Emika Grows

Emika instinctively made a step back, only to let out a quick scream as she squished onto another plum. 

Her light didn’t have any effect on the ring; it was bright, saturated and didn’t fit into its surroundings, the inside of it being transparent, with the air flickering as if from the heat above a campfire. The light did, however, have an effect on what was attached to the circle; a body of sorts, four legged, similar to that of a large deer, and it seemed like the ring was just its gigantic head.

She had trouble breathing. Realising how all her blood shot into her head, she again made a step back, this time ignoring whatever she might have felt at her feet.

The creature slowly inched closer, with its hooves slowly advancing, as if in slow motion, and the circle moving downwards. However, it didn’t seem like the head was actually carried by its body. More so, it appeared the body was dragged by the ring.

As Emika circled around it while trying to keep her distance, she recognized that the ring looked the same no matter which angle she looked at it from; it was completely unaffected by perspective. By now, it had almost reached the ground and was at the edge of the path where Emika had initially stood. The ring hovered right around a little pile of plums that Emika was extremely sure she had accidentally stepped in a moment earlier. Just as the ring surrounded them, it appeared like they were cut out from the world; with some plums severed in two, as if removed by a cookie cutter. Then, gravity lost its influence on them as they started spinning inside the ring, slowly turning smaller and smaller… It was as if Emika was watching them fall down a well right from above, until they finally vanished into nothingness.

A shiver went down her spine, and she felt the corners of her mouth rise involuntarily. Yeah… she was sure of it. This was, by far, the most amazing thing she had ever witnessed. At least now she knew why this thing was called a ‘Well of Abstraction’.

Not even bothering to attempt to wipe the awkward smile of admiration off her face, she made a few careful steps towards the creature to take a better look at its body. The terror she’d felt was still present in her bones, but for now, curiosity won.

As she shone light on the creature, she realised that even though its shape resembled that of a deer, there were some significant differences. For one, this body had no fur, but instead greenish, leathery and transparent skin that made it possible to see the black muscle tissue, bones, blood vessels and organs inside of it. 

“This is so cool,” she whispered under her breath, until she noticed that the ring, which she had lost sight of while focusing on the details of the body’s biology, had come dangerously close to her hip. She jumped aside, her whole body trembling in a short burst of fright, and the circle kept pursuing her. It was very slow altogether, so she could easily keep her distance, but she definitely shouldn’t lose focus, or it would be lights out.

Without breaking eye contact with the ominous red shape, she kneeled down and tapped around the ground, until her fingers touched one of the plums. She grasped it, and tossed it into the centre of the well. As it entered the ring, it lost momentum, then started spinning around itself, right before being devoured into the depths of the abyss. It didn’t take very long until it went back to pursuing Emika.

For a while, she just took the creature on a walk between the abandoned buildings, occasionally feeding it with whatever she could find on the ground. She made sure to find special things that would be fun to see tumble into the void, like for example a small keychain, a booklet, and at one point, she even tossed a brick.

Regardless of the offering, the spectacle remained the same: For a second, the object seemed captured by the big red ring, then, it fell down as if being watched from above. That remained true even when Emika tried walking around the creature as it gulped something down.

With time, Emika even dared getting up really close, although she made sure not to accidentally get eaten. She kept fighting the nigh irresistible urge to pet its back. Of course, she understood that if she were to do that, that poor thing might suffer an excruciating death, so she kept her little hands to herself.

Almost two hours went by just with Emika satisfying her curiosity, feeding and watching that particular creature. It really did seem to do its best at eventually catching her, even going as far as to predict some of her movements and changing course in order to cut her off. But since it was so incredibly slow, Emika wasn’t that worried. 

Eventually, after feeding one last plum, she said: “I think I need to go home. It was fun, though…”

While uttering these words, she finally remembered that she hadn’t been here for fun. That’s right — she wanted to find out about the Revenant. That said… This monster didn’t have any plant-like properties and didn’t seem similar to her at all. So… another dead-end?

With a sigh, she waved the creature goodbye.

She’d still have to make her way back home, a task she wasn’t at all looking forward to. Her legs still felt weak from the trip to this place, and from tip-toeing around the forest for such a long time. After making sure she had gathered all her things, she went back to her bike and rode home.

She couldn’t wait to tell Melisande about all of this. In fact, her phone had vibrated a few times already, but checking and replying had been too dangerous while some monster was actively trying to gobble Emika all up, so she had ignored all the messages.

It was already after four in the morning when she finally arrived back home. Completely exhausted and with a dry throat and almost numb legs, she strode through the living room, took a cup of tea that she hadn't finished before she left and washed it down in one gulp.

Afterwards, she took out Lester’s mobile phone and dropped onto the sofa with an exhausted moan. She was far too excited to sleep, but could hardly move either. Instead, she just lay there for a few minutes, listening to the crickets making their noise in the garden.

Eventually, she unlocked the phone, and took a look at the messages she had received while she was gone. The oldest one read: Wow sounds scary! U def gotta tell me how it went when ur back!

Then, the others were:

— And? did u get there? Pls don’t tell me u got lost

— Any updates?

— Ok it’s been 2 hours dear lady. U kno i’ll come save u if ur gone too long right?

— I#m sorry but did you really put your phone on mute and forget all about me before visiting a literal MAGICAL PHENOMENON bc if u did istg do you not know i’M WORRIED >=(

— I mean it makes sense you wouldn’t wanna have ur phone go off right as you lo9ok into the eyes of some monster or something uwu but stiiiilll

Oh right, thought Emika. It would have been a very good idea to mute her phone, actually. She’d remember for next time. For now, though, she wasn’t able to wipe the smile off her face. Who would have thought this girl would get so worried? For some reason, Emika’s heart felt very warm.

She then spent a very long time writing down her experience in all of its details, and after sending her text, read through all of it again. She had barely reached the middle when the screen flashed. A reply. She refreshed the page and saw the following words: Omg that sounds super exciting!! So glad you had fun. Man, I wish I’d been there with u. It does kinda sound like this was your first irl encounter w/ an actual monster, huh?

Emika got a little startled by the quick answer, but then she responded with a short Yes.

Honestly, I’m a lil relieved at how u handled this all. Seems like u didn’t mind meeting a monster, the next text read.

Emika pondered her reply for a second, and then wrote: Well, how else would I have handled it? I just thought it was really cool. You are making me self-conscious… Also, why would this relieve you?

Unusually, Melisande’s answer this time wasn’t immediate. Instead, an actual five minutes went by; completely unprecedented. Finally, a short message appeared.

Well, y’know. Ig there’s something I gotta tell u.

After that, another minute went by until her second text.

A monster… The thing is… actually…

Emika could, for some reason, not help the excitement that was building up inside her body, until she was finally met with the last reply in the bunch that said:

..I’m one too.