1 1 - Coalesce

Resonant screams.

The amplification of a crazed cacophony.

Echoes rang from the distant reaches of perception, becoming more pronounced with each passing moment, a single voice amidst the many that fell into the void of an otherworldly presence.

Seconds swelled on into eternity.

Sath awoke with a start. Realization quickly took root inside his consciousness. He now stood in his living room. The walls around him came alive with an array of colors, dancing wildly across the white empty spaces. Blurred shadows streaked by. They crossed the spray of color, passing by his windows. The mad movements all added upon the frenzy of the multicolored illumination.

Sath rushed outside. A brilliant aurora of shifting hues occupied the horizon. Stepping among the amassed townsfolk, he quickly fell in line alongside them. The echoes of their march led down the main road of the small town. Sath glanced from face to face, their blurred features a seamless reflection to mirror his own confusion. All around him the night had come alive. Bright waves of light painted vivid streams across the structures as somber whispers vocalized the gushes of fear that were passing over the haunted townsfolk.

Even the air felt off. Upon the wind flowed a staleness; a distinct smell both alluring and unnatural, a definite wrongness that was all too imminent.

The group around Sath had grown from a handful into a crowd. Their gathering finally came to a standstill at the border of Trenton. Now, without any buildings blocking his view, Sath looked on as the magnificent streams of light poured upward into the heavens, like upturned celestial waterfalls being cast into the night sky. Long streaks like extended fingers stretched inwards, amassing into a focal point, and then released back outward in luminescent blurs. As if the focal point had inhaled but its breath could no longer be held.

The longer streaks spawned smaller bolts. Each raced above town. All amazingly fast. Too fast to follow. One after another they'd stop abruptly.

Then exploded in a blaze of water-colored smears. Bursting again, a multitude of tiny streaks launched outwards. Numerous flashes passed over Sath. His innards pulsed with an ominous serenity, every beat far too ephemeral to be true. Bursts of energy flashed, bathing the village in its alien glow. Amidst the light show an ominous accumulation of clouds was building up to block out the starlit sky.

From over the horizon emanated the sound of rolling thunder, drowning out the voices around Sath with its deafening magnitude. The first drops of rain tingled Sath's face. But his eyes peered attentively across the far off plains, too afraid to even blink. Again the deafening boom roared, this time sounding closer to a horn than any sort of thunder. A hush overtook the crowd. Awestricken faces looked to locate whatever could have made such an abhorrent noise.

"What is that?" someone yelled, causing fits of screams to erupt.

Sath clearly saw it, too, plain as ever, and yet no more believable than if he hadn't seen it for himself. The breath he took a moment ago refused to escape his lungs as ice-cold prickles launched down his spine even as warm gushes of air swept over the crowd. An odd sense of emptiness gripped his heart tight.

Again a thunderous sound unleashed as the huge tree trunk of a leg slammed down upon the earth. The creature stood motionless for a while, utterly mesmerizing on its four colossal oaken legs. Its very form as vast as the town of Trenton itself looked dirt-ridden and rugged, bearing the look of soil from what Sath could make out in the dim aurora lighting. It was as if a chunk of the earth itself had broken free and rose onto four ancient, tree formed legs.

Across its sprawl of a backside reigned the lush, vibrant growth of a jungle. An abundance of grand trees jutted from its forested back, a great multitude at that which pierced into the vibrant, cloudy sky above. Even as it stood far away in the distance, the enormity of the beast was frighteningly apparent.

Small, barely visible shapes darted about it, encircled its form. Sath shook his head, lost and amazed at the idea of the thing. Somehow even it teemed with life forms of its own.

A bulbous protrusion, which looked to be its head, loomed at its forefront. Where a face ought to be numerous orbs of differing sizes glistened, their dulled sheen made clear whenever bolts of energy shot over or streaked alongside the creature.

Its head split open through the middle, slowly, laboriously. From its large mouth expelled a dissonant moan, the force of which echoed and shook the landscape with an unrelenting desolation. That moan reigned unending. Sath felt as if his inside were being crushed. Not so much by the force of it, but rather at the deep emptiness woven within its mournful cadence.

Amidst its booming cry a streak of energy veered unnervingly close to Trenton. The onlookers gasped. The creature had Sath enraptured though; he couldn't tear his sights from it. Meters above the Trenton folk, the streak exploded. The bright multitude of colors were blinding. The gathering fell to the ground, averting their eyes from the harsh light.

Abruptly the lights disappeared. As his vision returned, Sath still stared into far away, unmoving. All but an utter silence filled its place. The huge figure no longer hulked in the valley beyond. In slow order the crowd got to their feet. A dull tune sang as an icy wind claimed the mood, conveying a stark melody of gloom. Where the creature had stood moments ago, now only a bleak foreboding lingered on in its stead.

Sath spun around. A cold ache tugged at his heart which mirrored the chill touching his skin. Mind racing, the dank smell clinging thick and nauseatingly in his nostrils, he looked from side to side. Nothing but an unrelenting absence met his gaze.

He knew she was gone.

The essence of a living being was no longer there.

Raine was gone.