Skittering

Can you hear me?

Excellent.

Now, it is an oft fascinating, and oft horrifying, fact that somewhere between that which we call reality, and the places Beyond, are beings of many natures not normally perceptible to our five senses.

Amongst the most repulsive of these denizens are the skittering, crawling, clicking, buzzing things that exist mostly in some close Beyond realm (an empty, dusty, place of ancient cement walls, rusted steel beams and brown-stained linoleum floors).

These creatures, which have as many names as they do forms, we shall call the Skitterers.

So close to our perceptional abilities are these Skitterers that they are often heard, felt, and even seen.

A repulsive crawler, often the size of cats, with a myriad of feelers, graspers, claws, hooks, rubbery suckers; fleshy, soft, slimy pulsating bodies and shiny chitinous carapaces; buzzing, clicking, whistling; crawling on every surface a person has touched. And their favourite sustenance? Skin flakes and oils, discarded scabs, pooled brown blood, hair and nails, the sleep from your eyes… anything once alive.

To say these disgusting, loathsome Skitterers are everywhere is only a slight exaggeration for brevity; right now (and this I guarantee) they cluster upon every spot around you that you have been, feeding on what you have left behind. And on you. Yes, upon your very skin, cleaning you.

To perceive the Skitterers as they cluster to and fro, clearly and without the option to discard such an experience as imagination or bad dream, is thankfully rare. To do so, to see them and to learn the truth, that they are never far away, crawling across the floors, walls and furnishings of our dwellings; that they crawl upon our limbs, across our faces (feelers extracting morsels from our lips, nostrils and eyelids), is to go insane.

And many a poor, mad soul has screamed away about the Skitterers from padded cells and windowless wards, bound in straight jackets that they do not flail themselves to broken bones, because they can see and feel the Skitterers upon their bodies. Other lunatics in these institutions stay perfectly still, locked in their own minds, for to move may excite the Skiterers, and may invite them to probe an orifice (sensing, as they do, that you cannot move).

For the fortunate majority of us, our perception of these foul crawlers is fleeting.

But the times you felt an itch upon your face that you could not find a cause for, or heared a tiny click in the corner of the room… be ever so grateful that your visitation of them was fleeting.

And we hope it remains so, as no one will believe you, no one will help you, and they will soon learn that, by the hands of doctors, you cannot resist them.

Of these Skitterers, I continue my study, but I have learned something truly terrifying that, nonetheless, may provide us with peace and to them an end.

It is the manner of their eggs and the places they choose to fertilise and stow them. Thankfully, breeding is very rare.

Of this coupling, I will not share, as it is as repulsive as one might imagine. But the young are parasitic and require a host. So it is that the Skitterers will suddenly become… aggressive.

A victim, always human, is pulled fully into the reality of the Beyond. They are chosen for being alone in the quiet, forgotten places, where the buildings and surroundings closely mirror their own place, and they are held down by the creatures, and as the victim becomes exhausted, the eggs are laid between the skin and the inner auric field. The psychic pain thus causes is extreme.

The victim is then left to wonder about this Beyond place until the Skitterers hatch, which happens after much time has passed and the host has likely died from thirst.

I have even gone to this place Beyond and interviewed these poor, gibbering wretches as best I can, achieving clarity with promises of help. Sadly, there is only one way I can, and I have become a decent shot. This is illuminating but dangerous, as the Skitterers, while mostly passive, do not tolerate the disturbance of their eggs, and there are other… worse things that live here. I cannot keep risking it.

From what I have learned from these wonderings, there may be a way to destroy the Skitterers. Though they are unharmable due to their interdimensional nature, their clutches of eggs may not be… once impregnated in a host.

I have gathered a variety of compounds, both mundane and otherworldly, and now I work to learn how the Skitterers choose their victims. I taint the bodies of people who won't be missed, who aren't cared for, who are… unloved. And I send them to the forgotten places to tempt the Skitterers, with some success.

The only effect this has had on them is they… no longer crawl on me. They wait in the Beyond and follow me, and do not even seem to care when I examine them up close.

Because I feed them.

I desire most strongly for someone, just one person, to accept my monstrous acts have brought me some solace from the Skitterers, but I desire this for all! It is worth it!

Those who say it is not… they will never understand and will join the others as hosts for the foul creatures and my most worthwhile endeavours

You will not remember this conversation, for I speak to you from Beyond. Even now, the Skitterers follow me to you, clicking impatiently. What say you?

Is it worth it?