Artists, Writers, Poets. Through artistry and words command and focus this intense narrative for the final two chapters of our story to be published next year. Best selling author CliveBarker will continue to guide us through the final passages and incredible visuals as we head toward the end of our story. Join the Collaboration!
Is Paul’s final scream the sound of his soul being released?
Can he have an existence outside of his corporeal being, outside “nothingness?”
Or is this spectral plane the only reality to the trusted – the only viewing platform offering a truly objective view?
ONLY TWO(!!!) chapters left, and still we don’t know the possible parameters of the alien invasion. Obviously, in chapter 7, being the penultimate piece of storytelling, all consequences and secret alignments of forces must be revealed. And the set-up for the gut-grating, mind-mulching climax of the final chapter. Paul must be forced to put all his chips on “Maya” or “none of the above.”
So here we are at Chapter Seven of our story. Calling all storytelling individual geniuses! This is the final push before total revelation. This is the Odyssey’s siren call to Greatness.
Submit Chapter 7 Literatureby Nov 30th (5PM PST)
Submit Chapter 6 Artworkby Dec 3rd (11:59PM PST)
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Sea and Starshine"Well now...aren't you just full of surprises?" Maya's flippant remark could not disguise her irritation or apprehension at Paul's sudden transformation.
Paul seemed frozen in time as he stared at Maya - not knowing if she was addressing him or the creature within. It was then that Paul realized that Maya might never have been been speaking to him. In his own self-righteousness he never considered that whatever these things were they may place no more significance upon humans than humans would a slug or an amoeba.
His senses dull and feeble - smothered by exhaustion and the remnants of the Proxitol - Paul could feel Tal'Shen pressing into his consciousness.
If We Are To Survive We Must Work Together.
Paul had not the faculty nor the motivation to resist.
"What can I do?"
The Mind And The Body Are One But Your Mind And Body Are No Longer Aligned. You Cannot Control What You Are Becoming.
Paul's mind lost all distinction between truth and deception. Tal'Shen's prese
To Conquer Land and SeaMaya gasped. She was too late. The transmutation had already begun.
At the sight of her, Paul's eyes rolled back and his mouth opened in a high-pitched wail. The tentacles at his shoulders suddenly burst forth, growing and lengthening to the floor. Thick, black and coated in a sheer, iridescent mucus, the new appendages continued to grow until Paul's body was lifted into the air. They continued to multiply, reaching around the walls and ceiling, engulfing the sterile white in writhing, dark madness.
Paul's body hung suspended and lifeless, dangling at the epicenter of his new form. His eyes, now shimmering with that same rainbow of colors Maya knew too well, centered on her. The voice coming from him was not Paul's, but also one Maya recognized. "Ma'Yenneth. Cease this. You know there is nothing you can do now."
"So is this how you seek immortality, dear sister?" Maya shouted. "Ruling the greater part of the Mariana was
Hit and Run"The bastard survived, huh?"
Before Paul or Tal'Shen had time to react, Maya's blade was at Paul's throat, pushing him to the back of the wall. Maya's face was inches away from Paul's, her teeth bared.
"This is what Lysanna, first born of Neiptiún, sends for battle? A tadpole?" The unearthly high-pitched laugh sent a chill down Paul's spine.
"Paul, This Is Our Chance, You Must Distract Her!" Tal'Shen's voice ringed in Paul's head, and he felt imbued with bravery...or blind stupidity.
"You bitch! A few minutes ago I thought you're a friend , now you' re the enemy? Just who or what are you?"
"What I am? Well, love, certainly more than a woman"
Horrified, Paul watched transfixed as Maya's hair morphed into slimy tentacles.
"Brace Yourself! Here She Comes!"
Hello, sister dear...Paul thought he yelled, "The hell are you trying to do to me?" But the words got tangled somewhere in his throat, and what came up instead was more of gargle-screech than anything else.
Maya knelt next to him in a jingle of weaponry. "Do shut up, love," she sighed as she slipped the needle into his forearm. Paul shut up. She sounded like Maya. But of course, if she had been possessed all along, he wouldn't necessarily know the difference. He struggled to focus his feverish thoughts through the fresh wave of Proxitol-induced nausea. She looked up in surprise at his silence, and added slightly apologetically, "Not that I'm not terribly concerned about your psychological wellbeing…" So it's a sarcastic flesh-eating murderous parasite. Perfect. "I've upped the dosage, it should work better now…" She was making to leave. He concentrated on his mouth, on consciously forming the word:
"Wait."
She spun around. "Paul
DeeperDeeper
Approaching Paul with calm, Maya, bent down onto one knee. A fresh syringe of Proxitol in her fist.
Recoiling, Paul brought his knee's into his chest. He shook his head and screamed, "No More!"
"Honey, this is a stronger dose. We have tested it, and it works. It will kill the parasite in you, and you will be free." Maya said.
She went to spread Paul's knees. Grabbed them and forced them apart. He fought back, pushing the opaque substance away from insertion.
"I said No More!" The childlike tentacles on his back raised, up, from behind him. Messes of pulsating colors lit the cell up. They began to shake and feel about. Feeling, suctioning, for the first time, like the newly blind. Popping sounds could be heard as it removed a cup from an object. Each new found object would jerk the host from side to side. Forcing Paul to move with it's outward growth. One particularly large tentacle reached up to the ceiling and leeched on. Lifting him off the ground.
"It's to late...." Maya yell
Truth or ConsequencesMaya gasped in disgust and pulled out her knife.
Paul, still huddled before the toilet, felt his tentacles wrap themselves around his waist as if to protect him.
"Maya?" Paul asked. Maya didn't lower her knife.
"Jesus, Paul, what--"
"--I was hoping you'd know," Paul said. "I just woke up and...they were there."
Without taking her eyes off Paul, Maya moved over toward his bed and pulled off the thin blanket. She tossed it to him, and he covered himself with it.
"I don't know what this is," Maya said. "I've never seen anything like this before."
Paul stared into her eyes. Maya averted her gaze and lowered her knife slightly.
His dream. Something
(Tal'Shen)
had warned him about Maya.
But it had just been a dream. Hadn't it?
"The Proxitol isn't working on you anymore," Maya finally said.
"Tell me something I don't bloody well know!" Paul said, his tentacles unwrapping themselves from around his waist. They moved up, spreading ab
Slip of a Girl"Jesus," said Maya.
Before she could say anything more, the tentacles on Paul's back thrust out toward Maya. The right wrapped itself around Maya's arms before she could draw her knife. The left wrapped itself around her neck, winding up and across her mouth before she could scream out.
Paul hadn't willed any of this. The tentacles had moved by themselves.
Maya wriggled, trying to free herself from her bonds. Paul, firmly anchored to her by his tentacles, stood up and moved toward her.
He'd never noticed her smell before. Actually, he had always noticed a slightly sour smell, but he'd assumed it was just his own stale body. It hurt to shower now; anytime water touched his skin it felt as if he were being sliced by cold, tiny knives. Moving closer to Maya, he realized she was the source of the smell.
He breathed in deeply. Maya continued squirming in the tentacles' grasp.
Looking closely, Paul noticed something else. He'd thou
Odyssey: Chapter 5 SubmissionCHAPTER FIVE: ONE DAY AT THE EDGE OF TIME
Before her eyes could register that the man before her seemed to be exercising tentacles that sprang from his shoulder blades like a set of profane wings, a blue electricity like the phosphorescence of a firing flash bulb filled the room, taking his shape and bordering him and then quickly shrinking until you never would have known that anyone had been there at all.
Maya dropped the syringe she held, took two steps back and fell into a chair.
15 miles away, Colin Edmunds was dragging his comic collection into the living room, an archive made up of 5 longboxes of magazines that were neatly bagged and boarded. The sight of them made Pete Andrews momentarily put down his cider.
"You weren't kidding, were you, mate?" Pete exclaimed as his eyes grew wide. His passion for the art form virtually guaranteed that he'd never retain a girlfriend for longer than a week.
"Course not," said Col
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