/lit/ - Literature

My tendrils shot forth and penetrated his neck. He was paralyzed the instant the venom reached his brain. I busied myself wrapping his body up to be burnt, adding his drawings to my ever-growing collection.

After stashing the body in the back room for the time being and ensuring there were no remaining signs of a struggle, I restored my link to the brood and sent a series of thoughtforms to confirm that I’d bagged another. I expected only the usual warm feeling of approval from the brood mind, but instead I got a rapid sequence of blurry images.

Captured by probes investigating a newly discovered inhabited planet? Sure enough, there’s a pair of smokestacks below, and a set of immense interlocking gears driven by the combustion. The metal plague. At this early stage we might still strangle it in the crib. We might teach those lost, confused children of the machine the true path. The warm, living, feeling path.

“If not…” I muttered to myself, patting my still-bulging venom glands as my body folded back into its superficially human dimensions. After flipping over the sign and closing the blinds to turn away any further applicants in my absence, I began launch preparations.

Moar: linktr. ee/alexbeyman