prengle

home

it was when you reached the end of the marsh that a cold, sudden sensation nailed your feet to the ground. the locals told you that when you saw the beast, you would suddenly feel something like a queer chill, but nobody you asked really knew for sure. nobody had seen the monster in years, and most of the younger townsfolk doubted that it even existed. the only consistent tidbits of information you received were that the creature was sorta like a dog and sorta like a cat, that it seemed awfully pink, that it had fleshy tentacles protruding from its body, and that it did nothing but stare. it would just pierce through your beady little eyeballs and straight into your soul, if you had one, and it wouldn't stop until it decided to let you out of its sights. seemed dicey, but you only had to be intrigued by local myth; nobody ever said it was actually real.

setback after setback prevented you from actually leaving town though, and you could only pack up your one bag and drive out with your beat-up junker in the dead of night. of course, the main road was closed following an incident involving a truckload of lubricant, so you were forced to take a detour... through the woods.

for a few minutes, your ride through the forest was almost serene, with the moon shimmering through the leaves and the winding curves almost putting you to sleep. but what felt like a couple of minutes somehow became several hours - eventually, your jalopy inevitably crapped out in the middle of a dirt road, sputtering and wheezing until it could breathe no more.

looking up, you noticed the moon hanging directly over the tall, lanky conifers, which seemed to be dying the further you ventured into the forest. you got out of your car and began to investigate. almost instantaneously, a white glow appeared before you, and for lack of anything better to do, you decided to check it out close up.

nearer and nearer you came, but that beacon of light seemed to shrink more and more. before you knew it, the dirt beneath you had given way to a swampy, stagnant puddle, and your only form of company became a few mosquitoes thirsty for blood plasma. it seemed as if you were stuck in some kind of time vacuum, that chronos had decided to make you his plaything. but then it hit you - the glow suddenly grew larger and larger. then it split into two, and now some other supernatural being was peering right into your psyche - of course, it was the very monster the townspeople warned you about.

there you stood, frozen, entranced by the beast. his ribbons twirled around a bit from what seemed like pent-up energy, but he was otherwise stuck in a firm, yet almost awkward stance. you stare into his featureless white eyes for what felt like maybe thirty seconds, nothing compared to the length of your journey thus far, as the monster almost wasn't even.. scary. he didn't even look like he was about to pounce. he seemed anxious. begrudgingly accepting his benevolence, you turn back to walk towards your car (which is only yards away) before a deadpan voice, that of the monster's, calls out to you:

"hey, c-come back here, s-shithead! i forgot to tell you how... gay your... nose looked!