Part 99

When Owen stepped across the threshold, the atmosphere on the other struck him like a solid object. It wasn't just the stench... He'd forced the reek of ancient dust and fresh slaughter out of his awareness before even attempting to step inside. But the air ITSELF assaulted him. If it were possible for humidity to be over one hundred percent, this is what it would fee like.... like swimming rather than walking. Droplets of what he hoped was water but knew was something else condensed instantly on not only his exposed skin, but his clothing as well. He and the others were soaked the instant they stepped through. Clothes and hair clung to them, sliding...oozing... across their skin with every motion. Owen absently swept his palm across his forehead and ended up depositing more of the oily slickness than he wiped away.

"What the HELL..." Frank complained behind him. "I'm WET! This ain't water; what the fuck IS this shi... oh fuck..."

Frank's words trailed off, saving Owen the trouble of telling him to shut up.

Owen needed a moment... just a moment... to understand what he was seeing...

"I-..." he closed his mouth after the lone syllable. Confusion- deep and tinged with shock and fear- crawled across his face. His features were unfamiliar with the expression; and it took a while to get it right.

They were inside.

They were inside... Something. Something ALIVE!

The walls were covered in flesh, the same red slickness that had retreated from the metal of Jones' blade. It was everywhere. It didn't cover the walls... it WAS the walls.

They... were... INSIDE... SOMETHING!

A few yards away, the relatively level ground on which they'd been walking made a sharp downward slope. The surface went from only slightly rough to nearly impassible. Crags, pockmarks, pits, grooves, bumps, and sharp upthrusting blades of rock hid among fleshy stalagmites who's heights ranged from only a few feet to...

Owen followed one of them as it stabbed upward... upward.... up...

...and then it was forgotten among the... the SHAPE that hung from the ceiling and upper walls of the monstrous living chamber.

Mountainous appendages folded around, among, and... and somehow THROUGH each other in ways that defied solid matter. At their heart was a towering mass divided into two unique sections. The upper part... which Owen identified as a torso... was too far away to see in great detail. It was angular and red... and host to a thousand-thousand jointed limbs. The larger ones were attached to the slime- and flesh-coverd walls, anchoring the entire mass. The others stabbed and tore at the air in a never-ending flail of either agony... or ecstasy. It was not human. Or humanOID. Or any other kind of "-oid" that Owen could identify. Its very shape resisted his attempts to name it... or even follow it with his eyes. Perhaps if he got closer he could understand it... but he would also go mad. He knew that. He knew that with absolute certainty.

But that was not all there was.

Dangling from the writhing upper section was a bulb of pale, swollen flesh... a pear-shaped abdomen with a surface that rippled like water. It had its own appendages, but rather than spindly, multi-jointed legs, these were fleshy stalks that ended in large, pulsating bulbs. Hundreds of them swung slowly back and forth in the air over their heads.

The bottom of the "pear" was split into nine lips that could open to expose the interior of the... whatever it was. Owen couldn't quite see how they fit together when closed; there appeared to be a... dimension... missing... somehow. They were currently pulled close to one another, but not completely shut. Through the tooth-rimmed flaps he could see streaks of red and white, and glimpse the pulsating folds slick flesh. Lines of purulent ooze dangled from the monstrous vulva, growing longer and quite large before finally snapping and falling... down...

...Owen followed once more, eyes tracing the path of one of the glistening droplets of filth as if fell into the reeling black maw directly beneath the huge abdomen. Another crack... another hole, not just in the rock, but in reality itself. The swirling darkness pulled at Owen's eyes... then suddenly pulled harder, as if reacting to his gaze.

Owen looked away. Madness lay both upward AND down, so he turned to Frank and Jones instead.

Frank's mouth was hanging open

"...what... what..."

"We're inside..."

"Inside WHAT?!"

"It. Her. The Abominatrix," said Owen.

"But...It's... HUGE!"

"I think... I think we made a mistake. I think we need to leave. Now."