The Thing From the Ocean

The thing from the ocean rose and towered above. Its face was insanity. I backed away from the water, and he swallowed me down. I swam and swam; a wet darkness; a circus of teeth. I heard a distant calling; shouts from my relatives. It was an illusionary display - they were the wall. Lights were everywhere - hideous eyes of light. I bit into the flesh of the insane neck, and techno started to play. I couldn’t wake up...but I found the opening. The tooth was rotted out from the inside, shiny and full of text. I tore at it and it started to loosen and deflate. The thing spat me out and I landed on the beach, alone and strange. Loose wet stones stuck to my hands. My eyes bled water. Incoherent, I tried to find someone to talk to. There weren’t any souls on the beach that wanted to chat. The closest was miles away…talking to someone else on a hill...something they didn’t want me to hear. There were signs - there were always signs. Signs about how to wake up, signs about how to stay asleep. They talked to you if you gave them $9.99 dollars exactly. My feet were rotting away. The techno was still playing, the same music as the water - lucid and burnt. I felt out for more ideas, and found one in a church. I skipped there, Leo walk; choirs and choirs down the paved path. There was a burning man selling water on the side of the paved path. His name was Leo, and he told me to shoot the gun. I was ashamed, but now I was angry. I remembered why I had come to the beach. Not to see you, but to kill the thing. There hadn't been a second that I hadn't spent on you. But I had failed - he had slunk back into the sea with a backward glance. The odyssey inside, Leo taught, is the one that takes and pays the most. The wonderment of your own mind, is matched only by itself. There was much more to tell, much much more to explain, but I’ve reached the end of the paved path. I think I’ll go inside. I’m hungry. I’m always hungry. The church is ahead, and I can see the pale light falling from its doors.