost afraid it caused my phone to hang, but surely enough letters start appearing.
They appear in a white, bold and thick Serif font that says plainly 「VORTEX WORLD NAVIGATOR」. Just long enough for the red and the white to cause my eyes to bleed, then they cut abruptly to a screen that tells me:
Humanity's hearts are bound by misery, torment, and the truth of meaninglessness…
In the corner of the screen pops up a little black cartoon creature, one with a squid's head and six wings. It has four golden eyes and eight stubby little hands, four tentacles forming a beard under its bulbous head. Despite the grotesque details of design it looks like something drawn for Hello Kitty. It waves at me, its little eyes sparkling like a child's.
→Welcome to the Vortex World! Call me Nyarly! the little creature jitters and makes a noise that sounds like a biribiribiri, and the whole time its little eyes smile. The human heart's a very confusing and scary place at times, but never fear! If you've got any questions, I'll always be here to answer 'em! Just click on the little squid on the upper-left hand corner, and I'll be right there in a jiffy!
Suddenly three sets of words pop up, and Nyarly shrinks into a squid's head, going into the corner.
Palace Ruler:
Palace Location:
Palace Distortion:
The words can be entered in either vocally or through text; there's a blank line underneath all three labels. But I don't know what Palaces mean or what Distortions have to do with anything; all I can do was guess.
But if this has anything to do with helping Kana, protecting her from whatever has the power to drive men mad, I need to try anything. The police won't believe me, and no one else will.
I'm the only one who can do anything here, and now. If this person is allowed to keep on freely driving people mad, then Kana and I aren't the only ones in danger. Perhaps I'm the only one who can stop him. Perhaps this is my first and last chance.
So I write the name Kana Kohaku in the blank line underneath all three.
Palace Ruler Confirmed
What?
Palace Ruler: Kana Kohaku
Palace Location:
Palace Distortion:
None of this makes any sense at all. I don't know what Palaces are, and how their location could be a person. And what does it mean by distortions?
"To hell with it." I click the squid's head.
→Hiya there! Nyarly says, making happy little digital chirps. Got anything to ask?
I make sure to get up off the couch and make my way to the restroom nearby. Of course I adjust Kana to ensure she's not disturbed.
She shouldn't have to deal with any more of this.
Suddenly multiple folders pop up as Nyarly gestures to each; I don't have time to go through them all, so I pick the one I find might immediately answer my questions.
「 What is a PALACE? 」
→A PALACE is a place born in the human heart, one that manifests as a result of DISTORTION!
→When your heart's DISTORTED you see everything in ways most people can't even imagine.
→A PALACE is your own personal little world, where everything in the REALM OF THE REAL is remade in your own image!
To learn more, read WHAT IS DISTORTION? & WHAT IS A TREASURE? below.
To learn how PALACES can evolve, read WHAT IS A KINGDOM? below.
And that's about all that explains itself. I shake my head and click the first link.
「 What is DISTORTION? 」
→DISTORTION refers to strong negative or corrupt cognitions and beliefs. They all develop from the nasty things hidden in people's hearts!
→If a heart's DISTORTED enough, it'll see things in ways completely different from the average human, and create a TREASURE along with a PALACE.
→Of course, in this kinda world, you'd have to be crazy to not be a little DISTORTED! Nyahaha!
Please read What is a TREASURE?, What is a PALACE? & What is a KINGDOM? to learn more.
Okay. I've seen TREASURE pop up multiple times throughout this whole thing now.
「 What is a TREASURE? 」
→Housed in a PALACE, a TREASURE is a manifestation of the desire which captivates a person's heart!
→A person's desire for something in the REALM OF THE REAL causes a TREASURE to take root, and the PALACE is formed from a person's COGNITIONS of the REALM OF THE REAL.
→But TREASUREs and PALACEs only flourish when a person refuses to acknowledge their DISTORTION.
→Humans are obsessive creatures! When someone really, really wants something, they ignore everything that could get in its way! Even if that thing were themselves! Nyahaha!
Please read What is a PALACE? , What is DISTORTION? , & What is a SHADOW? if you want to learn more.
Something tells me Nyarly's a bit of a misanthrope.
I find it in myself to click on one more thing.
「What is a SHADOW?」
→Nyahaha! A SHADOW is the best friend you could ever have!
→'Cuz they're you! All SHADOWs exist as a part of the human collective consciousness!
→If your heart's DISTORTED but don't wanna accept it, then a SHADOW forms in your heart!
→A SHADOW rules over your PALACE and draws other SHADOWs to it, too!
→The more DISTORTED your heart, the bigger and badder your SHADOW is!
→A SHADOW is everything you don't wanna see about yourself. Humans are cowards, so most people don't even know they have a SHADOW!
To learn about what happens when a person accepts their SHADOW, please read What is a PERSONA? and What is a KINGDOM? to learn more.
Of course all of this sounds like pseudoscience at best, produced only by either madmen or seventeen-year olds who know how to code and have way too much time on their hands.
Then again, what the hell does that make me? The whole reason I'm doing this is because someone in my stupid, extravagant, not-real-at-all dream told me to.
I recall something she said about herself, multiple times. She said this when I confessed my feelings for her. When she lay in that hospital bed, beside Masako. Helpless, painful mutterings in a tone of voice that made whispers feel like screams.
I write Curse.
No Candidates Found
Huh. Kana thought of herself as a Curse. Thought for sure that would work.
At which point I type in Asami Kohaku. If the connotations of Distortion are worth anything, then Kana's violent, murderous mother ought to be associated with it at least in some way.
No Candidates Found
I type in Masako Kohaku, on a whim.
No Candidates Found
Okay, okay, okay. Location. Gotta be a place.
A place.
"Home."
No Candidates Found
God damn it, "Home of Kana Kohaku?"
No Candidates Found
Okay. If she's as screwed up as I think she is.
God damn it. Please be false.
"The world?"
Candidate Found
No. Why? Why?
Palace Ruler: Kana Kohaku
Palace Location: The World
Palace Distortion:
Distortion. Strong negative or corrupt cognitions. What could she possibly think of the world now?
"Prison."
No Candidates Found
"Purgatory?"
No Candidates Found
"Nightmare?"
No Candidates Found
Makes me sick to have to type goddamned everything— "What the hell could it be?"
Palace Confirmed
Would You Like to Enter?
Y/N
.
.
.
When I press Y, the world turns red and black for just a few moments; just long enough for me to register that something big is happening. And after five or so minutes, I find that I've been transported somewhere else. Somewhere that drains my voice from my throat.
The world is surrounded in blankets of red-hot fire. I see thousands of people all around me, burning and suffering. Worms are eating at their skin even though their bodies have been cast in flame. Men, women, children, no one is spared. I see a little girl with glass in her eyes and she's crying for her mother, saying she can't see. I see pregnant women, crying out and giving birth to irradiated babies that are dead upon arrival. I see bloated corpses filling the streets, splattered bodies along the walls. I see some people running and even though these "lucky" few aren't burning, their flesh is melting off from the convection alone.
My feet plant themselves in the ground and I can't move. I want to run away and I want to hide away, I want to curl into a ball and just live inside of myself for the rest of my life but I can't, I can't, I have to see it with my own two eyes, hear it with my own two ears, it's not something I can ignore. It's not something I can refuse. In my dreams, I'll hear it scream and I'll remember it every day, for the rest of my life.
Something falls out from my hand and clatters upon the ground.
I don't know where to begin when it comes to describing the atrocity before me. But the first thing that comes to mind is that it is tall. Fifteen elephants tall, and twelve trailer trucks wide. Initially, I believe it is just a blindingly amorphous mass that's shambling in the dark, but I come to realize that there is design to it after all.
The creature then turns and when it turns I realize it's turning its seven heads in my direction, turning its heads to me, looking at me, despite all the burning masses surrounding it, helpless before its unholiness.
And when the beast roars I see a bright red light forming in its mouth—its mouth that has a thousand green eyeballs in the walls of its gums and yellowed and rotted teeth that are filled with worms and insects and grime and pus—and the bright blue light is burning burning further burning stronger burning ever so brightly and it's pointed at me I have to move it'll kill me it'll end me move your legs, it's, this isn't real, this isn't real at all, this has to be a dream someone tell me this is a dream, Akechi, Dad, Kana, where are you I need you Kana—
"Hey! You!"
I whirl around me and I see—
A small little black creature with a tail. A big bulbous head, four times the size of its body. Burning yellow eyes as large as dinner plates, with two scruffy cat ears pointing out the sides of its head. A yellow bandana around its neck.
It leaps into the air and transforms suddenly into a massive black bus, a loud MEOOWWW sound playing as it transforms.
"Get in the driver's seat if you wanna live!"
.
.
.
By the time I regain myself, I realize I'm sitting in the front seat of the bus that had once been a cat. And I am about a thousand miles away from where I'd been.
The kaiju-sized monstrosity rears its seven heads to the burnt skies and its hateful and blasphemous bellows can be heard loud and clear, even from where I am.
The creature has red flesh, like that of a skinned bull.
It has sixteen legs, eight on either of its sides, and each of its legs are like twenty-foot tall pillars of meat. Every time the creature lands one of its massive feet down, red spills from it like a winepress bursting open. Sprouting out from its back like shattered bone ripping through skin are a series of red rectangles I recognize as buildings; little yellow squares shining from each rectangle I see. Hanging from its underbelly appear to be fifteen thousand pairs of cow udders, all skinned and sagging and withered and pumping out blood, spilling it freely. The beast bears seven heads and ten horns, and a giant black swathe of hair covers each of its heads along with its massive tail.
And I see, I see someone atop the fourth of its seven heads. Though I am so very far away I see her ever so clearly, as though she were standing right in front of me.
Atop the fourth head stands a woman wearing a purple robe. Though her robes are thick the wind blows them open to reveal she's wearing nothing underneath them-—indeed, her body is skinned, leaving open and exposed her muscles and sinews and veins. In her arms she holds what looks like a lump of stone, wrapped in red linen.
She has Kana's face, with searing golden eyes.
My hands tremble and something wells up in the bottom of my guts—I get myself out the door and everything in my stomach charges right out from my mouth.
And yes, it hurts like hell to puke after having had surgery on your stomach.
"Ugh!" Suddenly the bus leaps into the air, shifting back into its catlike form. "If you're gonna puke, could you not do it so close to me? Geez…I got your breakfast on one of my paws!"
I glare at it and let out a bit of a scoff, and dear God my breath stinks to high heaven and a thousand questions rush into my head, I feel if I don't get answers in the next fifty seconds I'm just gonna bash my skull into a rock somewhere over and over again until I die.
"Hey, you're bleeding…!" it cries out.
And indeed, I am. A red line's forming out from the bandages in my stomach. And it burns.
But once the cat lays a paw on it, suddenly the pain fades. Just warmth and a little tingly feeling—I shudder a little and the bleeding's stopped, the pain's stopped, the everything's stopped.
"You'll be okay for now. We're lucky that creature's as slow as it is. It lost sight of us as soon as you drove us past all those buildings. It won't hurt us, all the way out here."
"…where the hell am I," comes out softly, desperately.
"It'll be…a little tough to explain. Right now, you just need to focus on getting yourself out of here."
"This is a…Palace, right…?"
It narrows its saucer-wide eyes, folding its arms, "Yeah. How'd you know that's what I call it?"
"I-I, my phone, an app—"
"An app?"
I pat my pockets and check everywhere on me or near me and it hits me like a hammer to my skull, "My phone's missing."
"Wait, so, you used your phone to get here?"
"God, I don't know, how'd you get in here!?"
"I-I just can! I don't need anything to get into Palaces."
"Then can you get me outta here?"
"I don't think so…"
"WHY NOT!?"
"Because I-I'm different! I think!"
"You think!?"
It smacks one of its paws across my face, scratching my cheek a little. "J-just listen to me for a second! I never came here using a phone or an app or anything, it's just me! I don't know if it'll work the same with you! For all I know, you might get sucked into the Vortex World while I make it out the other side!"
"Vortex World…?"
"Wha—you entered a Palace, and you don't even know what the Vortex World is!?"
"I don't know anything about any of this!" I start coughing again because I feel what remains of my meals coming up into my throat and I choke it back down. I fall to my knees, spluttering and very nearly breaking out in tears, and I scream and groan and want to hide in a hole for the rest of my life.
"Are you sick or something…?"
I hiss and groan and glare at the faraway beast, and I ask all I can manage, "Why is my girlfriend riding on some abomination, and what happened to the rest of the world!?"
"That's your girlfriend?" I whirl around to face it, its large eyes somewhat sad now. "I'm so sorry."
"The app told me this place manifests because of distortion or whatever…but…I don't…," I manage to arrange myself in a seated position, getting a little lightheaded. "Oh my God."
"Y-you need to calm down—"
"Palaces, distortions, her heart…?" I mumble everything I remember typing down and all a sudden it clears completely. "All of this is hers. Is this…is this really what she thinks of the world?"
"It…wasn't always like this." I face the cat, whose wide eyes turn stern. "Last I checked here was three weeks ago. The distortions were always here, but they've…gotten way worse. Something happened between then and now. I don't know what."
I dig my nails into my hair. "I've got some idea."
"It'd be better for you if you could get back to the real world. We can talk there."
"I need my phone."
"Pretty sure your phone's gone. That monster vaporized most everything in its immediate vicinity except us. Even if we do recover your phone, it's prolly burnt to a crisp."
"Then how do I…?"
It sighs, "We'll just have to take a risk. Do what I said might end up throwing you into the Vortex World."
I manage to laugh a little, but whatever sounds come out sound more like ragged gasps and choking noises. "I am in hell…"
"You have to close your eyes. I promise, I'll find you and I'll do my best to explain everything. Right now, you have to trust me."
Sure, why the hell not. Trust this bizarro cat to save my life in this hellscape.
He lays a paw upon my forehead as I keep my eyes shut.
.
.
.
When I open my eyes I find I'm right outside my house. Right out on the front door.
"Whew…okay. We can't do that again." I turn my head down, and I see a black cat with blazing golden eyes staring up at me. "Your body split apart in, like, five different dimensions. Spent like an hour putting you all back together. Best you get a new phone and download the app through there, if you wanna get to the Vortex World again."
And I just stare at it.
And stare at it.
"Wh-what…?"
Suddenly I break out into loud, uproarious laughter. Gazing up at the sky. Thunder crashes in the distance as the clouds bundle up into a damp and dark grey, and when the rain pours my laughter is drowned out.
So I laugh and laugh and laugh, and the cat can do nothing but watch and wag its tail.