[792] First Text Ever Posted. Don't Go Easy On Me.

Your tendril wrapped around the stone pillar as you skulked from shadow to shadow. The towering buildings of white marble in the torchlight reflected your bulbous body of flesh. Your undulating frame turned to avoid the glowing light coming from a temple at the top of the hill. The scorched white lump of your right arm had taught you well to avoid its gaze. Not that you needed such a physical reminder. You saw one of your fellow residents walk into the light. He glowed brightly, shimmering and growing as he slowly faded away. Behind you, the other residents of the city scattered, avoiding one another and the light.

You weren’t sure why you decided to climb the hill. You knew that the closer you climbed to the top, the more likely the light would touch you. In your mind, the light hungered for you. The light’s shifting form scoured the town, looking for you and the other residents of the city. You shuddered as you got closer to the nexus of radiance. Perhaps by climbing the hill, you hoped that you could shut off the light.

The familiar footholds and railings of this path helped you make great time. You had been this way before. Your tender arms and clawed feet gripped the ground readily. As you reached the summit, the terror overtook you, and you turned to flee like you had many times before. You fell. A root unseen caught your foot and dragged you to the earth.

You rose back onto your feet to see a small door carved into the white marble of the temple wall. Obscured by vines, you had missed the narrow doorframe many times before.

You approached the door cautiously, sliding your tendrils across its many bumps and ridges before finding a handhold. Cold to the touch, the hairs on your body rose as you yanked open the door. You slid your body through the thin crack. A small, glowing candle lit the black stone hallway. The light created great shadows across the wall as you slipped through the narrow passageway. In the distance, you saw a thin beam of light shooting away from the hallway from a small lampstand. You slinked along the ground, pushing yourself towards the threshold of the hallway and the wider room.

When you reached the threshold, you froze. The very air in the room ahead vibrated with energy. You willed yourself forward, pushing your muscles, but your own body fought you, throwing itself several paces backward. In response, the lampstand filled the adjoining room with bright, white light. All the eyes on your body blinked rapidly as they stared deeply into the light, drawing it all in.

The air shimmered, and a warm presence filled you. Your body railed against this presence. This presence gently nudged you towards the light, and your legs took one step closer. Like a child coming home, you moved towards the light, as your body thrashed, trying desperately to escape. The floor cracked as you took one step closer to the wall of light. Your skin began to melt in its presence as the light's intensity burned through your rotting flesh, the closer you got. Each step brought you closer until you stood at the threshold, before the wall of light. The melting black puddle of your tentacles and flesh pooled at your feet, as pain radiated across your body. Each nerve ending popped, fizzled, and reformed, only to burst again.

In this state, you stared into the light. Piercing each of your eyes, the light bounced through your body. The agony of your flesh grew, but along with it, other feelings faded. Worries, fears, and shame abandoned you like beasts driven away by fire. The pain of your skin melting slowly faded as the presence that possessed you before filled you more and more with itself. With care, it comforted you even as the light burned away your rottenness. You abided in the presence, letting it fill you up even as who you were faded. You stepped into the light, and who you were is now no more.

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