Katabasis
The line between god and monster is often a matter of perspective.
You are responding to a wellness check. One of your patients had stopped responding to calls, and when you contacted next of kin, you discovered that they'd stopped talking to loved ones too. You assumed the worst, went to their house, and opened the door.
The house is filthy, which you expected. But under the unwashed clothes and empty packets are other stains, brightly coloured. You could almost mistake them for fresh paint if not for the dull, pitted texture and the chemical smell, drowning out the stench of sweat and rot to burn at the back of your throat.
You call out, to no reply. You look around, moving the filth as you go.
That's when you see it.
The line between god and monster is often a matter of degree.
There is a hole in the floor.
It doesn’t look like it was carved, or bashed in. It looks like it’s been melted through, the floorboards warped and twisted to form what looks, for a second, like…an orifice.
You shake the thought out of your head. There is someone in danger, and you understand breakdowns. They must have collected enough bleach to burn through the floor, burnt this themselves for whatever reason exists in their head. You’ve heard stranger.
There is a makeshift ladder, which bodes well. This was intentional, at least. You go down.
At the bottom, you find their body. Corpse-still, curled up, covered in blood and those same too-bright chemicals. Shit. You go in to confirm whether they are alive or...
The body twitches as you get closer. You breathe a sigh of relief.
Then it bursts.
The line between god and monster is often a matter of semantics.
The body erupts into dripping red confetti as something crawls out. That's the funny thing, you dimly think. The creature should be terrifying. A body of poison and razors, twitching like a slow-motion firework as it crawls into being.
But as it lunges, you almost don’t notice any of that. You never feel afraid. Your last thought is the sudden realization that when you look at that monstrous face?
You can still see your patient's eyes looking back.
The line between god and monster is often nothing at all.