Just as I was about to step
forward I felt a hand on my back. It grabbed a fist full of my shirt and yanked
me backwards. I was disorientated as the ground swung up to meet me. We landed
with a thud narrowly missing a jagged piece of concrete. As I lay there looking
up at the mass of swirling darkness I knew that I should probably roll away
from the man who was half under me and struggling to get up. I knew that I
should probably make another run for it, but I couldn’t move. The enormity of
the substance before me dwarfed everything else.
“Are
you insane” grumbled the man. His voice was right next to my ear, but all I
could hear were echoes of the melody that had come from the darkness. I wanted
to find out what it meant. I struggled onto my knees and tried to crawl
forward, but strong hands encircled my waist and lifted me up off the ground. I
was flung over a broad shoulder and for a moment the darkness was behind me,
gone from my line of vision and I panicked. I needed to know what the voices
meant. I began to struggle but the man tightened his hold around me and turned
to walk away. As his back turned to the liquid fire my face was once again in
front of it. With the last ounce of my strength I lunged forward and my
fingertips grazed the roiling mass.
All
at once it felt like an electric shock and a silken caress. My eyes rolled into
the back of my head as the tingling sensation ran up my arm and settled
somewhere deep within my heart. It felt like a second heartbeat, an echo of my
own. Buh boom buh buh buh boom. It
dragged me inside myself and my eyelids slowly closed until the darkness was
all around me.