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Description
My entry for Snow-Keith ’s contest!

The Nightmare

I’m standing in an old metro station. The lighting is dim, flickering from a single source on the ceiling. A blistering scream is piercing the air, and I turn in time to see the train hurtle from its tunnel and into a frail body on the tracks.

I begin to move toward the person, when something shifts. In a split moment, I find myself where I started. The train has not yet left its station, and a horrified scream fills the air. Before my muscles can respond, the train once again flies out of hiding and the screaming comes to a gurgled, abrupt halt.

Again, time restarts. And again, after the train once again explodes from hiding. And again following that. Like clockwork, I can’t seem to break from this episode in time, this moment of sheer terror.

Desperate to do something, I look toward the tunnel— a gaping circle of black.

That’s when I notice it.

A creature, tall despite its unnerving slouch, stands beside the tunnel entrance. It stares at me, motionless, as my body falls rigid with fear. The thing, contorted and disturbingly focused on me, stretches the silence which falls between the screams.

The dream ends shortly after.

What Is It?

The creature is, despite its unsettling presentation, not violent. Rather, it appears to be observant of its surroundings. What the scene within the train station does not present is what this creature is doing; where it is going.

What we know is that it appears at different moments in time, and does not pertain to any single period in history. On the rare occasions in which it is viewed, it is only by few. The only danger which the thing brings is the fact that its presence is not meant, at any point, to be seen. Therefore those who unfortunately witness the creature become stuck in a loop of time, unable to break from the hole which they’ve been stretched into.

It’s theorized that the creature observes human response to disasters or inhumanity throughout history. Perhaps it presents this information to a stronger being. Perhaps it transfers these events into a creature that feeds on despair. Or, perhaps, the Thing only wants to observe for its own curiosity.

The strongest evidence of another one of its journeys is in its “voice box.” Despite being unable to speak, or even move its mouth in ways that make cohesive sounds, the creature is recorded to have only one audio. On occasion its beak hangs open, and an replica of a 1940’s WWII radio station begins to sound from somewhere within its throat. An American man describes the horrors and updates of the war; proof that the creature has made a stop in one of the most gruesome inhumanities in history.

The closest connection which can be drawn from this creature is with a story of Norse mythology. Two ravens, Hugin and Munin, were said to perch on the shoulders of an all-knowing god, Odin. It was said that they would spend days observing and questioning people, alive or dead, before returning to Odin and passing on their knowledge. Odin himself had the ability to turn into a raven.

For this reason we connect the creature with unnerving intelligence, not only from its half-species (as Corvus are notoriously brilliant creatures) but also because of its explicit purpose to observe.

Extra Details

The darker red and lighter gray are both skin, despite their difference in hue.
The only arm belonging to the creature appears contorted, jagged and bent… but it supposedly works fine and can be re-bent in any other direction.
The voice-box sounds most similarly to this -> www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwQGMT…
One half of the creature’s face has skin and feathers, but the other half is bare skull.
The creature has patches of feathers in a few particular places on its body.

Description
My entry for Snow-Keith ’s contest!

The Nightmare

I’m standing in an old metro station. The lighting is dim, flickering from a single source on the ceiling. A blistering scream is piercing the air, and I turn in time to see the train hurtle from its tunnel and into a frail body on the tracks.

I begin to move toward the person, when something shifts. In a split moment, I find myself where I started. The train has not yet left its station, and a horrified scream fills the air. Before my muscles can respond, the train once again flies out of hiding and the screaming comes to a gurgled, abrupt halt.

Again, time restarts. And again, after the train once again explodes from hiding. And again following that. Like clockwork, I can’t seem to break from this episode in time, this moment of sheer terror.

Desperate to do something, I look toward the tunnel— a gaping circle of black.

That’s when I notice it.

A creature, tall despite its unnerving slouch, stands beside the tunnel entrance. It stares at me, motionless, as my body falls rigid with fear. The thing, contorted and disturbingly focused on me, stretches the silence which falls between the screams.

The dream ends shortly after.

What Is It?

The creature is, despite its unsettling presentation, not violent. Rather, it appears to be observant of its surroundings. What the scene within the train station does not present is what this creature is doing; where it is going.

What we know is that it appears at different moments in time, and does not pertain to any single period in history. On the rare occasions in which it is viewed, it is only by few. The only danger which the thing brings is the fact that its presence is not meant, at any point, to be seen. Therefore those who unfortunately witness the creature become stuck in a loop of time, unable to break from the hole which they’ve been stretched into.

It’s theorized that the creature observes human response to disasters or inhumanity throughout history. Perhaps it presents this information to a stronger being. Perhaps it transfers these events into a creature that feeds on despair. Or, perhaps, the Thing only wants to observe for its own curiosity.

The strongest evidence of another one of its journeys is in its “voice box.” Despite being unable to speak, or even move its mouth in ways that make cohesive sounds, the creature is recorded to have only one audio. On occasion its beak hangs open, and an replica of a 1940’s WWII radio station begins to sound from somewhere within its throat. An American man describes the horrors and updates of the war; proof that the creature has made a stop in one of the most gruesome inhumanities in history.

The closest connection which can be drawn from this creature is with a story of Norse mythology. Two ravens, Hugin and Munin, were said to perch on the shoulders of an all-knowing god, Odin. It was said that they would spend days observing and questioning people, alive or dead, before returning to Odin and passing on their knowledge. Odin himself had the ability to turn into a raven.

For this reason we connect the creature with unnerving intelligence, not only from its half-species (as Corvus are notoriously brilliant creatures) but also because of its explicit purpose to observe.

Extra Details

The darker red and lighter gray are both skin, despite their difference in hue.
The only arm belonging to the creature appears contorted, jagged and bent… but it supposedly works fine and can be re-bent in any other direction.
The voice-box sounds most similarly to this -> www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwQGMT…
One half of the creature’s face has skin and feathers, but the other half is bare skull.
The creature has patches of feathers in a few particular places on its body.