THE MONOLITH AND THE LADY OF DOVES II (NYARLATHOTEP)

THE MONOLITH AND THE LADY OF DOVES II (NYARLATHOTEP)

"She saw nothing but a flat tar-black thing dominating the middle of the space. The dark was rendered a bluish brown around it with the heavy stench of vegetation. She held her thumb to her phone, then swiped open the flashlight. The lens flared on but the light was swallowed at once—she saw it pulled out in an oblong smear and it was gone into the black slab."

"Soon the black mass eased out of its gloom and she saw it was a monolith, reaching close to the mossy ceiling. A 2001ish thing, but malformed at its edges. Carol leaned around its side and there was Shanice, on her knees and elbows in the dirt, folded over in supplication with her hands covering her face."

Michael Wehunt, The Loved One

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

THOSE BETWEEN THE SPACES

 THOSE BETWEEN THE SPACES
"'I don't mean like farms and woods, this road connecting to that road so you can go from there to hear. I'm talking about the space in between.'" 

"'I think those gaps between places are filling up. Something's looking for us.'"

"'Guy was peeking out of the trees behind the bathrooms whispering my name. I could hear him grinning. He started talking about the sky dripping on him, the night folded over like a blanket."

"'Some nights I see people running up a ditch to the road as I drive by,' Sally said, 'or standing in the trees. I'd call them pale. I'd call them pale enough to glow, except they're not. They're dark as the dark, but I see them just fine. And then the radio starts crackling and my mama's talking me out of the truck.'"

Michael Wehunt, Greener Pastures