A Serenade for the Innocent - 127 The Black Insect and His Human Hands

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?” I heard the voice of the policeman on my left side, ringing somewhere around the floor. Meanwhile, I could hear an unfamiliar sound of someone around the center of the room uttering some gibberish words while breathing heavily.

“W-what the hell is that sound!? Father, what is happening!?” The silver man thundered with a voice filled with panic as the ticking sound of countless fingers tapping on the surface of wood envelopes the small room. The unknown voice at the center of the place then suddenly started letting out words that sounded like someone trying to push their throat out of their insides, like someone trying to pulsate their throat forcefully.

“The door is not opening! I can’t see anything! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP UUUUUUS!” The nurse shouted with a voice filled with utter helplessness as she continuously banged the door. As she did so, the voice in the middle of the room then suddenly started uttering gurgling noises while the sound of huge amounts of water dropping on the floor echoed into the whole area. Suddenly, an unbearable stench filled the area like a mixture of the smell of a dead mouse and diarrhea feces.

“AAHHH! I’M GONNA DIE! NOOO! NO! I’M ALREADY DEAD! THIS IS HELL! WE’RE ALL IN HELL! YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE WELL IN YOUR LIFE WHILE YOU’RE STILL ALIVE, YOU PIECES OF SHIT; WE’RE IN HELL!” The salesman screamed with a loud and high-pitched yell, which rang right through my ears as if I’m hearing the sound of a wok being smashed repeatedly with a metal bat. While the salesman was screaming his agony away until his voice could reach the high heavens, I heard the sound of someone slurping and licking some kind of liquid substance at the center of the room.

“MaStErRrRrrrRR aNaToLy…” A monstrous sound of someone then rang at the center of the room, calling out my name. He sounded a whole lot like an old person whispering his final breaths in his deathbed. “wE CamE tOoOoO pLaNt… tHeEeEeE AAAHHHHHH sEeeEeEeeEEd!” The unknown voice said while gasping and screaming in between his sentences.

Suddenly, brilliant red light illuminated throughout the area, originating from the middle of the room. Then, we finally saw for once who exactly was the person talking at the center of this God-forsaken place. However, I am quite uncertain if it’s really okay for me to say that this is a… ‘person.’

The creature before us had the body of a centipede, wriggling around like an anaconda on the floor. However, the other half of his body is hidden on the other side of the torn carpet. It looked as if he’s a jack-o-lantern bobbing up and down out of his shell. From a closer glance, one could definitely see that the legs of the centipede-like creature resemble that of a giant spider’s legs, but the only difference is that at the end of each leg, we can definitely see that those are human hands. That’s right! A creature with the body of a centipede and attached to it are countless spider-like arms with human-like hands. Then, expecting some kind of alien-like head, what I saw instead is the gigantic circular head of a human being. He was smiling wryly with his mouth literally stretched from ear to ear like it was surgically cut open while the wound was plastered with some kind of synthetic but life-like lips. The creatures’ eyes are nothing but white, so I could see the thin red veins pulsating on his eyeballs while it was surrounded by layers of blackness that looked similar to eye bags but not really. Finally, the creature’s hair was shaped tightly into a stiff cone-shape. Instead of a sharp end, his cone-shaped hair continued to flow thinly into a soft arc that looked like the withered stem of a flower. However, instead of beautiful petals, what we saw instead at the end of his hair was an egg-shaped rock. The light spewing all over the room seems to be coming from that egg-shaped rock. Fortunately, the light is only strong enough to reveal the creature’s head but not bright enough to illuminate the entirety of the area itself. Thus, none of them could see the utter excitement plastered all over my face as I finally saw a familiar face in this dungeon.

“iS hE ThE rEcEiVeEeEEEEeEerRRrrrRRR oF ThE SeEeEeEd?” The centipede-like monster said, pertaining to the silver man who’s clutching my arms tightly.

I then moved a step back away from him while covering the silver man with both of my hands. The trembling boy then burrowed his face on my chest as I softly shook my head while looking at the centipede-like monster.

“UnDeRsToOoOOoooooOoooD!” The centipede-like creature said as he faced away from me. He then jingled his head around to illuminate the faces of the other people around me. He looked at the nurse who’s still banging the metal door loudly and said, “tOoOOoooOOo tHiIIiIIInNNn.” The human-headed centipede then turned his head around and moved his head towards the sweating salesman as his body shook like he’s convulsing. “tOOOooooooOOOOO pRedIcAtABOOOLLLLL!” With a creaking noise accompanied by the clattering sounds of fingers tapping on the surface of wood, the centipede-spider hybrid finally moved his head to face the policeman. The wide lips of the monster then crept upward at the sides of his face as he nodded vigorously, making the light source shake, thus making the surrounding turn into something like a tacky nightclub. “jUUuuuUUUUUUuUuuSt rIghT!”

The policeman, with the crotch area of his pants noticeably wet, then shrieked while pulling himself away from the monster. However, he’s already leaning himself hard onto the wall. There’s no escape. He’s the chosen one. “YIIEEEGHHH! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY FROM MEEEEE!”

The centipede-like monster then burped loudly with a sharp voice resonating from out of his throat. He then moved quickly towards the shrieking policeman with bloated cheeks. Without another word, the human-headed centipede shaped his wide lips and turned it into a small O shape. With his eyes knitted sharply, the centipede-spider used four of his human-like hands to force the policeman’s mouth to open while he tried his hardest to use four of his other hands to ensure that the policeman’s head wouldn’t move. Wordlessly, the monster suddenly started spitting green bile out of his mouth swiftly into the policeman’s open mouth. Since there’s too much of the green liquid coming out of the monster’s lips, some of it spilled out of his mouth and scattered throughout his face. The bile then started bubbling on his bowl-like mouth as the policeman tried his hardest to resist the tremendous strength of his monster captor. The monster then forcefully closed the policeman’s mouth with his two other hands as he laughed loudly, which sounded more like the cries of countless pigs getting slaughtered.

Suddenly, the policeman’s eyes started to go from all around the place like it was trying his hardest to look at a fly hovering about his head. His arms then turned shook violently while his arms are closed tightly, thus making the policeman resemble a convulsing dog with he’s weakly shaking around like a lifeless extension to his shivering arms. His back then shook uncontrollably, which forced him to hunch upward, making him look like a hunchback lying down while facing the ceiling. His feet started to kick around the air like he’s practicing his biking skills in the air.

“mY mISsSssSSsSioN isSssSSSs doNEEEE MaSsSSsTeerrrrrrRRRrRr.” The centipede-like monster said while suddenly hissing while trying his hardest to cough up a loud chuckle. Why is he suddenly doing that stupid snake impersonation? That was never his thing. Ah, whatever. He continued, “yOuuuuUUuU mAy aLL pAssSssS tOwaRDsssSssSs tHeEEe NeXXXt ArEaaAA-uhhhhhhhh!” The centipede-spider hybrid uttered those words while the rest of my companions looked at the still convulsing policeman on the floor.

“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE THIS IS OUR CHANCE!” I said as I ran towards the policeman. The silver man who was still clutching on my chest tightly finally awakened to the reality of the situation as he gasped upon seeing the worsening state of the man on the floor.

“yOuuuuUUuU mAy aLL pAssSssS tOwaRDsssSssSs tHeEEe NeXXXt ArEaaAA-uhhhhhhhh!”

I then wrapped my hands around the policeman’s shoulders, trying my hardest to carry him while he shook vigorously beside me. “HELP ME OUT HERE, MR. SALESMAN! HURRY. HURRY. HURRY!!!” I then looked at the dumbfounded face of the salesman as he tried his hardest to explain whatever was happening before him logically. “LET’S GOOOOOOOO!” I said as loud as I can to the salesman until he blinked thrice swiftly, which indicated that he had finally awakened to reality. He then wrapped the other hand of the policeman on his shoulder, carrying his convulsing body while still also shaking with fear.

“yOuuuuUUuU mAy aLL pAssSssS tOwaRDsssSssSs tHeEEe NeXXXt ArEaaAA-uhhhhhhhh!”

“Nurse…” I lightly called out the name of the nurse who was now banging her head on the door to no avail. “NURSE!” However, she was still banging her head on the metal door until the sound of her forehead, hitting the metal surface of the door rang throughout the room. “SILVERMAN! CARRY THE NURSE! PULL HER AS HARD AS YOU CAN! DRAG HER ON THE FLOOR IF YOU HAVE TO!”

“yOuuuuUUuU mAy aLL pAssSssS tOwaRDsssSssSs tHeEEe NeXXXt ArEaaAA-uhhhhhhhh!”

The silver man quickly complied with what I had just said and dragged the nurse’s almost broken body, making us see the massive wound on her forehead that’s continually worsening, thus covering her pale head with blood. I can’t see the yellow body bags of my companions around me, so the centipede-like creature must have taken it just like we planned.

“yOuuuuUUuU mAy aLL pAssSssS tOwaRDsssSssSs tHeEEe NeXXXt ArEaaAA-uhhhhhhhh!”

“LET’S GO! LET’S GO! LET’S GO!” We then swiftly ran towards the now open door leading towards the next area.

“THAT’S FIVE CONSIDERATIONSSSSSSSS AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” The monster behind us in the wooden area yelled in a high pitch tone like an out of tune opera singer. “DINNER TIIIIIIIME!”

The swift and long body of the centipede-spider hybrid then quickly flowed towards us as he approached us while moving in a spiral motion throughout the wooden corridor leading towards the next room. With a tired and slowly beating heart, I forcefully banged the door leading to the next area until we could not see the monster anymore.