“You cannot hide your thoughts from me.”
Wank groaned, putting palms to eyes, and rolled to
his back. The stone beneath let loose its grip of agonies
and he stretched full out, arms to the sides as if on a
sacrificial dais.
“What do you want with me?”
are.”
“There is naught in me that can explain what you
70
“So we’re done here then.”
In the being’s short silence that followed, the
dripping echo from the lake’s surface pierced the air,
caromed delicately off the rough dome of the cavern
ceiling and began an incessant beat in Wank’s head. He
squeezed his eyes shut, his temples between palms, and
groaned, trying to force it back.
“Your mind travels into places that no longer exist.
You live there, yet you do not.”
In an effort to drown out the cavernous resonance
of seeping water that inundated his skull using his own
voice, he practically shouted, a frantic-sounding screech.
“They’re just memories! Everyone has them! Why should I
be any different? There’s no real substance to them, damn
you!”
“They are most definitely real to you, a succulent
flood of cognizance that leaves me reeling and weak,
satisfied in ways that are new to my mind, to my being.”