The Figure: What Dwells in that Darkness?

he Figure sat on the observation deck, watching the mechanical lights sweep back and forth. Intersecting for a moment before sweeping back outward. He sat squinting at the utter darkness. Pitch dark suffocating presence, like standing on a boat and looking into the deepest waters. Every now and then as he squinted to focus on anything, anything at all that moved in that gloom. Spots and shapes would occasionally come into view. Though he needed to strain to see them, the shapes were less than a shade darker than the already unsurpassable dark they moved through.

Horrifying shapes, more nightmarish than even the most fear stricken dreams. Shifting like disturbed reflections on a lake’s surface. Despite all his research he had never caught more than a momentary glimpse of the things that dwelled here. It was clear they didn’t want to be seen. Moreover, at times it felt like they couldn’t be seen. Not in the sense that they were intangible or that they were a mirage of some kind. Looking at them directly didn’t appear to work. It was only when you glanced at them just out of view, or caught them moving out of the corner of your eye could you well and truly see them for what they were. And any time you did…you wish you hadn’t.

Whatever they were, seeing them even if only for a moment burned them into your memory. Even that magical alteration of memories couldn’t erase it. The best he’d managed to accomplish thus far was burying it. And even if that process was flawed, they would still come to you in dreams, or rather nightmares. So real that you could taste the blood in your mouth when you snapped awake after they attacked you.

The dwellers of this place were so foreign a concept, and expeditions were too dangerous. Despite all the years in this place he knew very little, beyond pulling what passed as matter in this place and formed it into materials approximating those from his world. It was close, but not perfect. The second thing he knew was that the ocean was the most apt comparison he’d come up with so far. Even though this whole place had appeared flat thus far he seemed to have landed in a sort of ‘shallows’, as he had lights placed and expanded outward the creatures began to slowly increase in size. Though not encountering anything larger than an elephant so far, if the recurring trend of gradual growth was any indicator there was no telling how large something could become in this place. Considering they never seemed to eat, as no bodies or remains have been recovered, the cause of the growth remains a mystery.

The man knew he should get back to his research in finding a way to return his love to her rightful form. Correct his mistakes, but something drove him to finding out what could have broken the test subject so quickly. The more he knew of this place the more possible answers would come to him. What god or gods would leave a place like this in such a state, and if it were truly what the man had guess it to be, something equating a stillborn universe, why had it not simply been destroyed by the primary goes, or rotted away…though for all the man knew he could be digging through a universe’s corpse.

It was time to get some answers. The Figure called in one of his middle sized ‘assistants’ “Begin manufacturing as many ‘Subjugation Lanterns’ as you can.” The Figure instructed.

“Right away sir. Are you planning another expedition so soon? That is quite unlike you to not go over the findings beforehand.” the assistant said.
“Something isn’t adding up and we need to know what, before we move on with the experiments.” The Figure said, motioning for the assistant to be gone and get to work making the ‘Lanterns’. Looking out the window, The Figure spoke to himself. “Your secrets will be mine.”