A darkness spread across the open ground like an oil spill – thick, putrid, and dangerous – soaking into the earth to poison and contaminate. At its heart, as black as the night, a twisted shape writhed. Inhuman, yet possessing identifiable human aspects, legs, torso, arms as thick as any python’s body. Within the congealed ooze, the body gyrated as if to some unheard music, a macabre dance, at once spasmodic yet strangely hypnotic. Nearby, white-clad spectators stared in wide-eyed disbelief as the thing moved and grew before them.
Its massive head, featuring a mass of white, bloated, writhing worms, expanded fastest. From its wide, slack mouth, a lolling blue-black tongue wriggled and slurped, an overwhelming stench of decay drizzling from its cavernous centre. Between its teeth hung th
