THE MONOLITH AND THE LADY OF DOVES I (NYARLATHOTEP)

THE MONOLITH AND THE LADY OF DOVES I (NYARLATHOTEP)"The light strengthened through the hole and Carol realized Shan was on top of something coming out of the earth. A blank white figure lifting its arms wide, strips of pale flesh unfurling from them like cerements. Long legs bent along dozens of segments, knees popping, cartilage groaning. Shan’s lower body sloped down around the figure’s shoulders."

“'Shan!' she screamed, but still her wife kept her hands clapped over her eyes. Carol knew it wasn’t her, not anymore. It had been, so recently, but she was now nothing more than the living hair of this thing. A stole. A trophy. The figure’s flat round face opened like petals to reveal nothing until the wiry black ropes of the monolith began to flow into it. The creature bulged. Finally Shanice’s hands fell away, dangling beside the opening above the thing’s neck, and Carol saw the face they had been hiding. It was the face of the old woman back in the hallway. It was Shanice’s face. It was Carol’s. In the end it was dozens of gray hatched birds, stretching their mouths open, pining to be fed."

Michael Wehunt, The Loved One