Dimensional Shambler

 

Blue light flickered from the eerie fires that burned around the altar. A soft whimper came from the corner of the chamber where the strange creature huddled, body bound in cruel magic. Their eyes were wild as they watched the man at the altar, his broad back turned from me as I stepped into the ancient cavern, avoiding the eldritch symbol on the floor. 

His voice echoed around the stone room, bouncing off the walls with their power as I moved in the darkness, slipping in shadows to kneel beside the creature. Unseeing eyes looked at me through the creature’s mind as I pulled the sacrificial dagger from my pocket and slid it across my hand. Long claws scratched on the stone floor as the monster stirred, unfathomable visage half-hidden in the dark. Yet I knew a hundred eyes blinked as one when its gaze turned towards me. 

The blood splattered on the ground. I turned, glancing back at the man as he read aloud from an ancient book not meant for mortals. Yet he was no mortal and so believed embracing the chaos would grant him further power. Each word he spoke was a name, a symbol of something old and powerful. I recognized that he was summoning as the symbol ignited, illuminating the ancient thing beside me and the entire room. 

Magic threw me back, hitting my body with a jolt of power that left me sprawled on the floor gasping. The chanting had stopped. I lifted my head to see the boots moving closer. It took me moments to rise and push away from the ground, rolling back from the man as he approached, power radiating from his skin. 

“How dare you?” 

My eyes looked up at him as I pulled myself up into squatting before I stood, stepping backward. The wall met my back as he stopped, arrogant smirk on his hardened features. “What was your plan, girl? Control the beast for yourself?”

He turned, looking at the ghastly creature, elongated arms dragging on the cold floor. Yellow eyes opened and it snarled at the man, dozens of pointed teeth erupting from the overwide mouth. Yet the man didn’t flinch, even as a cold shiver wound up my spine. His eyes narrowed and a haunted voice slipped from his lips, speaking the language of things long forgotten.

The creature screeched as the seal around it began to return, my blood on the ground sizzling as the circle began to complete. Its long limbs pounded against the invisible cage, panic palpable in the air.

I slammed into the man, my body knocking against his form. He fell back, hip hitting the stone altar and snarled at me. “You stupid little bitch.” 

My brows raised as I held the dagger, blood on the blade. His hand instantly moved to his side where the black robes hid the blood that had begun to seep from him. “Now who’s stupid.” I tilted my head and stepped back. “Let it go.”

He chuckled. Fury rose inside me yet I stayed back, away from him. A sneer rose in place as he stood, pulling a wicked blade from the altar. Its sharp edge glittered in the low darkness, blue light reflecting off its well made surface. “Then you’ll bleed too, woman.”

I shifted, stepping back towards the creature as he followed. “What do you want with it?”

“They’re weak creatures. Easy to control.”

“Nothing should be under the control of another. Not unwillingly.” I shifted, my heel touching the line of the sigil that held the creature. It whimpered behind me, sounding of pain and estranged anger. 

The man gave a low laugh again. His voice was rich. Under any other circumstances, he would have been handsome and charming. I knew his kind too well. “How did I fail to recognize you, Guardian?” he mused, sword tilting to taunt me. 

“Funny. I’ve been following your messy trail since Bael.” I took a small sidestep. He followed, moving with the grace of every hunter I had known. “You’re going to capture it? Keep it as a pet?”

“Or kill it.” 

I tilted my head. “You can’t, Hunter. They’re incorporeal.” 

He blinked at me and turned, thrusting the blade. I sidestepped, shifting as he moved closer. My blade slashed, pushing him back towards the invisible forcefield holding the shambler hostage. In an instant, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me against him. The sword pressed at my back, keeping me there, blade gently resting against the base of my skull.

“Now,” he said softly. “Since you’re more than happy to bleed to free the creature, you ought to be willing to bleed for its domination.” His fingers tightened, twisting my wrist until I dropped the blade. 

I stared up at him, inhuman eyes looking into his own. It took strength, speed, and resilience to lie with monsters. It took even more to murder them. 

My eyes searched his own. “What happened to lead you here, Marius?” I touched his neck where the Hunter’s Mark was inked, the last stain from Voracious before he had been banished. 

Silence hung between us. The Hunter watched me, emotions flickering rapidly across his features. “You shouldn’t have come here,” he murmured. Fingers released my wrist before he touched my cheek. “Just go.”

“You know I can’t,” I replied softly. “Please. Just let them go. You can’t truly think this… this is right?” I turned my head and looked at the creature that writhed in its magical prison. 

Marius turned his head to look upward. “They are monsters. They hurt people. Drag them into an abyss.” 

“Have you been there?” My eyes found his again. “Why not trust? Let me-”

He grabbed my hand from touching his face, steely eyes hardening. “You should know why. Don’t you dare use those tricks on me.” 

I flinched as he grabbed my hair, holding my face near his own. I reached behind me, grabbing the sword with my hands. The sharp blade cut through flesh easily. A hiss of pain escaped me as blood splattered the ground.

The hunter gasped, stumbling backward as the hulking creature moved forward, long clawed arms reaching out around me as though to grab me. Yet it didn’t touch me. Inside of my mind, something took hold, stopping me from moving. I felt it quiet my mind, forcing the body to stop listening to the panicked movements I wanted to be making.

It gurgled behind me as the blue fire Marius had lit rose, illuminating the room even as it began to fade. I saw him, eyes wide in terror, as he leaned against the wall, watching as my body disappeared.

Acrid air filled my lungs as  I fell through an abyss. Darkness was everywhere. The sky, filled with great clouds of smoke, illuminated now and then from the flashes of lightning that filled the air. Something swooped by me smelling of sulfur and ash as I tumbled through the sky.

Thick viscous liquid met me, bouncing me off of its surface. Lightning filled the sky, showing me the wet ooze filled landscape that surrounded where I stood. Yellow eyes watched me in the dark, turning towards me as I tried to stand. 

There were hundreds of the strange shamblers, large and lumbering yet moving with strange ease through the liquid. Dragons swooped in the sky, bodies strange and deformed. Their hazy smoke filled the air, making it difficult to breathe. 

I turned, looking behind me to where the shambler stood, its body hunched over as it stared at me with its deep set eyes. Teeth glistened in the flashes of light. We stared at each other as it waited, mind gently pressing against my own, searching for the weakness in my armor.

My body began to sink, slowly moving into the ooze. I looked away from the shambler, down to my feet, and then around for anything solid to hold to. When my eyes rose, the shambler was nearly atop me, standing stoic and solid. 

I shifted, trying to pull my feet up but fell forward instead. My hands caught the over-long arm of the shambler, its once incorporeal form now real in its homeworld. As my fingers touched its flesh its mind shivered and pushed into my own. A soft gasp escaped my lips as my eyes closed, leaving behind the landscape of grey to retreat inward.

Within it was dark and quiet. The shambler stood in my mind, watching me as I watched it in return. Sensations of cool tickled my skin as it played with me, never touching me yet I could feel its presence in my mind push my thoughts and sensations to where it wanted. 

They said that shamblers ate minds and souls. I waited for the pain to begin. Memories of my past played around us, moans of delight and cries of pain intermingled. Dozens of those moments played, coming in fast succession, as the shambler sampled each of them, taking small pieces for itself, emitting low sounds of pleasure with each taste.

I felt myself grow wet, my skin became sensitive as the shambler dug deeper, finding memories I had thought long since gone. Sensations of biting teeth, binding rope, and sharp claws teased my flesh, causing a low moan to roll out of mine. 

The feeling of pressure built within the memories of being touched and filled flew through us both. The shambler was closer, its presence gently raking nails over my skin, imitating sensations in my mind without ever moving. I shuddered, haunting need filling my being as its eyes locked with mine.

Something and yet nothing slid inside of me. My body responded, rocking to match the thrusts of nothing. I whimpered at the realization that I was empty and yet I felt full. My skin prickled as whipping pain was thrashed against my back, my hips, and my breasts, sending sharp pleasure through my muscles.

My hips kept rocking, kept pushing back against something that wasn’t there. Louder moans spilled out of my mouth as the shambler stood, watching me writhe in pleasurable agony. It felt me mount the minotaur, be flayed by a deep devil. Its own mind knew every movement of the werewolf’s primal need and the drifting pleasure of mist. 

It made a gurgling noise of orgasm as it tasted the moment the Kraken filled me everywhere it could, my body covered in sliding lengths. I cried out, remembering and feeling at once, the pressure inside me building to untenable degrees. My eyes locked with the shambler as it trembled and called forth another memory.

Lips were pressed together, bodies moving as one in the dark, whispered promises of love. Despite moans filled the air, a stolen moment. My lover whispered my name, fingers entangled as climax overtook us. 

I finally felt the pressure erupt, rocking through my body as a dozen explosions of pleasure. I sagged forward, panting though nothing had been happening. My body trembled and shivered, lying within my mind as sweet release took it. 

The shambler’s long claw caressed my face. I opened my eyes, looking through the darkness to its strange form inside the grey ooze. My body had sunk downward until up and down seemed lost and nothing but the endless fluid was in every direction. 

Its eyes were barely visible within the slime. I tried to move but found myself locked in place by the thick fluid. The claw caressed, attached to its long arm before it reached forward and touched the crown of my head.

The cold dark cave floor caught me as I fell through the air again, landing on its rough surface. I was covered in strange gelatin, the fluid of the shambler’s home. It oozed out of me slowly, sending chills through my body as I looked around.  

Blue fire still danced at the hunter’s altar. He stood, patching the wound I had gave him as I manifested in his summoning circle. The shambler was nowhere to be seen as I sat up, shivering in the cave’s dampness. 

“So you freed it, then,” he said coolly. 

I stood, grabbing my knife from the ground as I did.

“I had thought it would have kept you there. Feasted on you. I can only imagine what secrets your mind holds.” He shifted, finishing the stitches on his abdomen. Scars lined his body, wounds from the murders of dozens of monsters. 

Our eyes met, lingering on each other in unspoken judgment. “Get in my way again, and I will kill you, Guardian,” he finally said as he stood, pulling a shirt over his chest. 

“Stop your hunt and we will never meet again.” I pushed the knife back into my sleeve and moved to his altar. My hand closed around his blue flame, holding it though its coolness nearly burned. 

“And here you are, doing magic now.”

“No,” I turned my head and looked at him. The fire turned red in my hand and I touched it to the ancient book he had been using to summon the shamblers. It erupted into flames, pages curling into ash as I stepped back. “I’m the child of a dragon.”

He screamed in rage and tried to put the dragon fire out. I turned, walking from the cave and into the cool night of Summer, followed by the sound of a monster.