m.j.wasik – The Works of the Poor Knight

Poem (with music): Death and Me

In the light where dancing fairies dwell,

whispering of the deals fate compels,

A fleeting breath, a gentle sigh,

As air hangs thick and spirits fly

I look longing across a chasm wide,

With Death, my solemn, patient guide.

“Dear death,” I plea, “let’s barter here,

I offer dreams, I hold so dear.

What do you give for breaths still drawn?

For vibrant blooms and whispered dawn?

For memories of warm embrace,

and fleeting touches of time and grace.

The laughter of a child’s play,

The light of a setting day.

Take from me life’s sad veil,

The creeping doubts, the faintest wail,

I’ll barter strength for lives entwined,

For every love that’s left behind.

“What, dear death, do I obtain,

From tender tears, from joy and pain?

For every moment that I seek,

There lies a cost, a painful truth to speak”

I reach within, my heart in hand,

“I’ll trade you longings and a grain of sand.”

With bated breath, I watch and wait,

Stillness hums as Death decides my fate.

Pausing to consider for a time,

The symbols on the silver moon entwined.

A sigh escapes, like autumn leaves,

In this transaction, my heart believes.

“Your offer’s rich,” Death softly sings,

“But life’s a web with tangled strings.

As we tread through shadowed paths

With every sorrow, and pain’s cruel laughs,

For every joy, a flicker fades,

In every heart, a shadow wades.”

“But oh,” I plead, “let me extend

This fragile barter, so I can end,

In death, I see beauty’s glow,

A cycle danced, the ebb and flow.

To realms beyond. Where echoes cease

In the stillness, there is release

“What, dear death, do I obtain,

From tender tears, from joy and pain?

For every moment that I seek,

There lies a cost, a painful truth to speak”

I reach within, my heart in hand,

“I’ll trade you longings and a grain of sand.”

With gentle grace, Death shakes its head,

“For life’s high price is never shed,

But should you choose, dear soul, to fight,

Rebuke the dark, and embrace the light.

Let us bargain not to flee from time,

But for your strength to face the climb,

To cherish moments, bright and rare,

And weave them into every prayer.”

The sun does rise, and here I stand,

with melancholy joy and hour glass in hand.

In bargaining, I found my place,

To live, to love, in the Day’s embrace.

The House on Dog Star Drive

A short story by Sir M.J. Wasik

In the ancient city of Snafu, in the rich parish of Sigan, sits an estate that was once the envy of all its neighbors on Dog Star Drive. Now, it sits a ruin, a blight upon the otherwise pristine neighborhood. No one knows what happened to its original owners, but rumor has it that it was murder. And with all such abandoned houses, it was rumored to be haunted. But that did not deter the Three Goblin Company, as they had heard it all before. They had repaired and resold a dozen haunted houses, all without any major incident. After all, dealing with the ghost was just a matter of finding out how to release them from what ever had them trapped, And this estate was promising to give major profit, even if there is a ghost, as the authorities declared that it belongs to anyone who is willing to fix it up. Which is what the Three Goblin company does, though ironically, they no longer had any Goblins as a part of it.

And so, through the corroded iron gates of the forsaken estate, the group of fortune seekers stepped, their hearts thrumming with equal measures of greed and trepidation. Twisted metal screeched a haunting dirge as they pushed past, the sound echoing through the skeletal trees that lined the path like ghostly sentinels. Nature had reclaimed what humanity had once tamed; vines strangled pillars, weeds choked the life from the flower beds, and the untamed grass clawed at the edges of the crumbling pathway.

“Looks like no one’s pruned these hedges in a century,” muttered Cammy, her eyes scanning the wild overgrowth, searching for hidden threats.

“Or trimmed the shadows,” added Jax, resting one hand on the hilt of his rapier and the other on his pistol. He was most sensitive to the vibrations of a place, and so the most wary of the darkness that clung to the estate like a second skin.

The decrepit mansion loomed before them, its windows like hollow eyes, its grandeur suffocated under a blanket of neglect. They were here because whispers and rumors had spread across the town like a sinister breeze. The local authority had declared that the estate would belong to anyone brave or foolish enough to restore it to its former glory. It was a tempting prize, and it was clearly better than rooting out dire rats and rabid goblins from the basements of houses that barely turned a profit.

“Remember the tales,” said Elara, her voice low, yet cutting through the silence like a blade. “The last souls who tried to claim this place… they lost themselves to it, minds unraveled by whatever dwells within.”

“And those before them?” Jax asked, though he knew the answer.

“Vanished,” she replied, “swallowed by the house, leaving not a trace behind.”

“Let’s just keep our wits about us,” Cammy urged, her noble heart aching with sympathy for those lost spirits, but she was also the practical one. “We found no one who knew the people that lived here before, nor anyone who was eyewitness to the fates of those who tried to claim it before us. As far as we know, the only thing the house hungers for is repairs.”

As they stepped onto the once-grand estate, each felt the weight of unseen years upon the house, and the air thick with the scent of decaying vegetation and ancient secrets. The adventure had truly begun, and the shadows danced with malevolent anticipation. And Jax new something was wrong, but could not give it a name, nor find any sign of a ghost.

Elara’s hand skimmed the crumbling balustrade as she ascended the grand staircase, her fingertips disturbing years of dust and cobwebs. The wood groaned beneath her weight, the creaks and moans spoke of decay and neglect. Each step they took into the mansion revealed more of its desperate need for repair. Plaster crumbled from the walls like dead skin, the once-opulent tapestries were moth-eaten relics, and the air was thick with the mustiness of abandonment.

Jax pried open a swollen door, its hinges protesting with a screech that echoed through the desolate corridors. “This place is a tomb,” he muttered, eyeing the vast library where books lay strewn across the floor, their spines broken, their knowledge absorbed by the mildew that stuck the pages together.

“Well, that is why we are here. To bring it back to life,” Cammy said with determination, rolling up her sleeves. She began organizing the scattered volumes, a reverence in her touch for the old books that were salvageable. “It is time to call in the others.”

Over the week, they worked tirelessly. Elara stitched together tears in the upholstery and curtains with the precision of a surgeon, her hands weaving new narratives into the fabric of the house. Jax focused on repairing places in the frame where the termites had their fun and carving runes of protection in the wood, bolstering the sagging bones of the structure. Dutton would spend his time sanding the floor for staining, spouting profanities the whole time either from the splinters or from it taking longer than he thought it should. Kayce and Emelia started by patching the roof, and then progressed to pulling the weeds that was clogging the fountains in the yard. Meanwhile, Cammy tended to the shattered windows, replacing pane after pane, allowing light to pierce the gloom that had settled like an unwelcome guest.

As darkness draped itself over the world on the eighth day, the groups gathered in one of the living rooms, their bodies weary but in high spirits. The repairs were progressing slow but well and it was already starting to look like they were making a difference. They had just cleaned out the chimney and so a fire crackled in the hearth as a celebration. It casting flickering shadows upon the walls that seemed to writhe and twist in a macabre dance. It was here, in the heart of their reclaimed fortress, and at that moment, when the laughter of the group was the loudest, that the boundaries between realities thinned.

Without warning, the plaster of the living room wall trembled. From within its cracked surface, a head emerged, its features achingly beautiful, ethereal in their perfection. Skin like moonlight, eyes that shimmered with an otherworldly luster, lips that whispered of eternal pleasures. It was beauty that ensnared the senses, yet beneath it lurked an unsettling dissonance for the experienced adventure. A beauty too perfect is a warning of peril.

“Such loveliness should not be possible,” Elara breathed, her instincts screaming that such allure would not be crafted without purpose.

“I sense no ill will but beauty can be a mask,” Jax murmured, his gaze never leaving the apparition. “A distraction from the fangs that lie beneath.”

“Or a lure,” Cammy added, voicing her own suspicion. She approached, but with cautious steps, as if aware that every inch closer to the spectral visage brought her closer to some unfathomable abyss.

The head remained suspended in the wall, its expression serene yet sorrowful, as though it mourned for them and the fate they had yet to comprehend. The firelight danced in its eyes, casting reflections that seemed almost pleading, beckoning them deeper into the mystery that shrouded the cursed estate. It was a beauty that demanded attention, one that could not be ignored, and yet, it instilled a wariness within them, their experience-trained intuition whispered of danger lurking beneath the veneer of splendor.

The head’s voice wove through the stillness of the room, a chilling symphony that set their nerves on edge. “You must leave this place,” it intoned, its ethereal beauty a stark contrast to the gravity of its warning. “You are in danger here, danger far greater than rotting timbers and crumbling stone.”

“Who are you?” Elara demanded, her heart hammering against her ribs, each beat echoing the dread that pooled in her stomach.

“Once, I was Kuomi. A child of this house,” the head replied, its voice a lamentation that seemed to bleed through the very walls. “A child who played in these halls, innocent to the darkness my parents invited into our home.”

“Darkness?” Jax’s hand tightened around the handle of his pistol, a futile gesture of defense against the unseen.

“Evil magic,” the head clarified, and the words hung in the air like a curse. “They delved into forbidden arts, seeking power and knowledge that mortals are never meant to hold.” Shadows clung to its features as it spoke, a visual echo of the sinister tale it wove. “My parents’ ambition knew no bounds, and they paid a terrible price for their pride.”

“Paid how?” Cammy’s question was a whisper, yet it carried the weight of impending doom.

“By sacrificing their souls,” the head responded, its haunting gaze piercing through them. “And ultimately, their own flesh and blood.”

The air seemed to thicken as the head continued its harrowing tale, each word weaving a tapestry of dread that enveloped the group. “They sought audiences with beings beyond our comprehension,” it said, its voice resonating with the echoes of ancient evils. “Demons, devils, what ever you may call the entities shrouded in the malevolence collected over a thousand lifetimes. My parents bartered with them, trading their souls for secrets soaked in sin.”

Elara’s gaze was locked onto the apparition, her thoughts racing with the horrific implications. The house itself felt alive with a malignant presence, as if watching and waiting with bated breath.

“Power, they craved. Wealth, they sought. And all the while, they fed this cursed abode with offerings most foul.” The spectral visage’s eyes shimmered with a sorrow that transcended time. “Sacrifices to sustain the dark pacts. On every seventh moon, a soul must be unto the house in a ritual to appease the hunger that gnaws at its foundations.”

“I can feel the hunger even now. But strangers?” Jax croaked, his throat dry, his grip on the hammer now slicks with sweat.

“Yes, strangers at first,” the head acknowledged, the air around it seeming to ripple with unseen forces. “Travelers lured by false promises, ensnared by spells woven into the very soil of this place.”

Cammy’s hand went instinctively to her heart, a futile attempt to calm its frantic rhythm. “And then? When the danger was too great to grab another stranger?”

“Then came the ultimate betrayal,” the disembodied head murmured, its words a dirge for the damned. “Their own kin. Their nephews and nieces, and then their own children, one by one, disappeared mysteriously. Though it is no mystery to us, we became sustenance for the evil power they had nurtured within these walls.”

A suffocating silence fell upon the room, broken only by the distant sound of something stirring in the shadows, probably a rat but also reminder that the past never truly rests in a house stained by such vile transactions. Cammy’s chest tightened, a visceral reaction to the sorrow-laden tale; the very atmosphere seemed to weep with the weight of countless tragedies absorbed into the walls of this accursed sanctuary.

“Such malevolence,” she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath stolen by the shadows that danced along the edges of their lantern light. “To use one’s own blood… how does such evil not consume itself?”

“Evil begets evil,” muttered Kayce, his usually stony demeanor fractured by the revelation. He had been a soldier in the Xanta Crusade, but some things can still phase him. “It festers, grows, seeks out the warmth of life to extinguish.”

Their gazes were drawn inexorably back to the head, its beauty marred only by the depth of sorrow in its ethereal eyes. The pain it had witnessed, the horrors it had endured, resonated within each of them, a shared agony that transcended mere empathy. The felt the pain of it in their bones, as if they too had lived it. The pain almost unbearable.

“Is there no end to your suffering?” Cammy’s question was directed at the spectral visage, but it echoed the silent plea in all their hearts.

“An end?” The head’s laugh was hollow, devoid of mirth. “This house is a prison forged by blood and dark pacts. To leave would mean one would have unravel the very fabric of what traps me here. The risk is too great. “

“We will break your bonds,” Cammy declared, her determination a stark contrast to the despair that had gripped the room. And all knew that when Cammy got like this the rest had little choice but to see it to the end. No shortcuts for Cammy when they were dealing with ghosts. “Tell us how. There must be something we can do.”

“I am an internal child but you are the one that is foolish,” the head sighed. “Your heart is pure, and your compassion great but the risk… you cannot fathom the dangers that lurk on this side of the veil, or what risk it might expose you to.”

“Help us understand,” Cammy pressed, stepping closer to the wall from which the apparition emerged. “We will not abandon you to this fate.”

“Abandonment…” the head trailed off, as if the word conjured memories too painful to bear. “Very well, there is but one way that I know of. To show an act of compassion, void of guile, one conceived in innocence but perilous all the same.”

“Speak it,” urged Cammy, her resolve unshaken.

“Wipe away my tears and give me a kiss of comfort upon my brow. One like my parents should have given me instead of using my torment to trap me here.” The head divulged, its tone becoming hesitant, “if it is delivered freely and in innocence the curse might lift and break the chains that bind me. At least that is what I believe from the taunts of those that dwell on the dark side of the wall.”

“Then I shall give it,” Cammy said without hesitation, her noble spirit shining through the gloom like a beacon.

“Cammy, consider what you’re…” Kayce began, but she cut him off with a determined glance.

“I have considered, and my decision stands.” Cammy’s voice was resolute, her eyes never leaving the sorrowful beauty before her. “If there is a chance for liberation, I must take it.”

“Very well,” the head acquiesced, its spectral form shimmering with an otherworldly glow. “But remember, my hero, the path of good intentions oft leads into the abyss.”

“Then let the shadows come,” Cammy replied, showing all the stubbornness, drive and confidence she always had in such heroic moments. It was why the partners had voted her to be the companies’ leader every year.

Cammy stepped forward, her heart pounding with the weight of a thousand untold stories that echoed within the room. The once beautiful face on the wall gazed at her with eyes that held eternity’s sorrow, its visage a haunting mirror to the noblest of intentions.

“Be free,” she whispered, brushing away the tears that flowed from the head’s eyes, her lips brushing the cold forehead in a tender, innocent kiss.

The moment the warmth of her lips touched the spectral surface, the air shivered and the minds of all those present was torn at by a silent scream as reality contorted violently. The head’s features twisted in pain into something grotesque, skin stretching and peeling back to reveal a gaping abyss where beauty once resided. From within the maw, rows of jagged teeth glinted hungrily as an unfathomable darkness swirled like a storm of malevolence.

Cammy could not even gasp before the horror that had been the head lunged forward, its mouth enveloping her own head in a single, voracious bite. A wet, sickening crunch reverberated through the chamber, stopping the others in their tracks.

Pandemonium broke out as Cammy’s headless form hit the ground and the others realized that tendrils of shadow and ichor, thick and alive with malice, were attached to them. The shadowy tentacles had ensnared bodies and limbs and had been draining the life from them. Now, they pulled the adventurous company toward the abyssal mouth. Their screams melded with the gleeful cackle that bubbled up from the entity, a sound that would haunt the edges of their sanity for years to come.

“Would be heroes are always such fools, so ripe for the harvest,” the monster crooned, its voice a distorted echo of the head’s once gentle timbre. “You sought to free a soul, but instead you will feed me yours.”

The panic increased to levels unbearable to mortal hearts Jax fired his blessed pistol into the head in the wall with little affect.

“Your suffering makes you all the more delectable,” the creature taunted, its laughter spat at them as some managed to tear themselves away from its grasp, carrying with them wounds in their hearts as well as flesh, scars that would never heal.

Kayce wrenched his arm free, the tendril tearing away flesh as he stumbled backward, his gaze locked in horror at what remained of Cammy. If romantic interests were decided by the head instead of the heart he would have loved Cammy instead of Emelia. There was much to admire about her. She was the best of them. Her nobility, her courage, and most of all her compassion for the unfortunate, all consumed by an ancient evil they had so casually been talking with.

“Run!” he choked out, cutting the tendril that held Emelia, who was paralyzed by terror. They bolted towards the door, the house itself seeming to groan and resist their escape. They spent what felt like hours fighting their way out of the house. Every shadow spawned tendrils that clawed at them with spectral fingers blocking both doors and windows, and the head could seemingly spring from any wall. They lost Dutton learning that lesson. He was the first, but not the last.

“Remember this agony,” it spat out, “for I follow you until the end of your days! Where there is a shadow upon a wall, there will I be. There is no safety for you now”

Kayce, Emelia and Jax burst into the night, running at a panicked pace. They had been the only ones who survived but they did not look back for others as they crashed through the estate’s gates, leaving behind the eldritch abomination with the remains of their friend. The company was broken, only three in number, and forever changed. The survivors still will not talk about the that place etched into their very souls, a reminder of the consequences reaped from the seeds of greed and violence sown by mortals and gods alike.

A Symphony of Aromas

A Symphony of Aromas

A Snafu short story by Sir M.J. Wasik

Elm Street wore the gloom of the city of Snafu at twilight like it was a shroud, but amidst the dreariness of this part of town was a peculiar little shop. It beckoned with a warm glow from its windows. Its sign, “A Symphony of Aromas” creaked on rusty hinges as it danced in the biting autumn wind. A closer look would reveal that, as an afterthought, someone had carved “By Myshkin” on the bottom half of the sign. But they had never died it correctly, or it had faded that the words were barely legible.

I hesitated at the threshold, the scent of exotic spices overwhelmed me even before I reached the door. ‘A symphony of aromas indeed’ I thought as the memories flooded my mind. A mélange that unleashed the secrets I learned in far-off lands in times better forgotten. The cinnamon whispered tales of the caravans I raided in my youth. While the cloves sang of that cabin in the shadowy forests, deep and undisturbed, where I found redemption. My senses reeled, and for a moment, I was lost in the labyrinth of scents. And it took me a moment to find myself. With a hand that seemed to move of its own volition, I pushed open the door. The soft tinkling of a bell sliced through the silence as I entered. The smells only intensified, but I was prepared this time.

“Detective Boris,” a voice croaked from behind the counter, pulling me back to reality. It was Myshkin, the shopkeeper, his eyes unreadable, mysterious and dark as the goods he peddled. He was a small man, swallowed up by the voluminous sleeves of his robe, and he regarded me with an unsettling intensity.

“Shopkeeper Myshkin,” I nodded curtly, my voice steady despite the eerie unease coiling within me. “I’ve come to inquire about a certain… incident.”

“Ah, yes,” he replied, his thin lips curling into a semblance of a smile that never reached those fathomless eyes. “The air is thick with more than just the fragrance of spices today, isn’t it, detective?”

“Indeed,” I said, my gaze not leaving his as I prowled closer to the counter, each step deliberate. “It seems the aroma of mystery lingers just as heavily.”

“Perhaps I can offer you something? A blend of herbs for protection, or maybe a tincture to sharpen the mind?” He motioned towards a display holding the popular energy drink I knew so well, the Sap of Life. Its modern design seemed out of place among the traditional jars and wooden shelves.

“No, Myshkin. What I require from you won’t be found in any jar or bottle,” I stated flatly, my hand instinctively resting on the notepad in my pocket. “I seek only the truth.”

“Then let us hope,” he murmured, leaning forward so that the shadows seemed to cling to him, “that the truth is a spice you can stomach, Detective Boris.”

“Truth,” Myshkin repeated, his voice a mere whisper as he withdrew from the counter, retreating into the deeper shadows of the shop. “It began with a woman that I would have once have said to be the love I was looking for, a beauty carved from my very dreams. Her name is Elle.”

“Elle?” I echoed, the name rolling off my tongue like a bitter spice. My eyes narrowed, trying to read the flicker of emotions that danced in his.

“Beautiful,” he started, and his hands moved as if weaving an invisible tapestry. “She came to me with promises. Said she knew ways… ancient ways… to draw patrons to my shop.” His gaze slipped past me, focusing on something unseen, something that made the air feel thick with dread.

“Promises can be dangerous things,” I murmured, watching him closely.

“Indeed,” he agreed, a shiver passing through his slight frame. “I made the changes that she suggested. I performed the rituals she asked me to, though I felt silly doing them. But I could not argue with the results. Sales flourished like never before. My store has never done so well, even when it was my dad’s. But eventually, she would demand a price…” He trailed off, his eyes snapping back to mine with sudden fervor. “That is when I saw her true form.”

“True form?” I pressed, feeling the darkness of the room press in around us, the scent of cumin and cardamom momentarily bringing back the oppressive memories.

“Her beauty was but a mask, Detective. One evening, as the last rays of twilight died, she entered with that lithe way of walking she has, bouncing and jiggling in all the right places. It was a pleasure, as always, to see her. But after locking the door she turned to me with a hungry smile. At first I thought…well…instead she transformed.” His voice dropped to a hushed tone, laden with a terror that seemed to vibrate the walls. “Wings… vast moth wings sprouted from her back and a tongue as long and sharp as a sword came out of her mouth. And she came at me, hungering for more than commerce or cuddles.”

“Did she harm you?” My hand tightened around my notepad, as I looked for any sign of wounds upon him.

Myshkin’s laugh was bitter, hollow. “She said that she wanted to bring me into the family but I knew she was going to consume me, body and soul, Detective. But I escaped. I ran like the coward I am,” he spat out the words, disgust evident in his expression.

“Escape was survival, not cowardice,” I corrected him, though my thoughts raced with the implications of what a rumor of such a creature stalking the streets would mean.

“Perhaps,” he conceded, the word hanging between us like a spider suspended on its thread. “But where does one turn when no one believes you? Where does one run when the darkness itself hunts you?”

“Into the light,” I said, my voice steady even as my heart betrayed me with its rapid beats. “And you’ve done well to come to the authorities. It was probably some foul glamour, an illusion she placed upon herself to intimidate you. But we will find out the truth of the matter when we find this Elle. She won’t find refuge in the shadows for long.”

“Let us hope,” Myshkin murmured, but the doubt in his eyes spoke volumes. “For both our sakes.”

“Stay vigilant, Myshkin,” I instructed, my resolve hardening. “Keep your doors locked and your wits about you. I’ll handle Elle.”

“May the gods grant you strength,” he replied, his hand lifting in a feeble gesture that might have been a blessing or a plea.

“Strength,” I echoed, nodding curtly before I turned to leave the suffocating embrace of the spice shop. “Or whatever else it takes to face what hides in the night.”

I scribbled the last of Myshkin’s haunted words onto my notepad, ink scratching across the paper like claws on bark. The air in the shop clung to me, a miasma of exotic scents and the rank fear that seeped from the shopkeeper’s pores. It was as if I was back in the war, I again felt that chaos of when the old gods left and the new ones arrived. I gritted my teeth, and with a nod that felt more like an omen, I pocketed the pen and made my way to the door.

“Thank you, detective,” Myshkin’s voice was a ghostly whisper behind me. “Be careful.”

“Care is my middle name,” I said giving him a wink, the handle cold in my grip. A final glance over my shoulder caught the reflection of my own eyes in the glass of a jar filled with some unnamable spice. They were too sharp, too bright, too close together. Then I was out, the bell above the door tolling a somber farewell.

The street had become nearly empty as I turned into a dark alley, the cobblestones slick with the dark fog that never lifted more than a few inches of the ground. Here, hidden from prying eyes and bathed in shadows, I allowed the change to come. It started as an itch between my shoulder blades, the ancient call of Agdist, the Moth of the Eternal Night. As always, the touch of Agdist twisted my guts and set my nerves alight.

With a shudder that rattled my bones, literally, I let go. The transformation was never painless. It tore through bones, flesh and sinew, a symphony of agony and ecstasy that sang of freedom. Moth wings unfurled from my back, massive and grotesque against the backdrop of the night, their pattern a mockery of beauty, tattered with two dark spots that could have been eyes staring from the abyss. My proboscis curling in my mouth longing for the taste of blood. But that would have to wait, the family business comes first.

Unseen, unheard, I took flight. The city fell away beneath me, a tapestry of light and shadow, as I soared toward the outskirts where civilization gave way to the ruins of the old industrial blocks. Below, the factory lay dormant, a slumbering beast unaware of the predator circling above. I made several passes to make sure that there was no one near, no one to see. When I felt safe that the family had not been compromised, I went to the factory that was my home.

Landing was always delicate, a dance between gravity and my desire to fly to the moon, that ended with me cloaked in my human guise. The earth, cold and damp, embraced my feet as I dissolved into flesh, my wings a memory once more. I approached the factory with reverence, the ground cold and unyielding beneath me This was unhallowed ground, a sanctuary from the world’s unceasing intrusion. Before me, the factory loomed, a silent sentinel amidst the whispering fields. It was an edifice of otherworldly architecture, its angles mocking the laws of nature and sanity, windows like darkened eyes peering into the soul. The place where the family made Sap of Life, the popular and all-natural energy drink.

“Night Mother,” I called softly as I entered the factory floor, each word curling into the air like smoke from my pipe before I gave up the habit. “I come with a moon’s blessing in the silence of shadows.”

From the back office, a presence stirred, a delicate shiver formed in the fabric of reality. The Night Mother emerged, her form both exquisite and unnatural, a dream woven from moonlight and malice. Her eyes held galaxies of madness, her smile, a promise of oblivion and her voice was the very song of Agdist, The Moth of the Abyss.

“Tell me, child,” the Night Mother’s voice slithered through the darkness, a symphony of sweet decay. “Has our secret been kept from awakening minds?”

“Like whispers lost to the void,” I assured, my heart pounding with a mixture of dread and devotion. “The one at the spice shop remains oblivious of our plans, thinking it all a mundane mystery of monsters.”

“Good, very good.” The Night Mother’s approval washed over me, a tide of blackened delight. “Even if Elle was unable to turn him to our cause, Myshkin will continues to be among those who sell the sap. Our harvest of those who drink it goes on.”

“Indeed, Night Mother,” I bowed my head in reverence. “The spice shop’s keeper quivers alone, his tale disbelieved and the city sleeps unaware that their blood is drained while they dream.

“Perfect.” She stepped closer, the air chilling with her proximity. “You have done well, my envoy to the world. Continue to weave your web of deceit to shield us from their dim light.”

“Your will is my command,” I vowed, the words etched into my being at my rebirth. “I am the moth in the darkness, the silent harbinger on the wings of eternal night.”

“Then go,” Night Mother commanded, her gaze piercing the veil between worlds. “Spread your wings once more and keep watch over our domain. Let not one flicker of truth ignite the minds of the mortals.”

With a final nod, I retreated from her unholy aura, feeling the call of shadow and secrecy once again. Outside, the night beckoned, and I surrendered to its embrace, my form shifting, reshaping. Wings unfurled, vast and vile, and I ascended into the sky to dance with the moon, a specter of horror, bound through Night Mother, and our family to Agdist’s inscrutable plan.

The end. the creature page is here

The Church of the All-Seeing Eye

a Short story by Sir M.J. Wasik

Larry’s shadow stretched long and thin across the cobblestone street as he stood motionless in the alleyway lit only by a single window. The dim glow from the flickering lamps of the streets before him barely illuminated his gaunt features, but his eyes were alive with an unsettling intensity. They were fixated on Lucy as she made her way home, her steps rhythmic and carefree, unaware of the eyes that cataloged her every move.

The night air was filled with wisps of a fog that seemed to cling to Lucy like an unwanted suitor. Larry knew her habits well: the precise time she left work from Jillian’s Rare and Arcane Tomes and Scrolls, the exact route she took every evening, even the days she’d wear her hair down, letting it cascade over her shoulders like tendrils of the night itself. He had memorized the pattern of her life, etching it into his mind where it replayed in endless loops, feeding his obsession.

This eve held a blemish, a deviation in an otherwise perfect experience. There was laughter, a sound alien to Larry’s ears. It came from Lucy, a melody that stirred a cacophony of emotions within him. Her laughter wasn’t meant for him; no, it was directed towards a guy. A man whose name Larry never cared to learn, for he was normally nothing but an interloper in the twisted narrative Larry authored each night from the shadows.

Lucy’s eyes sparkled in the moonlight as she paused to speak with the guy at the corner of Rockmaker and Dunward Street. The building there had once been a rather popular pub back when Larry was young, not that he had ever partake of such pursuits. Since then, it had been a number of businesses. It had been a flower shop, and then a corner market. Currently it was a tea and coffee house, expensive, elegant, a fitting place for a casual beginning of a romance. And the warmth between Lucy and the guy was palpable, their conversation punctuated by touches and smiles that carved a hollow pit in Larry’s stomach. He could see how she looked at the guy, with a fondness and connection that she had never bestowed upon Larry.

“Goodnight, Lucy,” the guy said with an affectionate inflection that made Larry’s grip tighten around the leather-bound journal he always carried, a tome filled with notes on Lucy’s existence.

“Goodnight,” she replied, the word blooming with promise and things unspoken.

As the guy walked away, Larry felt something stir within him, a festering resentment that clawed at his insides. The pit in his gut was replace by a knife, hot and dark. His breaths became shallow, the cool air turning to razor blades in his throat. Lucy continued her journey home, oblivious to the turmoil she had inspired.

“Lucy,” Larry whispered to himself, the word a prayer and a curse all at once. “It’s me who watches over you, not him. Someday you will understand that no one loves you as I do.”

The darkness seemed to close in around Larry, the night itself becoming a confidant to his silent vigil. In his pocket, his hand found a small, crude effigy he had fashioned of Lucy. His thumb caressed it, tracing the lines and curves that were a poor substitute for the object of his desire.

“Only I know the real you,” he muttered through gritted teeth as he retreated further into the shadows, receding into the embrace of the supernatural world that lay just beyond the veil of the mundane. Even though Larry disappeared into the night, his presence seemed to linger like a malevolent specter, a silent promise that he would be there again tomorrow, and every day after, watching, waiting.

The world around Larry pulsed with a sinister rhythm, the heartbeat of an unseen creature lurking beneath the surface of reality. The sight of Lucy laughing with the guy had etched itself into his mind’s eye, a never-ending loop that tormented him with its jovial cadence. Each echo of her laughter was a blade inside him working its way to his heart, twisting deeper as their relationship burgeoned into something serious—something real.

As weeks turned into months, the threads of his sanity began to fray. His once methodical observations of Lucy devolved into erratic surveillance, punctuated by long nights spent muttering in the dark corners of his apartment, surrounded by walls plastered with photos of her, each a monument to his obsession.

“You see how she shines?” Larry whispered to the silent room, his voice a hoarse rasp. “Isn’t she exquisite?”

“Exquisite,” echoed a voice from the shadows, a voice that was not his own. It slithered into his ears, a serpentine caress that left a trail of cold sweat on his skin.

“Lucy belongs with me. She just doesn’t know it yet,” he insisted to the emptiness, the effigy of Lucy clutched in his trembling hands.

“But she will,” the voice assured, both soothing and ominous. “In time, she will understand that she has always been yours.”

Days blended together; the outside world became nothing more than a blurred backdrop for his delusions. Even in the absence of others, Larry was never alone. The voices became his constant companions, whispering mad ramblings of a love destined and a union inevitable.

“Tell me again how beautiful she is,” the voice would demand, its tone laced with hunger.

“Her hair cascades like ebony waterfalls, her eyes are twin stars caught in the firmament of her face,” Larry recited, repeated his words like a religious litany of devotion. “She moves with grace, unaware of the hearts she ensnares.”

“Unaware of your heart, Larry,” the voice corrected, its insidious tendrils entwining with his thoughts. “But we can open her eyes, can’t we?”

“Yes,” Larry breathed, desperation seeping into his voice. “We must.”

“Good.” The voice purred with satisfaction. “Very good.”

In the grip of madness, Larry no longer recognized where his thoughts ended and the whispers began. They melded into a chorus that sang only of Lucy and the life they were meant to share. In the darkness, he plotted and planned, a pawn of the eldritch forces that claimed him, driven to fulfill a destiny written in the stars, or perhaps, scrawled in the margins of the journal of his unraveling mind.

As the wedding drew near, the voices convulsed and united into a deafening roar, urging him toward actions unspeakable, toward a conclusion as inevitable as it was horrifying. In the depths of his soul, where light had long since fled, Larry prepared to reclaim what was always meant to be his.

In the hushed confines of his dimly lit apartment, Larry sat before the shrine dedicated to Lucy. Amidst the burned-out candles and scatterings of dried-out rose petals, there was a photograph of her, pulled from a security camera, her smile as haunting as it was genuine. The memory of that fateful day spilled into the room like a toxic mist, filling all of his consciousness with it.

It had been an unremarkable Tuesday when she entered the tech store where he worked, used to work, her presence an anomaly in the sterile environment. Her computer—a sleek, silver machine—had betrayed her with its silence. She had approached him, her voice a melody that danced through the aisles, stirring something dormant within him.

“Excuse me, could you help me?” Her plea was simple, her eyes wide with anticipation.

“Of course,” Larry had replied, his heart thrumming beneath his ribs. He wasn’t the one for the job, he was a sales associate. but he guided her to the right technician, basking in the warmth of her gratitude. As she turned to leave, she gifted him a smile. A smile that became etched upon his soul, a promise he believed was meant solely for him.

And now, as the days cascaded towards her wedding, that smile mocked him from every shadow, echoed in the hollow laughter of the voices that besieged him.

“Lucy pretends not to know you,” they taunted, their words a knife twisting in his gut. “But we see the truth.”

“Lucy is mine,” Larry whispered fiercely to the empty room, his hands clenched into fists. “She has always been mine.”

The voices grew insistent, frantic, manic, as if the approaching nuptials were a sacrilege that tore at the fabric of reality itself. “Prove yourself,” they hissed. “Show your devotion to Vinek the Watcher and he grant you the sight of the real world. See the world as it really is, as it was meant to be.”

Driven by forces beyond his cognizance, Larry stood, his legs trembling. Before the altar of obsession, he took up a rusted blade and brought it to his face. His breath came in ragged gasps, the air thick with the copper tang of impending carnage.

“Lucy will be free,” he intoned, the words a dark incantation. “I offer this sacrifice to Vinek, that he may grant me the sight to see through lies and deception of the fantasy other call real.”

With a scream that melded pain with exultation, Larry pressed the blade against the soft flesh of his left eye. Blood surged forth as he gouged it out, the orb yielding to his fervor. He continued, spurred on by the cacophony of eldritch whispers, until the eye came loose in his hand—a grisly offering to the Chaos Lord.

“Behold,” he proclaimed, lifting the eye heavenward as blood streamed down his pallid cheeks. “I am your faithful servant, Vinek. Grant me the vision to save my beloved.”

As the ritual reached its macabre conclusion, Larry’s world blurred into darkness, the remaining eye fixating on the photograph of Lucy. In the depths of his maddened mind, he felt the stirrings of something potent and otherworldly, a sinister benediction from the Watcher he had invoked. The voices fell silent, their urging sated by the grotesque tribute. For a moment, there was peace—a calm before the storm of retribution that awaited.

In the dimness of Larry’s squalid apartment, shadows clung to the walls like specters awaiting a dirge. The air was heavy with the stench of iron and decay—a testament to the offering he had made. A faint glow emanated from where his left eye once resided, now replaced by an orb wrought from the coldest marble, veined with malevolent purpose. It moved within its socket independently, sinuously, as if sampling the world through a lens of ancient darkness.

“See,” whispered a voice that was not his own, yet came from within his skull, “see through the Eye of Vinek.”

Larry turned his gaze towards the photograph of Lucy, and the marble eye pulsed with a life of its own. The image rippled, contorting into a live scene playing out in real-time. Lucy, radiant in her innocence, stood before a full-length mirror draped in white lace and satin, her wedding dress a cruel reminder of what should have been his joy. He could see the delicate pearls threaded through her hair, the nervous flutter of her hands as she adjusted her veil. Even as she turned to laugh at something her unseen companion said, Larry felt the truth of it—the Eye showed him more than mere sight. It revealed desires, secrets, and fears.

“She secretly longs for you to come to save her, Larry,” the voices coaxed, their words slithering around his mind like serpents. “She prepares for another she does not truly want. It is your face she seeks in her heart.”

“Lucy,” he breathed, his voice a mix of adoration and madness. His right hand reached out, fingers grazing the cold surface of the Eye as if to stroke her cheek through the impossible distance.

The Eye of Vinek flared, granting him glimpses of her thoughts—a tapestry of confusion and yearning woven together with threads of obligation. She smiled, but behind her eyes, there danced a shadow of doubt, a whisper of regret that only he could perceive. A secret desire only he could fulfill.

“Does she know?” Larry asked the shade-filled room, his remaining human eye reflecting the torment that consumed him. “Does she feel this bond?”

“Only you can show her, only you,” the voice insisted, pressing upon his fractured will.

“Lucy,” he said again, the word an incantation, a vow. The Eye drew him deeper into its revelations, binding him to her with ethereal chains stronger than any metal. As the vision unfolded, he watched her move gracefully among the final preparations, each step she took towards the impending nuptials tightening the noose around his heart.

“Mine,” he growled, the sound feral, possessive. “You were always meant to be mine.”

And the Eye of Vinek, ever watchful, ever hungry, moved within its bloody socket, affirming the dark covenant between the Watcher and his faithful servant.

The hallowed space of the Church of the New Moon Harvest, with its soaring arches and stained-glass windows, warped into a sinister theatre as Larry stepped through its ancient doors. Clad in a tuxedo that mocked the celebratory garb of a groom, he was an interloper in a scene not his own. The Eye of Vinek, nestled grotesquely in his socket, throbbed with infernal life, guiding him with otherworldly sight.

“Lucy,” he murmured, each syllable soaked in delusion and yearning. His footsteps were silent against the marble floor—a predator’s approach, unbeknownst to the prey.

He saw her there, at the altar, magnificent and oblivious to the truth that only he could see. And beside her stood the guy, an unworthy suitor, an imposter who dared claim what was not his to take.

The congregation was blind, their eyes glazed with joy and anticipation, ignorant of the dark undercurrents swirling beneath the surface. But Larry knew. He had seen through the Eye—the false layers peeled away, revealing the rot at the core.

With every step closer, Larry’s grip on the ax tightened, the polished wood familiar and reassuring in his hands. A tool for a necessary end. He moved unnoticed, unseen, a wraith amongst the living, until he was nearly a shadow behind the guy.

“Lucy,” he yelled once more, a fervent prayer to a deity of his own making.

Then, with a swift arc born of madness and conviction, he brought the blade down. The ax bit deep, a crimson bloom blossoming upon the sacramental altar as the guy crumpled, a marionette with severed strings.

A gasp rippled through the crowd like a shockwave, followed by screams that clawed at the sacred silence. They turned on Lucy, eyes alight with frenzied accusation. They believed her to be the root, the cause, the siren that had called forth this tempest.

Larry swung again and again, his ax bringing an end to each deceiver that dared to reach towards his beloved. Blood sprayed across the pews, anointing the sacred ground with profane splatter. Each fall of the blade was an exorcism, casting out those who would keep Lucy from her destiny.

When the blare of sirens pierced the cacophony, Larry felt a momentary surge of relief. Order would be restored; they would understand. He spread his arms wide, ready to embrace the guardians of peace. But their guns were drawn, their faces etched with horror not at the villains he had vanquished, but at him, Larry, the protector, the liberator.

“Get down!” they shouted, voices harsh against the chorus of chaos.

“Wait! You don’t understand…” Larry began, but the words caught in his throat as he turned to Lucy. Her face, once the picture of serenity, was now twisted with fear. Not towards the fallen, but towards him. Her mouth formed words that cut deeper than any blade, pleas for help directed not towards him, but against him. She pleaded not to be in his arms, but to flee his benevolence.

The world tilted, reality skewing as the Eye of Vinek pulsed, its vision clouding with the blood that was not its own. Larry reached out, seeking solace in the one truth he held sacred, but the truth had become a mirage, and he was left grasping at the empty air.

“Lucy…” The name was a benediction, a curse, as he staggered under the weight of incomprehension and betrayal. The police advanced, their commands a distant echo in the chamber of his fragmented mind.

“Lucy.” It was all he could say, his plea lost amidst the tumult of a world that refused to see.

Tears streamed down Lucy’s face, her sobs echoing through the hallowed halls of the church as she implored for an escape. “Please, you have to let me go!” Her voice tore at Larry’s heart, a discordant symphony that clashed with everything he believed.

“Lucy, no,” Larry whispered, his grip on the axe tightening. The Eye of Vinek throbbed within his socket, a grotesque heartbeat that seemed to mock his confusion. “I’m saving you.”

She recoiled from him, her eyes wide with terror. “Stay away from me!”

That fear, that rejection—it was all wrong. The Lucy he knew, the one who had smiled so sweetly when he handed her the slip with the IT department’s contact, would never look at him like that. She understood him; she needed him.

“Lucy?” His voice cracked, a fragile thing amidst the storm of emotions. “It’s me… Larry…”

“Get away from her!” barked an officer, his gun leveled at Larry’s chest.

“Wait! She’s not—” Realization dawned on him, cold and unforgiving as the marble floor beneath his feet. This creature before him, wearing Lucy’s face, it wasn’t her. It couldn’t be. The real Lucy would never cower from him.

“Shape-shifter,” he hissed, the words a venomous declaration of war. The pieces fell into place, a puzzle of madness and obsession snapping together with chilling clarity.

Larry raised his axe, the weapon an extension of his will to protect, to eliminate the impostor that dared wear his beloved’s guise. But before the blade could descend upon the deceitful form, the unmelodious gunfire shattered the solemnity of the church.

Bullets tore through flesh and bone, a brutal punctuation to Larry’s fervent belief. He stumbled, the world tilting as the darkness crept in from the edges of his vision. Pain erupted in his chest, a blossoming flower of agony that rooted itself deep within his soul.

As his knees hit the ground, a final thought cradled his mind: Lucy. His Lucy would be safe now, forever enshrined in the sanctuary of his love. As Larry drew his last breath, a smile graced his lips—a dreamer’s smile, filled with the bliss of eternal union with his heart’s desire. In death’s embrace, he envisioned Lucy, welcoming him into arms that would never push him away.

The Eye of Vinek, once a window to omnipresence, slipped from its bloody socket as Larry’s head hit the floor. A living orb of marble, it rolled away, seeking refuge under the shadow of a pew. There it settled, an unblinking sentinel amidst the chaos it had wrought. Unseen by those who wept and those who prayed, the Eye of Vinek lay in wait. It watched as life continued around it—sermons that spoke of redemption, dedications of newborn innocence, unions sealed with kisses, and farewells murmured over the departed.

Whispers slithered through the hallowed halls of the once-sacred space, now christened ‘The Church of the All-Seeing Eye’. The air hung heavy with secrets, the very essence of power and politics of the city of Snafu rooted itself in the dark corners. Those who entered felt an inexplicable chill, a shiver that traced their spines, as if unseen eyes bore into their very souls.

The congregation gathered under the solemn gaze of stained glass, where light fragmented into prisms of uneasy color. They sat, not on pews, but on knowledge unspoken, each member privy to whispered truths that could unravel lives and empires alike. So forceful was this clandestine wisdom, it was said to emanate from the walls themselves, seeping from the timber like sap from a twisted tree.

“Brothers and sisters,” intoned the preacher, his voice a velvet darkness that seemed to curl around the pillars and vaulted ceilings. “We are watched over, guided by the omniscient gaze of providence.”

Nods were exchanged, eyes gleaming with the fervor of the indoctrinated. This was no mere religion; it was communion with the arcane, a gathering of those who wielded secrets as a blade.

Beneath the pews, nestled in shadow, the Eye of Vinek rested. A living relic, its marbled surface swirling with eldritch life. It moved imperceptibly, contracting and dilating to the rhythm of heartbeats and the breaths of the faithful. None dared approach its sanctuary; none dared question its silent vigil. And for the few, very few who could see what the darkness hides, could see that eyes had grown on the walls, and one large unseen but seeing eye hovered over the alter.

“Let the world fear us,” the preacher continued, his hands raised as if to draw down the divine secrets from the ether. “For we see through the veneer of society, into the hearts of men and women. We are the watchers, the keepers of the true reality.”

A murmur of assent rose from the crowd, a sound akin to wind rustling through dead leaves. Each sermon was a revelation, each prayer an invocation of the power they believed flowed from the Eye’s ceaseless watch.

As night fell and shadows deepened, the church emptied, leaving the Eyes alone in their observation. In the quiet that followed, only one truth remained unspoken, unheard by any but the Eye itself: In its depths swirled the remnants of Larry’s tortured obsession, an echo of devotion that transcended death, binding him forever to the idea of Lucy within the marble confines of his final, maddening gift. Here, the Eyes would remain, an undying sentinel in the place of worship turned theater of the macabre. And all the while, the whispers continued, weaving through the town like tendrils, ensnaring all in the web of the All-Seeing Eye. Forevermore, the Eye of Vinek observes, silent and eternal.

The Heart of the Romantic

I cry out with a lonely heart,

For a love that is greater than the pain.

Where are you, my true love?

Do you feel me through space and time?

I have loved you from the beginning of my days.

I have waited while so many years pass.

A lifetime is a small price to pay,

For the love I know we share.

There are times when I lose my hope.

Thinking you but a romantic illusion.

Naming the poets of love as liars,

But you are always there to call me back.

Do you cry out with a lonely heart,

For a love that is greater than the pain?

Asking where I am, your true love,

Wondering if I feel you through space and time?

I do, and it aids my faith of the poets.

Still, there are times when the pain is strong.

When I try to forge others into you,

But my heart has always belonged to you.

I no longer cry because we have never met,

For we already have a love greater than the pain.

One that radiates through space and time,

Which is more than most can say.

The Muse

Caged in the fears and sorrows of our own making

But the night can never last forever

For her eyes are the light of the coming dawn

Clouds thick in our mind, winter’s bight all around

But the flowers of spring still bloom in our heart

For her smile is the warmth of our life

Dreams of yesterdays and tomorrows, of hopes and desires

But the waking world is where we want to be

For paradise is found when her laughter is in the air

An artist insanity brought on by perfection unexpressed

But she is in every song, painting and sculpture

For hers is the beauty at the heart of every masterpiece

To love, to want, and then she is gone

But the happiness she inspired remains

For that is the gift the Muse left behind