You have seen the word. Now it lives inside you. Behind your eyes. The shadow of the word is flowing from synapse to synapse, nerve to nerve. Infecting every cell. Mutating every protein. You can feel it can’t you? Notice that your breathing now requires conscious thought. Take a moment to think about this. What would happen if you forgot to breathe in and out? Yes. This is a sign that the word is inside you. Do not close this email. It’s already too late for that. To close the message now will damn you to a horrific fate. First comes the breathing. You can still feel it, can’t you? Then the blinking. Blink. Blink. You will want to consciously blink your eyes now. Yes. The word has you. Next will come an itch or a tingle. If you wait, you will feel it. A sensation. A tightness. A tickle. There it is. Yes. There. Do not try to ignore it. The feeling will only get worse. Soon there will be a high-pitched whining in your ear, so faint as to be almost imperceptible. Your sight will fail. Then the numbness. A taste of metal. Spots before the eyes. Later will come the crumbling of bone, the cracking of skin. The withering flesh. The blood become dust. The life without life. The word is his name, you see. He is older than you or I. Older than our cities and towns. Some say older than hills and seas. He comes from a time before. A place beyond. He walks in thoughts. Speaks in whispers. He is glimpsed in reflections after dark. Heard in the echo of a footstep. Felt in the low-pitched thrum beneath a pylon. There is only one way to escape your rapid descent into decay. You have read his name by accident. To save yourself, you must share his name deliberately. Forward this message to 20 people within 20 minutes and the curse of his name will be lifted. Fail to do so and you will be struck blind. Then your fate is sealed. Act before it is too late. Your time starts NOW. Yours, A. Chernov Zachem RUSSIA
Mathew Gostelow is a dad, husband, and copywriter, living in Birmingham, UK. Some mornings he wakes early and writes strange tales. His stories have been published by Stanchion, Bag of Bones Press, Myth & Lore, Soor Ploom Press, Cape Magazine, and others.