Hope you enjoy it, even if it's weird! See you tomorrow at eight AM for more, and have a lovely day.
Cocoon by Mackinley Clevinger, April 25, 2016
“I don’t know what to say. It’s like nothing we’ve seen before.”
“Is it… is it hurting her? Is she going to… What is it doing to her?”
“As far as we can tell it’s… benign? The growth isn’t physically harming her, but it’s resisting any attempts we make to cure your daughter of it. We think it may be producing a chemical that works as a hallucinogenic sedative, but we can’t figure out what it is or why it’s happening. She is awake, Mrs. Langley, and you can talk to her, but she isn’t in a clear state of mind.”
The air shone brilliantly over my head, streams of color weaving between the bright-white threads to seep into my skull, the gentle vibrations turning to distant, muffled voices. I followed the whirling streams as they danced through the air, the softly shifting colors flowing beside the growing threads before finding their way into me.
“She was brought in by the police, Mrs. Langley. They thought she was high on something, but became concerned when it didn’t seem to wear off after two days of observation. Our examination of Ashley found the growth on the back of her neck, and it’s been growing faster since she came in. We had to move her from a typical hospital bed to be able to look after her properly, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping.”
Inching; slowly inching ever further and growing brighter, brighter, brighter. This must be how plants feel when the sun shines and you can breathe again for the first time. And the colors, swimming together from beyond the light to fill me up and let me shine… The ecstasy of peace and beauty, planted in my heart to rise and shine on anyone, even the hand that intrudes my sanctuary.
“What is that made of? Why were the police involved?”
“The structure being formed is likely made of Ashley’s own bone, Mrs. Langley. Like I said, the growth on the back of her neck is growing at an increasingly rapid pace, and she has been in this state since arriving here. We think it’s bone, actually; we haven’t been able to take a sample of it. We haven’t been able to take any samples of her; nothing comes off of her. She doesn’t eat, sleep, or move from the bed, Mrs. Langley. She just grows and watches the air. Sometimes she laughs.”
“How can you call yourselves doctors? You can’t tell me anything? What’s the point of paying you lot if you can’t even tell me what’s wrong with Ash?”
“This is so very far out of anything that we know, Mrs. Langley. No one has seen this before. This shouldn’t even be possible; the human body can’t just do this. Cancer cells take months to grow to any kind of size, and even then they’re nowhere near the rate of growth that we’ve seen in your daughter. Hell, the growth pattern doesn’t seem to be random, either. Look at it!
“It’s the same on both sides; equal rates of growth that are making a mirror image on either side of her. At the rate it’s been going, we expect to see the tips hit one another soon. It’s grown out of the back of her neck and reached around in front of her, while growing down her spine and towards her head. This is just… Mrs. Langley, we are doing the best we can, but we have no idea what to do. We’re sorry, but that’s all we can offer you.”
So much color from beyond the bright, flowing in and making light. Watch the threads flit to and thro, as streams come and colors go. The joy and glee of bolstered heart, as bright light creates new start. One will stay as others go, but to the end you must say no. One will go when others stay, world remade as ancient day. Hark and hear, as it draws near: The cocoon saves you that they may be saved too.
“I know you don’t know what’s happening, doctor, but… What are the chances that she’s going to be normal again? That I’ll be able to hold her and talk to her?”
“Mrs. Langley… I…”
“Phil… My name is Silvia Langley. She is Ashley; not a Langley by birth, but nothing will change the fact that she is my daughter. I need to know.”
“Silvia… I don’t believe Ashley can recover from this, whatever it is. She isn’t fighting it; I don’t think it’s even something that she can fight. There’s nothing we can do that we know of, and she seems to be… I don’t know what to tell you. I cannot, in good faith, tell you that I believe your daughter will be normal again.”
“May I have some time alone with her?”
“Of course, Mrs. Langley. Take your time.”
The colors stopped flowing, leaving the bright-white to shine in its full glory. There was a fullness within, feeding the threads as they trailed around me and grew, but through the ecstasy I felt incomplete. The streams that sunk in and told me such stories; they fed the threads and made them bright, but they needed something more. Something pure.
“Ashley, I don’t know if you understand me, or if you can hear me, but… I’m here. Mom’s here, honey. I don’t know what’s wrong, or why this has happened, or… or anything, really, but you’re going to get through this. Whatever this is, you are going to come back to me.”
A new stream is here, dancing by the threads, not colorful and flowing slowly but pure light that shines too bright. I can’t watch in a daze of ecstatic joy, but instead gaze in awe as what’s missing is found and fills the void, but whether it’s enough to escape this world; I don’t know.
“Ashley, honey, I don’t… Everything’s become so frightening. I just… Whatever happens, Ash, I don’t know if you can hear me, but… Remember that I love you.”
In a roar of burning light, the void is filled and the threads are fed. The ecstasy drains out of me, and I see Sylvia’s face through a shrinking gap of enclosed glowing bones, the skin at the base of my neck crawling as the colors that had sunk in flowed back out. Fear pounds at my heart’s door, but I can’t move away from the cocoon around me as all that’s left is a peep-hole into the outside world, a framed picture of the woman whose soothing voice had locked me away from her.
“Mom?”
But then the way was sealed, and I was locked in the dark as my mind grew dim and fell silent.