Victor Salve had always had a slight leaning towards the
twisted, darker side of life. He
understood that chaos and destruction were the true essence of life, and
embraced this. For this, and a multitude of other reasons, he was shunned by
the global community at large. People, upon meeting him, would almost
instinctively dislike him. It would be a typical case of an average person
detesting a genius. People simply couldn’t bear to see someone better than
them.
His whole life was now wrapped around one idea: To make
contact with Tarrow. Not that he would ever tell anybody. They would accuse him
of being a fool, a madman. Why would anyone ever choose to believe that Tarrow
was real? They would tell him to stop reading his dark, depressing books, and
move on to become more involved in the positive side of life.
But Victor knew. She was real. She was a demon. And She had
been watching him. From a very young age, little Victor had a nagging feeling,
a constant suspicion, that he was being watched. He had initially ignored it,
but as time passed, it grew. It had put a constant darkness on him, and had
isolated him from his fellow beings. What
was it? That question had bothered him for what had seemed like eternity,
when, one day, the answer came.
Victor had given in. Life was nothing more than hell on
earth. What was it that the priests were always preaching about? A place called
Heaven? He laughed to himself at the absurdity of the thought of a monster like
him ever being permitted entry.
He reached a trembling hand out towards his purchase. Opium.
Victor was ready to throw away any hope he had of living a better life for a
few moments of happiness with some magic powder. Even he could see it. But he
could not stop it. Nobody could, now. He clasped the packet forcefully, and
brought it to his face. But then he
became aware. It was there. It was watching him. Except it was closer than
it had ever been to him, now. He could
sense, somehow, that the presence was female. He couldn’t see it, or smell it,
or hear it, only feel it. And it was
rejoicing. Rejoicing with a vitality that struck icy daggers into Victor’s
heart. And suddenly, he knew what She
was called. Her name was Tarrow, of this he was certain. As to what she was?
Victor was no clearer. But he knew now that under no circumstances would he do
what She wanted him to. And in the cusps of determination, he threw away the
opium, letting the little packet roll down the alley. Almost at once, an aura
of rage emanated from Her. She had been
so close!
The experience had haunted Victor for ages, up to the point
where he had now finally made it possible to make contact with Her again. He
had practiced the art of lucid dreaming for ages, and was ready to enter his
own mind to see what entity had been stalking his life for so long.
It was late night when Victor walked into the room he had
had prepared. It was completely blank, with white walls, a white floor, a white
ceiling, and even white door. Inside it, one couldn’t even be sure that they
were still in a house. The room was singularly designed to give the impression
of a lack of reality.
Victor went to the centre of the room, and sat down in a
cross legged pose. It was time to begin. He had brought a candlestand with him,
and set it up in front of him. He lit the candles, and the sweet smell of
incense wafted through the room. Victor looked around the room once, then shut
his eyes, and presently began to take deep breaths. He was meditating, allowing
his mind to relax and wander, to find what it was that had plagued him.
He became aware of a disconcerting feeling, as though
somebody else was in the room with him. He had had the impression of being
watched before, but this was on a new scale altogether. He opened his eyes with
all the force he could muster, and at the moment of impact he looked straight
ahead.
He could see an old
fireplace, and next to it an old wooden rocking chair. As his eyes travelled up
the base of the chair he saw-
White. All white. He had glimpsed something else, but it was
back to what it had been. There was something different though. A barrier had
been crossed. He was aware now that it could happen agai-
-he saw an ancient being, a woman, rotting and sagging on the chair. She leered at him through sunken eyes, and he was aware of Her power, Her potential-
-he saw an ancient being, a woman, rotting and sagging on the chair. She leered at him through sunken eyes, and he was aware of Her power, Her potential-
-it was vivid, inexplicable. The flashes kept coming and
breaking off as Victor tried to decipher them. He realized, with a growing
horror, that he had just seen the face of Tarro-
-Her immense will to
destroy all. And she could. The power She wielded was unimaginable. And the
frail body masked the burning desire to destroy the worl-
He had glimpsed Her power. She wanted to destroy everything.
But why hadn’t She? If the immense power She held was any indicator the world
should have been finished a long while ago. What was it that kept her from
completing her objective?
Victor began to see flashes upon flashes. A reel seemed to be running
in front of him, with millions and millions of incomprehensibly small windows.
And in each window, he realized, was a picture! A picture from his life, a
memory!
His fourteenth birthday
The day his uncle had passed away
The day he had first gone to school
The day his mother had died
The day he had graduated
In each picture, he noted, there was something similar, besides him.
Some-
Victor began to feel a pain in
his head, and stood up, clasping it in his hands and ducking down-
-something familiar. And then, with shock, he realized what it was. She
had been watching him. She had been following him in this realm of hers. In Her
own room. For all his long, pitiful, life. But why?
The pain shrieked in his head as
it escalated. It felt as though an angry madman was stabbing him, again, and
again, and again. He wanted nothing more than for it to stop, for sweet release
from the agony. He ran to the wall and bashed his head against it constantly,
trying to soothe the burning agony.
The reel disappeared, and he looked directly into Her eyes. She gave
him a sunken grin, then, in front of his very eyes, changed. She was all at
once blessed with the graceful beauty of youth, and Her appearance changed to
see fit. She ecstatically threw Her pale hands to the sky in joy, and then She
moved.
She leapt from her chair into the air, and pounced at Victor, trying to
hurt him, to kill him-
He was doing his best, but She
was winning. The pain in his head grew and grew until it felt as though the
whole world was burning in it.
He flailed wildly and in vain tried to ward Her off. She was gouging
thousands of cuts in him with Her swaying hands, tearing him to shreds before
his very eyes.
HE UNDERSTOOD! If he died now,
then Tarrow would be free. She would be released from this dimension, this
alternate room in which She was bound, and would be free to wreak Her havoc.
With this in mind, Victor turned around, and ran to the opposite wall. He
flailed around in vain for the door, trying to seek escape from what had once
been his haven.
She bit him, slashed him, hurt him-
WHERE WAS IT!? His hands fumbled
over something, could it be the knob?-
She gouged out his eyes, and his vision was lost to him, and he only
heard. And what he heard terrified him.
The pain reached heights he had
not thought possible, and he was momentarily incapacitated. But he struggled
onwards, and wrenched open the door.
“NO!”, She screamed. He had the impression of her looking at him with
hatred, and felt the hands she slashed him with turn into masses of wrinkles.
He heard her flee and return to where she had once been.
As Victor shut the door, he could
swear that he heard the sound of a rocking chair.
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