Antipode, Part 3

Tired, he felt himself beginning to doze off. Taylor got to his feet and leaned on his spear, continuing his vigil.

Night time came and still he stood guard. It wasn’t until it was dark that a sudden stirring came as a faint glow from the cauldron of stones.

“There you are, bastard,” he said, moving closer to the ledge to get a better look at it.

He watched with a combination of fright and fascination as the creature twisted about, trying to render a hole through the lining of the two realities. Suddenly he felt the ground beneath him shudder and the beast, if that’s what one could call it, bellow and bay.

It pushed hard against the envelope, coming closer and closer to the ledge where Taylor stood. It was now or never, as he raised the spear over his head and spring on the demonic outline, like a mountain lion.

The spear slipped though the membrane with easy and with Taylor’s help was driven into the creature. It was with a hideous and tortured squeal that they both disappeared.

The ungodly thing struggled for only a few minutes, then became suddenly still. Taylor withdrew his spear and stood triumphant on its carcass as the body slipped through an unknown universe.

Like his reality, this one was filled with stars and other celestial bodies. But unlike his reality, he could breathe and when he spoke, he heard his voice echo.

Taylor rapidly slipped through the reality, through an entire university in less than 45 minutes. Then without warning, the dead body of the slayed beast struck an unseen force, a sac of some sort and Taylor found himself toppling into it.

He slipped through the tissue-like lining and found himself in the deep cold of the Indian Ocean, southeast of Madagascar, though he would never know this. Instantly,Taylor Rundel was crushed like a watermelon in a kitchen’s trash compactor and soon all of his being ceased to exist as the creatures of the deep feasted on what remained.