Face Of The Monster

~20~

Lillian awoke to a sound like metal scraping against stone. The noise sucked the air out of her breath, tore the thoughts out of her head. She felt it stabbing through her hair in sharp blades of force, piercing her heart like an arrow.

The noise itself was, at first, a roar. But Lillian listened, listened harder and in her ears, it became a moan. A deep, cavernous whimper that consumed her in its loneliness. She heard thousands of years of neglect in that scream, millions of hours spent in the murk of poisoned solitude.

The cave felt cold on her skin, empty, but she knew it was full of The Monster. It presence felt abysmal, almost as if it wasn't there at all, made up only of the space it occupied.

Lillian heard, next, a familiar noise: Gabriel's bootsteps on the floor of the cavern. It filled her heart with relief at first, then dread. It sank in her stomach, a heavy rock of future. She felt sick with it, paralyzed.

"Gabriel!" she called. "Come back to me!"

A sickening clang, his body falling.

Lillian opened her eyes. She was met immediately by a terrifying sight, one much too horrific for her brain to take in all at once.

First, there were teeth, ivory swords of molten green, taller than she was. They were ends of lives, stairs to hell all lined up there together in the beast's mouth. Each one grew in its own direction, each with a finer edge than the last.

Then, there was the nose, two cavernous nostrils dripping down on her, each large enough to inhale her entire body. Lillian saw into them like lenses of nightmarish glasses, deep red visible inside. They seemed to gape at her, a face all their own.

Next emerged the eyes, heavily lidded with smooth, finely scaled skin. They did not blink, did not move. they were shocking blue, not at all in keeping with the mildew-green skin and tarnished teeth. In the eyes, she saw waters she could drown in, skies she could fall out of. She saw the tinge of asphyxiated skin, of frozen lips. She saw death in pure blue.

Her mind digested the horror. The monster was whole, huge, awful.

But the sound, the whimper, the moan, still reverberated in Lillian's ribcage. She found herself standing, very still and curious as though not at all afraid. The monster growled. Looked. The stench of it reached her, old water and rusty blood and rotted meat. Rancid discharge, something forbidden and sharp like alcohol.

Her hand reached itself out toward the face of the monster. She felt it's powerful breath on her palm, moisture condensing thicker than morning dew on grass. She kept reaching, kept reaching. It looked at her, not unkindly, she thought. Lillian dared to step closer, filling herself with the ungodly scent of it. Her hand trembled, her entire body trembled to be in the presence of something so thoroughly awesome, so encompassingly lonely.

Coolness, then an inviting softness. Lillian's palm rested on the monster's skin, right beneath its wet nostril. A violent shiver shook the creature, then another. A wave of calm passed through Lillian, She could feel herself smiling. These weren't threatening spasms, but rather, they were silent exclamations of pleasure, a pleasure so great, so powerful, that hadn't been felt in, perhaps, centuries.

"Lillian!"

Suddenly, the monster reared, it's grand neck extending. It jerked forward, then dropped down with a monumental slowness like a collapsing building. Its legs felt from beneath it, the head lolling over to one side. The massive tail rose and fell, sending huge seizures through the cave floor. The feeling dripped out of Lillian. She fell to her knees, too empty to move. Shocking, brilliant blue faded to slate gray.

A chain gripped her wrist, daring her to run away.