A new currency.

[Eater of Clowns]

More, please.

I'm glad that you're enjoying these. I keep thinking back to 30 Days of Eris when I write them.

[Eater of Clowns]

It was becoming hard to breathe. The rock pushed against my chest with every exhale. It felt like it was growing thicker. If I didn't get out of the trap soon, I'd get stuck in the floor.

Beware the Debt Collector. It never occurred to me that it would be after Lara and I felt foolish. Of course it had no interest in me – I wasn't in debt. The Necronomicoin I held was so absolutely mine that it was discomforting when someone else touched it. But a thief, The Thief, even, must be stealing the esoteric currency for a reason.

The man stood above me a moment ago. Either it could walk on the liquid rock or the edge of the trap was just behind my head. I lifted my chin back until the back of my head made contact. Only a few inches of the rock came between me and the edge. I breathed deeply and from the belly to give myself more room to maneuver, and as I exhaled kicked downward. I moved, just barely. The rock didn't stick to my skin or clothing. I inhaled and kicked again.

By the time my knees were free I could sit on the trap without sinking back in. I had to get my legs out before they were stuck fast. I tried paddling them back and forth like a swimming stroke but for all the effort I only knocked myself off balance. I grabbed hold of my knee with each hand and pulled, flexing and relaxing my calves for the barest bit of space.

My left leg came free. I was relieved. I'd decided halfway through releasing my torso that if I needed to chew through a leg I might be able to pull it off, but two was excessive. I had no time to let the thought comfort me. With everything I had I pulled behind the other knee and kicked violently and pushed back and clenched my teeth. Nothing happened. I was already sweating and was long past having anything left to sweat. I pulled and pulled.

There was a tearing sound and sharp stone bit into my shin and ankle, ripping the skin open, but I fell backward with the release. I gasped for air. My leg was free. It was missing my pant leg from the knee down, my sock, my shoe, and was blanketed in blood. It didn't matter.

I looked between the reflecting pool and the cave entrance, to Lara. To the wake of evil left behind by the grotesque Debt Collector, as though the air itself was slimy for his passing. If the second guardian hadn't caused me to kill Lara, the Debt Collector would already be upon her in the time it had taken me to get out of the rock trap. When he found out we were human, he sounded surprised. He may not take the care that he had for the trap. By now, he either had Lara or he did not.

The reflecting pool, then. I trudged the final few yards toward it. There was a sliding, slippery sound coming from off to my left. I stopped and saw the final guardian. Of course. The Debt Collector was only an interloper in the ritual.

It was beige and slug-like, soft and covered in mucous. As thick around its center as I am tall and twice again as long. It had no eyes but at the end that faced me was a small puckered hole. It drew nearer and the hole widened, impossibly huge. It was the size of a fist and then the size of a head and then the size of a man. Hands, pale and grasping, reached out from the orifice and grabbed the air ahead greedily.
I stepped back. It lunged, hands clawing. I jumped out of its way and landed, badly, just to the thing's side. I rolled through the impact and pushed myself back to my feet. It was turning its bulk around to point itself at me again.

I ran to the wall of the cave, putting my back to it. There could be another one. With my back to the salt I waited for the monstrosity to lunge at me again. With my back against the salt.

I grabbed a crumbling fistful of the rocky white salt. It tensed, preparing for its leap.

With the helpless rage from the first guardian, with the destructive panic of the second, with the trapped self loathing of the Debt Collector, I bellowed. It started in my gut and when it ran out from there I drew it from the blood on my leg and the scratches on my chin and palms. I drew it from the pieces of myself in the Necronomicoin, bellowing.

The slug thing hesitated. It could be scared.

I threw the chunk of salt at its exposed wet flesh. Where it hit it broke into powder and the skin shriveled and cracked. Now it was the thing's turn to shriek.

I grabbed another handful of salt and raised it in my hand. Hands withdrew into the guardian's maw, and it shrank. It slithered off slowly.

Spitefully, I threw the second bit of salt at the retreating form. It shrieked again and moved away faster.

The third guardian was gone.

[minuspace]

Awesome, just brilliant.  My increased interval response time is simply proportional to the narrative's proximity with the real.  If it bleads...   

[LMNO]

The hands coming out of the thing's mouth...

[Eater of Clowns]

Awesome, just brilliant.  My increased interval response time is simply proportional to the narrative's proximity with the real.  If it bleads...   

Thank you. And yeah, for a few days there I was starting to feel like my regular thoughts were being warped by trying to make this thing work, so I think I know what you mean.

The hands coming out of the thing's mouth...

I couldn't make it just a sphincter-mouthed hellworm, that would be boring. 

[Junkenstein]

These need to make their way to pagan forums as vision quests or some shit.

Words can't express how much I'm enjoying this thread.

[Eater of Clowns]

These need to make their way to pagan forums as vision quests or some shit.

Words can't express how much I'm enjoying this thread.

Awesome!

While I was down in Colombia I was writing a travel log, just for my own personal use. It started getting really weird with time skips as I became too tired to update it regularly, and when I came back it turned into this.

It's nearing 10,000 words just in this thread. One of my goals this year was to finally write with the intent to get published, but I'm enjoying this too much to move on to something else.

[LMNO]

Nothing saying you can't publish this.

I'm not one to talk, I've been "editing" 30 Days of Eris for several years, now.

[P3nT4gR4m]

These need to make their way to pagan forums as vision quests or some shit.

Words can't express how much I'm enjoying this thread.

Awesome!

While I was down in Colombia I was writing a travel log, just for my own personal use. It started getting really weird with time skips as I became too tired to update it regularly, and when I came back it turned into this.

It's nearing 10,000 words just in this thread. One of my goals this year was to finally write with the intent to get published, but I'm enjoying this too much to move on to something else.

Note to self: Do nevar accompany EOC on road trips!

[Junkenstein]

These need to make their way to pagan forums as vision quests or some shit.

Words can't express how much I'm enjoying this thread.

Awesome!

While I was down in Colombia I was writing a travel log, just for my own personal use. It started getting really weird with time skips as I became too tired to update it regularly, and when I came back it turned into this.

It's nearing 10,000 words just in this thread. One of my goals this year was to finally write with the intent to get published, but I'm enjoying this too much to move on to something else.

Note to self: Do nevar accompany EOC on road trips!

Note to self: Accompany EOC on road trip ASAP.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

These need to make their way to pagan forums as vision quests or some shit.

Words can't express how much I'm enjoying this thread.

Awesome!

While I was down in Colombia I was writing a travel log, just for my own personal use. It started getting really weird with time skips as I became too tired to update it regularly, and when I came back it turned into this.

It's nearing 10,000 words just in this thread. One of my goals this year was to finally write with the intent to get published, but I'm enjoying this too much to move on to something else.

Note to self: Do nevar accompany EOC on road trips!

Note to self: Accompany EOC on road trip ASAP.

Seriously, that's what I was just thinking.

[Eater of Clowns]

These need to make their way to pagan forums as vision quests or some shit.

Words can't express how much I'm enjoying this thread.

Awesome!

While I was down in Colombia I was writing a travel log, just for my own personal use. It started getting really weird with time skips as I became too tired to update it regularly, and when I came back it turned into this.

It's nearing 10,000 words just in this thread. One of my goals this year was to finally write with the intent to get published, but I'm enjoying this too much to move on to something else.

Note to self: Do nevar accompany EOC on road trips!

Note to self: Accompany EOC on road trip ASAP.

Seriously, that's what I was just thinking.

Aw you guys know just how to make a gal blush. 

[minuspace]

Awesome, just brilliant.  My increased interval response time is simply proportional to the narrative's proximity with the real.  If it bleads...   

Thank you. And yeah, for a few days there I was starting to feel like my regular thoughts were being warped by trying to make this thing work, so I think I know what you mean.

No, no, as in DIRECT HIT.  The "Slug" has nested in my backyard quarry and I am collecting the salt to fling at it in court next week.  Not to mention I already have an appointment to get a copy of the geological survey.  Of course, this is all just loosely coincidental right?

[Eater of Clowns]

My final few steps to the reflecting pool were deliberate. It hurt to move nearly everything and my jaw was clenched.

The pool continued to shift as I drew closer. A perfectly mirrored watery surface showed not the roof of the cave above but a foreign sky. Its clouds were sharp and yellow and distant winged things wove among them. I could hear laughter and singing. When I tried to focus on the song my ears throbbed as though under pressure, as though diving too deep and nearly bursting.

An altar raised itself nearest to me at the pool, inviting me to whatever ritual I'd come so far to accomplish. I had no choice now. Whatever Lara sent me here to do needed to be done. The altar was made of salt, pure and white, a semicircle of steps leading onto a raised dais. The salt formed itself into a railing at the edge of the water, leading from each end of the altar to a pillar in the center.

I stepped up onto it and approached the pillar and the vision in the water began to fade. In the scene with the strange clouds, the far off flying things converged onto one of their number and tore and tore at it until it fell limply at the ground, at the surface of the pool. Before it struck, the waters turned grey.

Bubbles rose from the depths of the water, slowly at first like a pot nearing boil and then faster. They came up at one point and then another, rolling across the pool and leaving it changed in their passing, a different color. When the stillness took the surface again, words were scrawled across it.

They were in writing I'd never seen, angled and multidimensional, full of meaning. I could read them immediately.

Welcome to the First Bank of the Great Veil. What is your transaction today?

The Necronomicion was a burden. Lara knew it from the first time we met. I had to get rid of it without actually losing it. "Deposit," I said. It was a small noise in the emptiness.

Before I finished speaking, maybe before even I finished thinking, the waters boiled again, going blank and then drawing more of the writing.

Deposit. Please place your deposit on the altar.

I took the Necronomicoin from my pocket. Its weight was slight and comforting, its size perfect for my hand. It was, in fact, part of me. And I was to leave it in this place that sought to tear me physically and mentally apart.

With a click, I put the coin down on the altar. Deliberation was not a luxury I could afford. Far off behind me, Lara was being pursued by quite possibly the worst thing I'd encountered down here.

My Necronomicoin quivered. It rose slightly from the altar and moved out over the water. I resisted the urge to reach out and grab it, to take my chances with it in my possession. I barely trusted banks in the real world.

It floated out to the center of the reflecting pool and, with a burst of energy, a firework of money, it exploded into a thousand more like it. They rained down on the water with a great many hushed plunking sounds. Splashing coins send up tiny droplets and then even that susurrus went quiet and the water was still again.

Your deposit was received. Thank you for visiting the First Bank of the Great Veil.

And that was it. I'd traversed the darkness of the cave. I'd lost my self and will to an unseen monstrosity that left behind a change in me I had no way of knowing. I'd destroyed a thousand worlds and a hundred billion lives in a godly panic. I'd escaped a fate trapped down here until I died or worse, and I'd fought off a slug with hands in its mouth.

I did all of this to visit an automated teller machine.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

  Wow.