A Little Brush With Death

Holding up the house, something stood. This thing was large. Taller than a house. And it was not normal. It was simply unnatural. Even more so than the happenings of the last 16 minutes.

To describe it would be undermining the reality of this...being or amalgam. However our minds tend to break things into details, no matter the thing being observed. And the details present in David's mind could be simplified into a few distinct parts.

A compact hunched body with a sharply bent neck pointing down and on it present a strange six-sided organic drum instead of a head. Two needle-like arms extruding from protruding shoulders. The elbows were separated into three entwined appendages ending in suckers that were grabbing firmly onto the lifted house. Below the chest was an extremely narrow waist, ending in hundreds of strange tentacles wrapping into six distinct limbs. It didn't follow any biological or physical conformity, resembling no creature on Earth.

Anyone who came across such a sight would naturally react in the same way: they would freeze. Their minds would remain incapable of comprehending what was before them. Such a departure from what they considered the natural order of the world, being in their very presence...would naturally capture one's mind. David was no exception.

He stared, stuck in the same posture of trying to stand. His mind bounced off many thoughts to just accept what was happening. Alas, it was stuck in a prison of its own making: lack of knowledge and the fear of the unknown. David was held captive. To stand until his demise came.

"David! Snap out of it! We must go before it senses you!"

A panicked and urgent voice rang out from his hand, startling David. This outburst from the clock was enough for him to regain his senses. Standing up, he opened his mouth to speak but then quickly closed it. The clock had previously told him to stay silent, and he presumed that advice still held.

"Good David. You need to stay silent...at least till we reach our destination. Don't worry about me...I am different. Now hurry. We must on our way before it takes root. Move carefully."

Taking note of the clock's advice, David began to move away from the creature holding his house. While he was moving swiftly, he also took special care in making sure his footsteps were as light as possible.

Moving randomly through the familiar alleys, as he was not given any particular destination, David kept an eye on the enormous abomination rising over the numerous rooftops to observe its actions. He saw it keep his house at a certain level as if observing it through some unknown method. A minute of this silent inspection passed, then it did something strange. It gently placed down the house, as if it hadn't just ripped the house from its foundations, and...moved.

Its neck started bending backward until its head was parallel to the ground. Then it began to slowly spin around its center, rotating all the way around like a wheel. At the same time, the six sides of its drum-like side began to periodically ripple and pulse outwards. These two actions combined made it look like a...radar. David's eyes slowly widened in realization. At the same time, the clock screamed.

"Get in cover! Hurry!"

Time seemed to slow down in David's eyes as he turned his head away, and looked around frantically for a place to hide. The place he was currently standing in was a narrow alley with short walls. There was no place to go. Looking back, the thing's "head" was starting to spin faster. A sinking sensation developed within David. He was doomed.

"What are you waiting for!? Jump into the garbage!"

The garbage? David looked around again and this time, he saw it. A small garbage pile on the far left side. He wondered how he had missed it, yet it wasn't David's fault for overlooking it. David for the most part was a normal person, and the thing about normal people was that had a sense of dignity despite not being above average in many things. No normal person would ever seek to even consider hiding in what was essentially trash as their first option.

This inherent bias coupled with the dire situation and the panicking of the clock had clouded David's mind, making him nearly commit a fatal mistake. David of course wasn't in the mood to consider all of this. Immediately rushing to the pile, he endured his innate revulsion at the sight and quietly entered its gloomy interior.

His skin crawled at the sensation of filth rubbing onto his clothes, skin, and hair. Amidst the trash, the stench was bound to foul...yet it was not. David was ready to hold his breath, yet it was barely unpleasant. Such a scenario shouldn't be the case. Even the filth touching his body was not that unbearable. The sensation was faint.

"What are you thinking about? Focus and don't move. It is starting soon"

David ignored the clock and thought back to all things that happened and discovered something. His senses seemed duller. The sounds of things falling in his house were weaker to his ears. His sense of touch seemed faint. His...a strange pulse ran through him, snapping him out of random thoughts. He subconsciously held his breath and hunched trying to be as insignificant as possible.

The pulses increased in intensity, rushing forth faster and faster until they became like waves submerging David beneath their fury. Seconds passed like hours and tormented David's tiring mind. The burden of holding his breath was aching his lungs and the act of staying still in these constant pulses was crushing his body. He couldn't hold on any longer, it was just too much. Just as this thought emerged, it stopped.

Everything was back to normal. There were no more pulses. Nothing was constraining David anymore. The sudden realization flooded him and caused him to collapse further into the trash without any care. He deserved rest.

"It has passed. That's good. Now tell me, dear David, why were you zoning out and ignoring me? I know you don't trust me, but your life was at stake. Actually, tell me later. Silence is still needed."

David however stopped listening after the clock's question. He now realized that he had been zoning out and ignoring the clock. He was doing things he shouldn't. He wasn't a person to do such things. So what was the cause? There should be nothing messing with his mind like before...right? An unusual wind blew from afar.

Faint chimes could be heard in the distance, letting its listeners get lost in its melody.