Xenophon Vos

I spread my thin tentacles out and began to sink towards an odd-looking larva which had jolted from underneath its rock just a moment ago, only to slow beneath me. It slowly turned, as if looking around as I lowered upon it, looking up and watching as one of my tentacles wrapped around its center. It began to shake and twist, trying to free itself from the shock as I wrapped another tentacle around its tail and began to drift further down onto it.

As I pulled it into my mesoglea, I began to contract and expand the muscles throughout it, pushing up through the water as the larva thrashed within me. A strange sensation rippled through my muscles and nerves. As it slowed and eventually stopped, I did the same, floating again through the cool water of the upper ocean.

Suddenly, I felt myself freeze up and stop moving for a second, and my surroundings became a shockingly warm, open, area. The water which had moved through my mesoglea just moments ago now left me, my surroundings as dry as could be, with a tight wrapping constricting my free movement I had just moments ago. My eyes bolted open and the light rushed into my pupils, blinding me as I pushed my eyelids close again, the still-harsh light softened by the yellow-red substance that now covered them. I tensed the muscles in the part of my form which felt most like a tentacle and felt a solid, rocky form hit against my sides as the soft coverings around me remained still.

I pulled back my the flesh over my vision again and held them open through the light which shone down from a bulbous form above me. As my pupils narrowed, I looked down to the coverings which constricted me and saw a dark red blanket. I thrashed with as many muscles as I could and was able to throw the form off to reveal the pale beige covering which constricted my new form.

I looked to the fists at my side and moved them to find the sharp uneven hooks on the end of each appendage. My mind then went to my new form. The thick skin I was stuck in held my muscles tight within their positions, contracting and releasing only to pull sharp rocks within me into new orientations. I brought the sharp claws into the rubbery wrap in my midsection and began to pull, a deep red blossoming among the sharp sensation I felt cutting through me. I felt my mouth open and a harsh noise echo through the room as I continued to pull, peeling back a section of the strangling cloth.

As the red fluid spread from the freed section and dripped down my sides onto the soft surface below me, I began to claw at another edge and rip though more of the skin to free the red-stained supports and organs within me.

Once I reached the closest part of my form, my muscles began to weaken, but I powered through and began to free the red-stained bones and the top of the left appendage. As I weakened further, I looked to a set of bones within the chest of my new form, one of which I pulled out to use as a lever to peel the constriction back further, freeing the muscles as I turned to the other limb to finally free my structure. As I wedged the lever between the bone and skin I began to push down on it and my body, which I had used to leverage against the skin, fell back against the surface beneath me as the rib broke in two.

Another sound escaped my throat, shrill and piercing to my new form’s senses. Immediately following it, a sound came from the corner of the room, a sort of thud against a panel in the wall, followed by babbling I couldn’t process. My focus drifted to another rib and I grasped it with both my claws, pulling as hard as I could to free it from the column on the bottom.

I wedged it into the place where the previous lever had been, using it to rake out the shards before I rose against the wedge once again. As I lifted myself onto it, I felt the skin peel back as the bones beneath me shattered and I fell, a sharp section of bone piercing into the muscles of my new form’s chest.

Again a shout forced itself out of my mouth as I felt the pain searing through my form. A liquid began to spill out of my lips and onto the bloody mess below me as I fought my new form’s eyelids to stay open, awake.

I began to drift away, slowly, crawling, a memory coming back to me of what I was just a short time ago. As my eyelids closed and the bulbous light began to fade away, I imagined the soft warmth of the cool ocean, the feeling of wrapping my tentacles around that unexpected larva, the water moving around and through my mesoglea, the strange sensation that most recent feeding had given me. And then, in an instant, I was free again.

This story was originally published as part of a then-weekly writing event called Frights By Fire, which is hosted by Athan and Jamie of Hush Studios, creators of [REDACTED], The Cellar Letters, and The Grotto, three great audio dramas. The theme for this week was Skin, which inspired me to write about something that I thought wouldn’t like to have skin, such as a jellyfish. From showing this off, I’ve gotten plenty of reactions from raving reviews to absolute disgust, which made me feel like it would be a great story to feature.