Author: Mj Gale

“What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.” ~Werner Herzog

Among The Nothing

I finally had a purpose, I was not a wanderer anymore…

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I’m wandering. No rush, no where to go, as far as I know. I’m alone, I know this much. There’s abandoned cars everywhere, with so much overgrowth it’s obvious it’s been an extremely long time since anyone has been here. Windows broken open, vines and blackberries growing all through out of various cars, boats, and even a bus. It is so eerily quiet, no birds, no bugs, nothing but my steps that seemed to be sucking themselves towards a swampy ground. All around me it seems there’s a type of fluorescence, a greenish glow in the air.

I’m still wandering, just aimlessly looking in the various cars, looking for any sign of life, any sign of something or someone there with me. As far as I can see there’s just this endless number of abandoned, overgrown cars. My feet are still hard to pick up from step to step, the only noise is the sucking sound each foot makes. I feel drawn towards this one bus, it’s almost completely overgrown, but all the windows are open or broken out and exposed.

I suddenly feel wary as I get closer and closer to the bus with each sucking, swampy step. But I know that I must absolutely find out what is in there. I finally have a purpose, I’m not a wanderer anymore… Each step is getting more and more difficult to pick up and take the next. I look down as I try to take the next step, I’m only about five feet from the bus. As I loom down I can see that the swampy ground is actually growing over my foot, grabbing my foot as I try to lift it up to take the next. In that instant I knew that I had to do whatever it took to reach that bus.

I’m struggling with my feet but I’m able to take two more steps, the swampy ground is almost entirely over my feet at this point, and starting to go up my ankles and up my legs. It’s still so quiet, there isn’t even a sucking noise now as I struggle to free at least one leg. I reach forward to try to see if I am close enough to grab the bus, and I lose my balance. I fall sideways and my hand touches the ground, it is almost instantly covered in the swamp; it feels like tiny tentacles grabbing and biting my hand holding it in place, and a numbing sensation spreads through my hand and starts going up my arm.

I’m still desperate to reach that bus, I know that is why I am here, I need to reach that bus. I’m stretching with my other arm as the other is almost completely numb, wondering if it would actually hurt at this point to try to find a way to cut it off. It doesn’t even feel like it’s there at all. The swamp has covered my legs well past my knees, I am reaching with all I have with my one free arm….so desperately trying to reach that bus, reaching and reaching.

The numbness has spread up into my neck, it feels cold now, throughout my whole body, but there has to be some way I can reach that bus, some way. As I feel the numbness pass into my other arm it falls to my side, onto the ground, and I fall completely onto the swamp. The tentacles instantly grab everything else exposed and I become completely numb. As they are covering my eyes I’m staring up into the window of the bus, and just as I see a flicker of movement, everything goes black.

© 2017 Mj Gale

Distress

There was a malevolence in the air, whatever was in that stairwell with me was causing the baby to cry…

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I can hear crying, I can’t tell what is crying, I can barely hear it. I realize I am in a stairwell, a dark and winding stairwell made of stone. I cant decide if I should be going up or down the stairs, but something is telling me to get to the crying, and quickly. It seems to be fading and I know that time is of the essence. I’m looking all around me to try to find a clue or a hint telling me where I am or if I should be going up or down. The entire stairwell is made of stone, no railing of any sort and parts of the steps are crumbling on the stairs. There are no windows or any openings along the walls, and no lighting other than some flickering from a candle right around the corner above me. I take that as my hint and start up the stairs, figuring light is better than the darkness.

However before I’m even a full turn around the stairwell from where I was, I hear the crying intensify, while simultaneously getting harder to hear. I turn around and head back down the stairs, around the next bend, and then another turn around. There’s almost no light now, and the crying does not appear to get any louder, but still intense. I can feel the urgency to get to the crying. I start going a little quicker down the stairs, hoping for some sign that this is the right way to be going. There is almost no light left now, I’ve lost count of how many turns I’ve made. The crying still doesn’t seem any louder yet sounds even more pained now.

Still hesitant as I don’t know if this is the right way or not, I continue making strides down and down. It’s pitch black now, and My hands are running along the sides guiding me down. The crying is at the point of screaming now, it sounds as if it’s in pain, and i am almost sure now that it is a baby. Which makes me want to move faster but it’s just so dark. It still doesn’t sound any closer though. What if this isn’t the right way? I keep going down, because now it would be too far to go back up. I can’t get any sense of what way I should be going other than that I KNOW I have to get to the screaming baby.

I keep going down and down. Hands guiding me on both sides of the dark stairwell. All of a sudden I know I am in the wrong place, I sense it instantly. I freeze, still hearing the baby screaming, but no louder and no quieter.I feel a rush of ice cold air blow onto my body, strong enough to push me back a step. I turned around in the dark, ready to run back up, I take one step and run directly into a wall. I put my hands all around me and realize the stairwell back up was no longer there. I had no option except to continue downward. The baby’s screaming was still happening, so tiny, so pained, and so far away.

I hesitantly start to move back downward, hands along the sides again. It felt as if I was walking into a freezer, it was so cold and so dark. The screaming ongoing. Step by step I head downward. The urgency stronger with each step. I quicken my pace, and keep going down and down, around and around this stairwell in complete darkness. I was shivering it was so cold, just hoping that the screaming would get closer, hoping I was almost there. There was a malevolence in the air, whatever was in that stairwell with me was causing the baby to cry, that much I knew. If only I could reach it!!

It seemed endless, dark, freezing, down and down. Suddenly everything was quiet. No screaming. I couldn’t even hear my breath. I stopped. Hands out on the sides of the stairwell. Everything was so black. I could feel this intense pressure In the air mixed with the freezing temperature, I tried to inch forward and walked into something. It felt different than the sides of the stairwell, my hands were trying to figure out what I was feeling in the darkness, it felt like nothing I had ever touched before. Suddenly I hear a faint whisper, it was so quiet I doubted myself, had actually heard it? Then it came again, just one word whispered so close it seemed to be in my face…”now”

© 2017 Mj Gale

The Swarm

As soon as I looked I felt terror through my entire body

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We are huddled in a corner, it’s a very large room and almost completely dark except for a few candles in the corner where we are. There had to be hundreds in this room, as close together as we could get, yet the other side of the room was empty. Everyone was whispering, there was one phrase that kept getting repeated, “the swarm, the swarm, the swarm”

I’m looking around, asking what they were talking about, but everyone looks dazed, almost drugged. I realize now everyone was whispering to themselves, unaware there was someone next to them.

I’m trying to move but there was so many people crammed into this corner that I couldn’t get them to budge. I tried being more forceful and it was like pushing a rock. I couldn’t figure out what was going on but I knew I needed to get out of there. The flickering lights from the candles were disorienting.

Then I heard an actual voice, deep voice talking to someone else. It was coming from the empty side of the room. Instantly I knew it meant trouble. I tried to blend in and get into the rocking sway of the people all around me, and I started whispering. I kept my eyes down as I heard the deep voices come closer.

“It’s time to move them” I heard. I tried not to panic because I felt, down to my core, that I had to get out of there before they moved us to wherever they had planned. I kept looking up for exits, a window, anything that I could run to. It was just too large and dark of room, I couldn’t see anything past all these people.

The group started shuffling forward all of a sudden, and I felt myself pushed from behind so I got into their rhythm again, keeping my head down and muttering as they were. I could tell they had us headed to the opposite side of the room, knew I couldn’t let myself get that far.

I wait until what I think is the middle of the room, and I raise my head, desperate to find an escape route. As soon as I looked I felt terror through my entire body. The room was not dark because of a lack of light, the entire side of the room where they were sending us was moving, it appeared to be an open mouth. This mouth ahead was made up of millions of tiny little moving objects; the darkness itself appeared to be moving, and I could hear now a slight buzz above the muttering. Instantly I knew what the swarm was. We were being walked to a death within the swarm.

I stopped and was instantly pushed forward by the people surrounding me. I decided action was better than surrendering, and just turned around and started climbing over the people. Onto their shoulders and over their bodies. I heard one of the deep voices yell something and just kept going back. Back was better than whatever was in front of us. I kept going, scrambling over these people, (why couldn’t they wake up??) I fell, jumped right back up, kept going and climbing over and over, yet I still felt as if I was being pushed forward to The Swarm, the deep voices were much closer to me but I kept going. Just as soon as I could see I was almost to the end of the group of people, I heard the deep voices, they seemed right on top of me… Then I felt a hard hand grab my neck, and everything went black.

© 2017 Mj Gale

The Orb

… even as I’m lying down, I know it is a futile attempt.

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I’m running…running towards a giant orange ball of light. I can’t quite seem to figure out what it is but I know that I am also being chased. Whatever is behind me is definitely worse than what is in front of me. I keep trying to look behind to see what it is, but all I can see is a giant black Orb. I trip and fall down, and jump right back up, but now the Orb is almost completely on top of me.

The orange ball of light is getting closer, it’s incredibly massive, filling the entire skyline. I can now hear a large thundering sound. Next to me is a little creek bed that has dried up, I think maybe hiding inside the bed will be better than proceeding toward the orange light. I dive down into the dry creek bed and cover myself with the debris of leaves and sticks in an attempt to hide myself. I hold my breath and try to calm myself down, because even as I’m lying down, I know it is a futile attempt.

The black Orb does not slow down and instead moves quicker and stalls right above me. I can sense the malice in it and know that it means me harm. Now my attempt seems even more foolish. I slide down to try to get beneath the Orb, jump back up, and start running towards the orange light again. I arrive there in what seems like merely 8 to 10 steps and realize that I am about to run into a giant wall of flames.

My instinct is telling me to run forward, yet every ounce of logic is saying this is more foolish than the creek bed. I look behind me and see the black Orb is almost 2 feet away and coming even quicker than before. So I just turn around and run straight into the flames. As soon as I cross the threshold I instantly feel a force-field around me, moving with me as I run through. I look around and the black Orb has paused at the threshold, it almost appeared to be hesitating.

I pause and watch it, I could tell it still meant to cause me harm; and yet, as I was standing there in the midst of these powerful flames, surrounded by this force-field, the Orb backed up. It kept backing up… Then suddenly, it rushed forward into the flames. I heard this noise outside of the dull roar of the flames, an almost pained shriek, as the black Orb was engulfed by the flames; it was gone in a poof of black smoke.

I could not believe my eyes. I could sense the panic and danger was gone, while simultaneously realizing my protective force-field was starting to flicker. So once again, I turned and ran. I knew the force-field was getting thinner because the roar of the flames were getting louder, and I could actually feel the heat. I could see the end of the flames ahead, and ran with every ounce of my being. I could feel the heat and the roar intensify. Right at the point I began to feel the pain of the heat, I burst through the end of the flames and stumbled, falling onto the ground. I rolled onto my back, trying to catch my breath as I stared up at the night sky in complete bewilderment. Then, everything went black.

© 2017 Mj Gale

The Corridor

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Running down a long corridor. Lights are slowly flashing, as I’m running and running. There doesn’t seem to be an end. All of a sudden I run flat into what seems to be an invisible wall. Throwing me back a good ten feet. I land on the ground, dazed, still not understanding what is going on. I look up and don’t see anything except the long empty corridor.

I don’t feel as if I should be running, instead I feel a pressure to sit still, very still in fact. As I’m sitting there this white entity starts to materialize right about where I ran into the wall that wasn’t there. It’s almost a peaceful entity, a small little tornado gathering upon itself to make itself bigger and bigger. Then, I hear this awful gut clenching noise, not quite a scream, nothing I have ever heard before….and this dark entity materializes right next to it.

The noise is getting louder and I put my hands over my ears, but the small movement seemed to attract the attention of both entities and I froze again. I could tell the dark entity was larger than the other and it was so very dark. The lights were still flashing slowly, it was almost disorienting. The darker entity seemed to be trying to take over the white one, which was still gathering upon itself but wasn’t getting any bigger now.

The noise changed, became more staccato like and the dark entity just seemed to jump and envelope the white entity in a split second. The atmosphere completely changed and I knew that even frozen and not moving, it sensed me. I knew I had to run. I jumped to my feet and started running the way I had come from, running and running…

© 2017 Mj Gale

The Force in the Woods

I knew it was time to run so I ran as fast I possibly could…

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I’m running through the woods, it’s sunny and bright, so many crisp leaves on the ground,. The trees are bare and I can hear nothing but my steps in the peacefulness of these woods. It’s wonderful. I suddenly stop running when I hear voices, and hide behind a huge fallen log, I peek around, intuition told me I should not be seen.

I look upon a gruesome scene, three boys, about teenager age, are mutilating this poor rabbit. They’ve already disemboweled it and right now the alpha male is trying to get the other two to eat parts of the intestines. Horrified, I knew I had to get out of there….I try to turn around and sneak away but the leaves were too loud, and all three boys instantly turned around and saw me. I knew it was time to run so I ran as fast I possibly could, and yet I could hear them gaining on my small legs.

I’m running and running through the woods, a little bit lost but I am following a creek. Right when I am about to run through the creek to the other side I’m tackled from behind. The alpha male was on top of me, turned me around and had all his weight on me while the other two were cheering him on. He stands up and says something along the lines of, well what should we do with this one? They’re all standing over me and as he swings his leg back to try to hit me there is this massive “whoooshhh” through the entire area…There is a force like a huge gust of wind that was strong enough to knock all three boys to the ground.

I tried to sit up but the force was holding me down in place as well. Then the three boys are lifted into the air, it’s so so quiet, nothing at all was being heard. They are twirled around and around, head over feet, sideways and back, and I’m lying on the ground watching as all of a sudden they were still….and then, without any noise no boom or anything, they were ripped apart from the inside out. Just as if there was a bomb inside them that blew them apart. I was sprayed with the remnants of what the boys once were, while still being pushed to the ground, unable to move.

In complete awe, I am just looking up, trying not to focus on the blood and bits covering everything. Then I feel another force of wind come upon me; an almost tornado like wind covering the entire area. The force swirls around gathering all the bits and blood; every single piece of what the boys once were is gathered by this force. It goes smaller and smaller upon itself until it completely disappeared, and there was no trace left of anything.

I was lying on the crisp leaves, looking up, and could hear the sounds of the woods again, and was able to sit up. Looking around I could not process what had just happened…then I felt a strong gush of wind coming up behind me…and once again I knew it was time to move. I jumped to my feet and started running back through the woods as fast as I possibly could….running and running and running….

© 2017 Mj Gale

Submergence

…a terrifying fear overwhelms me as I feel myself being dropped.

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There is a cloth over my face, I feel like I can’t move even though I am not tied. I feel an enormous pressure. I can tell I’m being carried, it feels like it’s been for hours and hours. I can’t hear anything except the steps of whatever is carrying me….I want to struggle and move but I can’t even wiggle a finger. Finally the steps stop, I feel myself being raised up, high, and a terrifying fear overwhelms me as I feel myself being dropped….

I’m falling, the cloth still over my head, still unable to move. I feel myself start bouncing against some type of tight surrounding wall; whatever I’m falling down is narrow, cold, and hard. I feel my arms and sides being torn to shreds as I bounce around, back and forth, and down and down; blinding rough pain…seems like forever….Not understanding what is happening is paralyzingly in itself…

Just as I thought I may go crazy from the unknown I feel my feet touch water….and submerging and splashing down and back up, I realized where I am…I keep trying to move anything, a finger, my mouth…anything as I sink down and down and down….

© 2017 Mj Gale

Iron Grip

…knowing that whatever waited at the bottom was going to be better than what was chasing me

Mj Gale8 Comments

Running. Running up and up. Up a Dark abandoned stairwell. Running and running up. Something is chasing me. I can’t hear it but I know it’s chasing me, so I keep running. Up and up. I finally reach the top and burst through the door at the top and onto the roof. It’s night. There are no stars, no city lights, just rough outlines of buildings in the distance. I can’t tell if it’s foggy or just that really dead of night.

It’s still chasing me, so I slam the door shut behind me and run across the roof. There’s no where to go. Looking everywhere. I suddenly see one of those construction tubes leading down….knowing that whatever waited at the bottom was going to be better than what was chasing me, I dive in headfirst. As soon as I start to slide down….an iron grip; a cold freezing hand grabs my ankle and immediately stops me…

I keep trying to scream but no sound comes out as I’m pulled out of the tube, and that’s when I realize there is no actual being there, but I can still feel the grip around my ankle like it was made of steel. As I’m raised upside down out of the tube by this invisible entity….just darkness….and then nothingness.

© 2017 Mj Gale

Freezing the Dusk

he raises his arm, pointing it directly towards me…

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We are driving down the road, it’s dusk.

It is a super beautiful evening:
The road is deserted. It’s just us; the windows are down, feet are out the window, music is on, and there is a warm breeze.

I look over at the driver and I smile. Then I look back out the window,
and at that exact moment a shadowy little boy appears right next to the car
he raises his arm, pointing it directly towards me…

Instantly freezing the car, the wind, and my breath in a split second.
and then, seizing-terrifying-darkness.

© 2017 Mj Gale

White Rage

… I can hear it’s force rip and tear and shred.

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I have been captured with a bunch of people. I can hear that there is a group of them nearby, but I am alone. We are outside in the desert. Our captors have singled out one  person in particular, and they keep antagonizing them. I’m off to the side and I warn them “hey, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
I can’t see around the corner where they are with the prisoners, but all of the sudden, there is a major shit storm!
A crazy whirlwind twirling white tornado creature has formed; it’s the person they were antagonizing… It is out of control; I can hear it’s force rip and tear and shred. All the bad people are being mutilated.
When it finally stops their body parts are everywhere; bloody, gushing, and smashed on the floor… along with every one else’s. Then the twirling white force lets herself out, it is female, she heads towards me. Why do I not feel fear..?
Then, everything goes black.

© 2017 Mj Gale