~The Unseen~
Lewis tried, and failed, to steady his breathing. He looked around the room, finding nothing, which inexplicably invited more panic to swarm his mind.
“Looking, for… something?”
The voice echoed all around him, more tangible and permanent than the walls of his apartment. Sweat dripped down his forehead, his knee bouncing uncontrollably.
The thing had first visited him 2 weeks ago. Every time Lewis reminisced, he was flooded with a nostalgic, bittersweet feeling, despite the pure dread causing him to retch. He wasn’t even certain he did see anything, or if it was his mind playing tricks on him. He’d witnessed – in vivid detail – the walls of his apartment closing in, a darkness blacker than black enveloping his furniture. And then the face. The face of a creature no human was equipped to gaze upon.
“It was… real.”
The voice again. Lewis shot up, now pacing the cramped study.
“No… it wasn’t! I need a shrink. This is clearly madness.”
“No madness, my Lewis… it is, enlightenment.”
With each word, the voice slowly shifted from bitter evil to saccharine sweetness. As if he needed to hear its words – it’s scripture. The clawing fear in the back of his mind was drowned out by a fantastic, addictive bliss.
“En…lightenment?” He repeats.
“Enlightenment.” It repeats.
The word flows over Lewis. In an instant, it’s as if all the wrongness, and evil, and perversion of the world is now rightness and good and perfection. But the dread in his stomach prevails, resisting the enlightenment. A smile stretches across his face as he slowly steps towards the kitchen, pulling a knife from its block.
“No more badness. I must attain enlightenment.” The knife sinks into his stomach, but Lewis doesn’t react. As his intestines slide past his abdominal muscles and spill onto the floor, Lewis collapses, his smile never fading, unlike his life.