“It cares about you”
It was a quiet night, and I was taking one of my nightly walks through the peaceful city to help me sleep. I had never been in this part of the city before, there were no lights on in the buildings, and nothing stirred in the streets. I saw no cars, nor could I hear a single police siren. I didn`t think of it at the time, but a few minutes, thinking back to it, I realized that it was very strange.
The streets were unusually quiet, not even trash crunched under my feet. Not even wind blew through the buildings.
There was a strange mist up ahead. It was strangely warm, and very light. By the time I thought about turning around, the mist had become too thick, so thick in fact, that I could not see my own fingers in front of my face. In fact, the weirdest thing of all was that I could not even feel the ground below my own feet! I instantly knew something was wrong at that very moment. I tried to turn back, but the mist so thick, I didn`t even have a sense of direction.
I began to jog, I was afraid, and that was a rare thing for me.
I saw ominous shadows drifting close to me; there shapes were inhuman and strange.
Suddenly I saw a man, this man drifted just at the edge of my vision, I could not understand, why I could see him, and not the rest of the world. He said only four words, “It cares about you.” The words he spoke were so hushed; they were barely above a whisper, just where I could hear them. He beckoned to me with a nod of his hand, hoping he would show me the way out, I followed him. He disappeared periodically, and then would reappear, as if waiting for me.
Finally, after what seemed like many hours, I began to notice that the mist was lightening up. I slowed down, hesitating to move farther, I was afraid of what I would see; I could still remember the shadows, drifting about me.
Finally the man stopped. He turned to me, and he said, “You may not move any farther, until you care about it, just as much as it cares about you.”
“What does that mean?” I screamed at the man. “I just want to go home! I don`t even understand what is going on!”
Suddenly the mist disappeared, and all I could see was blackness, even the ground the ground was missing, and the two of us seemed to be standing on nothing. Just as I was contemplating this, a huge beast of unimaginable size and fear rose from the darkness.
“You don`t care about it, but it cares about you.” The man`s voice seemed to echo in the darkness, as if we were in a cave. The beast roared a little it, it seemed almost angry.
Suddenly a huge tentacle lashed out, smashing the man, and grabbing my leg. I fell down, clawing at the nothingness were I once stood. The tentacle slowly dragged me closer and closer to the beast. Finally it had dragged me very close, and I looked into its angry, red eye, then it smashed me into its eye.
Many weeks later, I saw a man in the mist, I said against my will, but of its will, “It cares about you.” In almost a whisper, then began walking towards it.