THE BLACK THREAD

By Mitch Crane

From a place beyond comprehension it watches and waits. The time draws near. The door has been opened; only a crack, but that is all that is needed. Great power has been unleashed, and then restrained, but the damage was done. Soon it all shall end.

Sector 4680, Unclaimed Space.

“You really should rest,” said the ethereal voice in his head.

Wendell Vaughn, the man known as Quasar, drifted through space, tired but determined. The Annihilation War may have been over but there was still much cleanup to be done. Without their leader, the Annihilation Wave had scattered throughout the universe, and the Protector of the Universe had tasked himself with rounding each and every one up.

Lawlessness had also increased dramatically: raiders attacked outlying communities, free of fear of persecution; pirates picked off shipping lanes; thieved and smugglers acted more brazenly. The universe was at its lowest point in a long time.

“Even with the Quantum Bands your body still needs time to recuperate. You’ve been working around the clock,” said Adam Warlock. The ghost of his friend drifted along beside him in the vacuum of space. To be honest, Wendell wasn’t entirely sure whether Adam was a ghost, or if he was something else entirely. Whatever he was, the pair was now bonded, for the time being anyway.

Quasar had recently become the bearer of the Soul Gem, a powerful item and fundamental part of the universe. Adam, a former bearer of the item, had become a part of the gem after his death at the hands of Annihilus. Once the gem had bonded with Quasar, the man’s spirit could have moved on into the afterlife, but he chose to stay in the gem and guide his friend through the terrible burden.

For with the Soul Gem came a terrible hunger, a desire to consume people’s souls. Annihilus had been overcome with the hunger and consumed billions of souls before his death. With Adam’s guidance, Wendell had yet to succumb. He kept constantly busy, racing throughout the universe, aiding people, fighting villains, it was exhausting.

This was what brought him to Unclaimed Space, a region of the universe not beholden to any interstellar empire. The regain was massive, and included Earth’s Milky Way Galaxy. Sadly though, his mission had brought him to sector 4680 of the J’Baar Galaxy, far from his homeworld.

He had busy fighting off a horde of Sidri on a primitive planet of possum people when he heard the voice. It was a psychic cry for help, so faint he would not have heard it if not for the Soul Gem. As soon as he defeated the Sidri he raced off towards the source of the voice. It grew louder the closer he drew.

“There’s no time for rest, Adam,” he finally replied, as he scanned the immediate area “There, I see something!”

Not far away floated an unconscious man, with about seventy percent of his body covered in a black, oily looking substance. An everyday person would question how he could survive in the vacuum of space but to Wendell and Adam, this sort of this was common place.

“He…lp me,” called the voice.

The black substance formed long thick strands over much of his body, and looked to be attempting to penetrate his skin and orifices, to no avail.

“Have you seen anything like this before?” he asked Adam.

“No, but it is definitely emanating a deep wrongness. It doesn’t belong here.”

“Well, I’m going to try the straightforward method first,” he stated.

He extended his right hand, and pointed his index finger, like a kid pretending he had a gun, and held it a few inches from the inky substance. A pencil thin beam of golden energy shot from his fingertip and struck the substance. It burned off a tendril the length of his forearm and suddenly the entire creature sprang to life.

Tendrils all over the victim’s body sprang towards Quasar, but they were held at bay by a shield of Quantum Energy. At the same time, the man’s eyes suddenly opened and he exhaled in shock. After a second’s panic he closed his eyes in deep concentrating and the oily tendrils were wrenched from his body through some unseen force. The man, who was sweating and appeared to be under great strain, opened his eyes once more. Finally, the creature was condensed down to a ball of oily tendrils, contained within a shield of telekinetic energy. Instinctively, he blasted the creature with quantum energy, disintegrating it.

“Thank you,” gasped the man.

Finally free of his unwanted blanket of black tendril, Wendell could examine the man more clearly. He looked very human, which didn’t necessarily mean he was human. He could very well be a pink skinned Kree, a Spartoi, a Polemachusian or any number of other humanoid species. He cut his black hair short and wore a costume of purple and white armour with the insignia of a white comet emblazoned on his chest.

“You’re welcome,” replied Quasar, “You can call me Quasar.”

“Comet Man, or just Stephen if you prefer,” he smiled weakly and extended his hand.

Wendell took it with a smile, “You’re from Earth?”

“Massachusetts, born and raised.”

“Wisconsin myself,” Quasar smiled.

“Who’s your friend?” Stephen asked, gesturing toward Adam.

Quasar was surprised, no-one but him could generally see Adam, except for Epoch. Stephen smiled and tapped his temple.

“I am Adam Warlock. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“So what brings you way out here?” asked Quasar.

The smile evaporated from Stephen’s face, “My…son. He died. I just had to get away from earth for a while. Away from the familiar.”

“I’m so sorry…”

“I’ve been helping people out here you know? Trying to make a difference in the universe,” Wendell got the distinct impression his new friends was talking more to his late son than to him. Without asking it to, the Soul Gem allowed him to feel the deep pain that nestled within his soul.

“I’ve been helping these aliens and their agriculture planetoid,” he continued, “Ever heard of the Gonk? Industrious little buggers, but the rudest bastards you’ll ever meet,” he laughed, before his face went dark, “and then the Black Thread came.”

Wendell pointed toward the creature that had enveloped Comet Man, “That thing?”

He nodded, “That’s only a tiny part of it though. The…beast, it crashed on the planet like a meteor. Oh, it was a creature out of nightmares. At first we managed to keep it contained with energy shields and my TK, but somehow some spores or something made it through,” he looked as if he was going to be sick, “it takes you over. The tendrils spread through you like a fungus and before you know it you’re a drone. I saw good Gonk turned into mindless slaves of that oily beast.”

“Is that what happened to you?” asked Adam.

“It tried to. I shot up into space hoping the cold would kill it, but no dice. In the end it took all my concentration to hold the Thread at bay with my TK. I…I don’t know how long I was out for, the planetoid’s probably long gone by now. I thank you for your help, but I have to go and save the Gonk.”

Wendell grabbed him by the wrist before he rocketed off. “I’m going to help you.”V Comet Man smiled. “Thank you.” He placed his other hand over Quasar’s and closed his eyes. One second later they were somewhere else entirely. Below them was a small planet, more of a moon really, that looked to be completely covered in neat, tidy agricultural fields.

“I reached out with my mind and teleported us straight to the Gonk,” explained Stephen.

Quasar suddenly realised something, “Wait, how did this planet even get here so fast? And where’s the sun?”

His new friend couldn’t help but grin, “That, my friends is an artificial planetoid. Half a mile of super enriched soil over a spherical ship. Energy fields contain the atmosphere and convert solar radiation into sunlight. Within the ship are gravity wells that lock on to distant suns and pull the world along. I told you they were industrious little buggers.”

“Ingenious,” stated Adam.

“I can sense a lot of free minds down there. The war with the Black Thread is still going in. There’s a great deal of turmoil though,” stated Comet Man.

“Let’s go down and see how bad it is then,” Wendell replied.

Stephen led the way, rocketing down towards the planetoid like his namesake. They passed through the energy shield around the planet unimpeded; likely they were only designed to contain atmosphere. After a minute the pair set down in front of a large rectangular building, whose only difference from the other rectangular buildings was its size. It would seem the Gonk weren’t very big on style or decoration.

“Is it just me or are you really curious about what these Gonk look like too?” he asked Adam with a grin.

“Don’t judge a race by its name or its poor sense of architecture,” replied Adam jokingly.

A moment later, the mysterious Gonk were revealed and they were as squat and as ugly as they buildings. Never would a Gonk been seen joining the NBA as each stood no more than four foot high. They looked tough though, despite their height, with stocky bodies built like barrels. Skin colour seemed to vary from blood red to bruise purple and was warty, like a toad. Worst of all were their faces; with big globulous black eyes, little piggy noses and a small mouth full of triangular teeth, these guys wouldn’t be winning any beauty pageants.

The trio of Gonk came running down the stairs, in comedic fashion, towards the two humans.

“Nice of you to come back Earthite!” yelled the lead Gonk, “Oh and you brought a friend. Well while you were busy having a play date, half our population have been taken over. That’s ten thousand Gonk!”

Comet Man held up his hands placatingly, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help Churrl, but I’m here now and I brought assistance.”

Churrl looked Quasar up and down incredulously, “You brought one tall skinnysack of Earth meat to help?”

“Quasar, Protector of the Universe, ring any bells?” Churl just stared, “anyway, I’m here to help, and I promise you we’ll do our upmost to save your people.”

“Let’s take flight and review the situation,” suggested Comet Man.

The pair shot off into the sky, leaving the irate Churrl and his men behind. They flew over row upon row of neatly aligned fields, filled with all manner of bizarre plants. No-one was working them now though, everyone was likely in hiding.

In the distance pillars of thick black smoke were beginning to form, and constant flashes of red light indicated laser fire. There was combat ahead.

As they drew near they witnessed a group of Gonk hiding behind a large piece of over turned farm machinery. They were clearly not combat trained, but several carried weapons and fired upon their assailants sporadically. Their enemies were fellow Gonk, even from a distance Wendell could clearly see each one was covered in black veins of alien substance.

It was clear the infected Gonk were being controlled by an outside force, as they moved in unison, better than the most well trained army. Many carried laser rifles, but others carried various makeshift weapons.

“Are they still alive in there?!” he yelled to Stephen over the din of battle.

He nodded sadly, “I can sense their minds screaming at this very moment.”

Quasar cursed. “We can’t hurt them then!”

With that he hastily erected a dome of quantum energy over the infected Gonk, trapping them.

“Impressive,” remarked Stephen. He closed his eyes for a second before adding, “But there are more moving in from the south and the west.”

“Which are worse off?”

He concentrated for another moment. “The south.”

They rocketed towards what appeared to be a much larger battle. Almost half a thousand infected Gonk swarmed over a small town of identical squat buildings. Wendell could only watch in horror as he saw two infected aliens hold a Gonk down; the Black Thread extended from their body into his.

As well as having sheer numbers on their side, the Black Thread’s forces also controlled two large mechs. Presumably they were utilised for felling trees in a nearby plantation, but they worked just as well in combat. Gigantic buzz saw blades cut buildings to pieces, while fleeing farmers were crushed underfoot.

“Well at least there’s something we can hit,” commented Wendell grimly, before firing off towards the nearest mech like a bullet.

Comet Man followed suit, and before long he over took the Protector of the universe. It would seem they didn’t call him Comet Man for nothing. The Massachusetts man blasted through the second mech, ripping it in half. Unfortunately he had to hastily grab its parts telekinetically to prevent them from crushing innocent Gonk below. This left him open to attack from the second mech, but Quasar ensnared its arm with a chain of energy.

The machine tugged on the chain, but Wendell tugged back ten times as hard and the thing was sent hurtling miles away. Infected Gonk were now focusing their fire on the two superhumans soaring above them, but the weapons had little effect.

Acting quickly, Quasar erected more domes over as many infected aliens as he could, and created barriers to block them from most of the free Gonk. Hopefully this would allow them to flee, though how long they could flee until the whole planet was infected, he couldn’t say.

“Try the Soul Gem. Perhaps it will give you insight,” suggested Adam.

Wendell had been loath to do this; when he actively used the Soul Gem, the hunger for souls grew ten times worse. He saw no other choice though. With the gem he reached out to examine the infected Gonk, and almost recoiled immediately. The Black Thread was so alien he wasn’t sure what it had could even be called a soul.

“Its soul, it’s like a cancer or a leech,” gasped Adam

Every living creature had a soul, from Galactus down to the smallest bacterium. It was fundamental life energy. This organism though, had almost an anti-soul; it seemed to drain life from the creature. The creature was drinking the souls of its victims.

“The Gonk won’t be infected forever, this stuff is killing them!” raged Wendell.

“Worse, it’s drinking their very souls.”

Comet Man flew to their side, “We’re making no difference here. We have to take the fight to its source!”

“Agreed!”

Wendell grabbed his new comrade by the hand and he teleported them to the far side of the planetoid. This side of the world looked much more like a warzone. Smoked filled the air, from burning crops, buildings and probably bodies too.

Below, the ground was black, mostly from ash, but upon closer inspection the trio noted large black roots. They covered the land in every direction, like gigantic versions of the Black Thread infection. Turning in the air, they saw where every root led, and they cringed.

In a way it could be described as a gigantic tree. A skyscraper sized, cancerous tree made of pulsating black oil, with branches that squirmed like tentacles.

“It wasn’t that big last time I was here,” explained Stephen.

“The sheer wrongness about it is sickening,” Said Adam, “I believe it originates from somewhere outside our universe.”

“How do we kill it?” asked Wendell.

His spectral companion shrugged. “Try blasting it until its dead.” “Works for me,” shrugged the Protector of the Universe.

Like human missiles the pair of superhumans flew towards the alien beast. A branch snapped out, trying to knock Quasar aside but it was suddenly frozen in mid swing. Comet Man, with his TK held it in check. He did the same for any other branches that tried to stop them, and the pair worked in remarkable unison. With his telepathy, Stephen knew exactly what Quasar wanted of him.

With Comet Man focusing on their defence, Wendell could put all his effort in to the attack. He had no clue what the creature’s weak point would be, or even if it had any, so he figured he’d test the waters with a good old fashioned energy blast. As the monster’s sickening obsidian flesh drew near, he summoned as much quantum energy as he could and blasted the beast’s “trunk”.

The attack scorched a sizable chunk out of the beast, but its semi-solid flesh quickly moved to fill in the hole. They swerved away from the body at the last minute and swung around for another try. Once more, the blasts burned flesh but it quickly regenerated.

“There goes that idea,” said Adam.

Admitting defeat, Wendell led Stephen away from the creature, until they were out of reach of its greedy branches. They eyed the grotesque creature warily, but it made no move to follow; they weren’t even sure if it could follow.

From the trunk of the creature emerged over two dozen small pods. When each pod burst an infected Gonk emerged, each one dangling from a black tentacle attached to their backs. The tentacles seemed to move in unisons, moving their Gonk around like sick marionettes.

Their unseeing eyes fell upon Quasar and Comet Man and they spoke in unison, “Your efforts to destroy this humble vessel are futile. Surrender to assimilation or face extermination.”

“That’s just creepy,” muttered Wendel.

Stephen, on the other hand, was trembling with barely controlled rage, “Let them go you monster! They’re not your puppets!”

“These creatures serve at the whim of this humble vessel,” called the two dozen voices.

“And what are you?! Where do you come from?!” demanded Quasar.

“We are known by many names; The Renderer of Souls, The Black Thread, Servant of the Great One, Dasagroth…”

“Shut up!” screamed Comet Man, he looked to Quasar with tears in his eyes, “I was meant to protect them and now look at them,” the pain in his voice was crippling.

He placed a reassuring hand on his new friend’s shoulder. “We’ll save them, I promise.”

Adam spoke up. “Ask it what the Great One is.”

“What?”

“Weren’t you listening? It said it was a servant of the Great One.”

“Who is the Great one you serve?!”

Each infected Gonk swayed in the eerily, “This humble vessel serves at the whim of the Great One. Our master watches your world with great interest.”

“What does it want?”

“The doorway has been opened, but it must be widened. This humble vessel shall spread and devour until the walls are brought down. So is it the will of the Great One.”

“I don’t-” but he never got to finish his query.

At that moment, one of the beast’s gigantic “roots” suddenly snapped up from the ground and attacked the pair. The monstrous black appendage missed the Protector of the Universe but managed to envelop Stephen entirely.

He blasted the root furiously, but to no avail and a moment later the flesh of the creature parted. Wendell knew what was coming next but wished it wasn’t so. Comet Man blasted from the creature, covered in Black Thread with a blank look in his eyes.

“I really don’t want to do the obligatory super-hero team up battle,” groaned Quasar, as he erected a shield between himself and Stephen.

“I think the choice is out of your hands.” Stephen rocketed around the shield and landed a punch to Quasar’s jaw, sending him tumbling through the air. He shot forward for another strike but Wendell managed to dive sideways, only to find his unwanted foe moving to match him almost immediately. Every retaliatory blow Quasar attempted to land was blocked, and every time he went to block an alternate attack managed to find its mark. Fighting telepaths was no fun.

“You know what you have to do, Wendell,” said Adam grimly.

“No, I can’t!”

“You have no choice. The creature feeds on souls; if you take the soul away it may be stopped.”

He blocked a kick, only to receive a savage headbutt to the face, “Urgh! Ok!”

He was loath the use the Soul Gem, it terrified him that he may not be able to stop at just one soul. As Stephen came in to strike him again he reached out with his mind and grabbed a hold of the man’s soul. The Soul Gem shrieked in joy and Quasar nearly let it go in revulsion, but he swallowed his fear and ripped the soul from its body.

Comet Man stopped dead in his tracks, the blank look on his face suddenly contorted into a snarl before the Black Thread evaporated from his body. Wendell Quickly caught the man’s falling body and rocketed high into the atmosphere, out of reach of the Black thread. He examined the body closely, it seemed to be entirely free of infection.

“Now return the soul to his body,” directed Adam.

“I…I don’t think I can.” The Gem, after going so hungry for so long, wasn’t letting this prize soul go without a fight.

“Wendell, listen to me…listen to me! The Soul Gem is nothing compared to the power of your mind. You can control it.”

With all his willpower he wrenched Stephen’s soul from the gem’s greedy grasp and guided it back into his body. His eyes snapped open with a gasp for the second time that day, and his hands quickly went to swat the Black Thread away. After a moment he realised there was none.

“Wendell saved your life. He used the gem on his forehead to temporarily remove your soul. I think the shock of it killed the infection,” explained Adam.

“Thank you…you’ve done so much for me today,” gasped Stephen.

“I’m only doing my job, it’s ok,” Quasar was grim, he knew what his next step was.

He looked to Stephen, “I haven’t seen many ships so far, is there an evacuation system?”

“If something goes wrong the populous is teleported to a class ten escape pod within the planetoid. The thing is nigh indestructible and launches from the northern pole of the planetoid,” explained Stephen.

Wendell hesitated, but quickly swallowed his qualms, “Ok, I have a plan.”

One hour later…

“You can do this, Wendell,” stated Adam. The concern in his spectral eyes failed to match his words though.

Wendell’s plan was simple; Comet Man would prep the evacuation system and Quasar would steal the souls of every single Gonk, effectively destroying the Black Thread infection. Stephen would then teleport everyone to the massive escape pod and launched them to safety. It was returning their souls when they were safe that was holding Wendell back. It had been struggle enough to return Stephen’s soul, but could he do it with thousands?

Then there was the matter of the source of all this drama; the Renderer of Souls. All three men were in agreement that starving off the infection would not kill the source, not immediately anyway. After all, it had travelled through space without souls to feed on.

They had to be certain it was completely destroyed, and the only way to do that was to entirely destroy the planetoid.

“I’m ready when you are,” said Stephen telepathically, from his location deep within the planetship.

Quasar took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”

High in the atmosphere above the artificial planet, thousands of souls shone like tiny beacons. The Soul Gem practically hummed in joy as it did what it did best; consume souls. It was as easy to sever twenty thousand souls from their bodies as it was just one. As each confused soul flowed into the stone upon his forehead, their life-force was added to his own.

Wendell understood now the hold this gem had over Annihilus. Not only was the ravenous hunger of the gem so consuming, but the power it gave you in return was incredible. There was so much he could do with strength! He could hunt down and eliminate the remnants of the Annihilation Wave, as well and restore law and order to the universe. So much good could be achieved with just the sacrifice of a few souls. The Gonk were foul, crude creatures; to help the Protector of the Universe in his quest was far nobler than selling crops for an increased profit. If he just kept these twenty thousand souls…

“NO!” screamed Quasar.

His hands flew up to the Soul Gem and attempted to pry it from his forehead, but it refused to budge. Eventually he gave up, but spoke out loud to the Gem in a voice dripping with determination.

“This is only temporary, the souls of these poor people are returning to where they belong. There will be no more souls for you. You have the Celestials, and that’s all you’re ever going to have. Get used to it! If you don’t, then so help me God I’ll find a way to get you off my head and lock you away in the Quantum Zone, where you’ll never see another soul again!”

The speech was as much for his own sake as the Gem’s. Ultimately, the gem didn’t need to hear his words; it knew everything he felt the instant he felt it.

He couldn’t tell whether the Gem’s hunger had subsided, or if his resolve had strengthened, but the thing’s constant pull suddenly felt much weaker.

“I knew you had the strength, my friend,” commended Adam.

Wendell hadn’t been as confident but it would seem he was right, at least until the next time the thing’s hunger arose. He could feel the confused Gonk souls stirring about within the gem; confused and weakened from their ordeal.

The plan had worked marvellously so far. Below he could see hundreds of catatonic Gonk, their infection rapidly fading.

“I’m initiating evacuation procedures,” stated Comet man telepathically.

Within moments each and every one of the ugly little aliens was teleported aboard the escape pod. The purple-blue flashes of light created a beautiful pattern across the planetoid for the briefest moment.

Even from this great height, he could see the bulk of the Dasagroth, thrashing about either in pain or in a rage. A moment later a city sized ball erupted from the northern pole of the planetoid. Like every other Gonk creation it was bland an unattractive and appeared completely unadorned. Without thrusters he wondered how it would get its occupants to safety, before he realised it must contain the same gravity wells as the planetoid.

The infection had been purged from all Gonk, but the source, the Dasagroth, still remained. He had Stephen had planned for this eventuality, they would have to destroy the planetoid.

“I’m coming in,” thought Quasar, knowing Comet Man would hear.

An instant later he teleported to the control room of the ship, several miles below the surface. He almost bumped his head on the ceiling, having forgotten the Gonk were so short. Stephen was there, bent over a holo console and ready to initiate the self destruct sequence.

He looked up from the console and asked, “It’s still alive?”

“Yes, let’s blow this place to hell,” replied Wendell grimly.

“I’ve already got it down to the last ten seconds,” explained Stephen as he entered the self destruct codes into the console, which he had gleaned telepathically from Churrl on their first meeting, when he had been hired to be their protector. The alien’s arrogance and ingrained bigotry had the man suspecting there was more to the planetoid than just farming. In the end he was wrong; the Gonk were just jerks.

A terse Gonk voice resonated from somewhere in the room, “Self destruct in ten, nine…”

The walls began to vibrate, lightly at but soon it become a dull rumble.

“…eight, seven…”

The rumble soon become a veritable earthquake, knocking various consoles and machinery to the floor.

“…six, five…”

“It’s the creature! I can sense it coming for us!” exclaimed Adam.

“…four, three…”

The metal ceiling exploded inwards and a huge black tendril tore its way inside. Maybe the creature knew what they were doing and wanted to stop them, or maybe it knew they were the only two souls left it could feed off, either way it didn’t matter; it was too late.

“…two, one…”

Stephen grabbed Wendell’s wrist and the two teleported away in the same instant that the planetoid’s continent sized engines went into overload. They rematerialised an instant later at a safe distance. The neat spherical pattern of agricultural fields was incinerated as the ship exploded, taking the Black Thread with it.

One hour later…

“I cannot thank you enough for your help,” said Comet Man as he shook Wendell’s hand.

The pair stood upon the outer hull of the Gonk’s giant escape pod as it soured through space towards the nearest inhabited world its gravity wells could lock onto. The spectre of Adam Warlock had retreated within the gem, in order to calm the souls of the Gonk and prepare them for their return to their bodies.

“I’m only doing my job,” replied Quasar modestly.

Comet Man smiled, “You can’t hide anything from a telepath my friend. You’re tired. Take a break, recharge your batteries.”

“You sound like Adam.”

“He’s right, the universe can survive on its own for a while…who am I kidding, I can already sense you’re not going to listen.”

Wendell could only shrug in reply and changed the subject, “What are you going to do now?”

“I’ll stick with the Gonk until I know they’re safe. After that…I’ll make it up as I go along. You?”

“There’s still so much to fix, so many people that need saving…”

“You’re worried aren’t you? About the Great One that thing said it was serving.”

“Yes.”

“I…I am too. When that monster was controlling me, I saw things…I’m better off showing you.”

An image filled Wendell’s mind; a gargantuan cluster of black crystals floating in an endless white storm of energy. There was no perspective, so it was hard to gauge size, but he felt certain it was giant. Malevolence seemed to radiate from the thing, a hatred so deep it chilled him to the bone.

“Whatever that thing is, I’m going to find it. And when I do, it’s going to wish it never set sights on my universe.”

“Good luck.”

Epilogue

The child knew it would be punished if it returned to the village so late after Sun’s Death but it found the stars so beautiful. When one star went flying across the inky black sky, the boy nearly tripped over his own twelve legs racing towards its destination.

What he found could only be described as a boat, made of a shiny silver wood he had never seen before. Remarkable light shone from the vessel as a portion slide open, creating dazzling patterns across his blue exoskeleton.

This must be where starlight comes from! thought the boy.

From the light emerged the most bizarre creature he had ever seen. It was shorter than him, with lumpy red flesh and only four limbs. Throbbing black webbing covered much of its body. It reached out to the boy and he felt fear.

Its mouth opened and gargled words in a language he had never heard.

“The door has been opened, but it must be widened.”