Red Right Hand by Levi Black

quick as mosquito bites.
    A woman lusting after a bottle.
    A man lusting after a woman.
    A child lusting after a meal.
    A woman lusting after a girl’s youth.
    A psychopath lusting after human flesh.
    The pinpricks jabbed at my brain, stabbing quicker and quicker, each one crowding into a fuzz of white noise. They blanketed my mind like maggots on a corpse, my own thoughts covered like a child who’d fallen through the ice.
    Two bursts of desire came in peals of thunder, rolling over all the ones before them, echoing each other.
    They were vast.
    Alien.
    Other.
    Crying out:
    MUST
    BE
    FREE
    My mind unfolded in a topographical map. I could See all the wants like a landscape. Towering over them were the two thunderous alien desires, standing like mountains, one much closer than the other.
    My voice sounded hollow, tinny when I spoke. “I have them. There are two.”
    Nyarlathotep’s voice was clear, vibrating through me, shaking the map in my mindsight. “Good, Acolyte. Now take our hands and complete the circle.”
    I cracked one eye. The world swam for a split second as it invaded my vision, but I held onto the map in my skull. The Man in Black and Daniel were in front of me, hands clasped; they both reached out to me with their free ones. My right hand took Daniel’s left, a sharp, raw rub across the incisions on my palm as his skin touched mine. If he noticed, he didn’t say anything.
    The Man in Black held out his hand. His red right hand.
    I hesitated.
    The map in my head slid a little, breaking along the edges.
    Dammit.
    I took that skinless hand and closed my eye.
    Power thrummed through me. It felt as though I’d been plugged into a circuit. My body hummed through my bones and my joints.
    Daniel’s voice came from my right. “Whoa.”
    I guess he could feel it too.
    The map sharpened, becoming brighter in my mind’s eye. “What now?”
    The Man in Black purred, “Pick one and simply wish to be there.”
    â€œIt can’t be that easy.”
    â€œAcolyte…”
    I took a deep breath, focused on the mountain of desire closest to us, and wished.
    Dear God, please don’t let this hurt.
    He didn’t listen.

 
    14
    A T FIRST IT felt like a warm shower. Soft, fat droplets peppering my skin in a massage, caressing, nearly tickling. The sensation was nice. Relaxing. A relief after the horror I’d been through.
    Then the sensation turned.
    The droplets came harder.
    Sharper.
    Striking every inch of me like diamond-cut thorns even through the safety of my clothes. It felt like being scrubbed down with a cheese grater.
    I fell to my knees, banging them on a hard surface. My eyes were open, but I couldn’t see anything, the world washed all in red. My skin pulsed with my heartbeat, each thud of it against my breastbone washing me with a wave of raw, abraded pain. I fought to catch my breath, jerking air into my lungs. Even they were sore, as though they had been flash-burned from the inside out.
    This must be what a hot dog feels like in the microwave.
    The world swam to focus in waves, the pain receding with each pulse until I could sit up again, a concrete walkway hard under my knees. In front of me a building made of faux marble and brick soared into the night. The overly large but tastefully subdued sign over the swoosh-swoosh automatic entrance read S AINT Y OGASHURA M EDICAL C ENTER .
    What the hell?
    Noise made me look over. Daniel was on his knees about fifteen feet away, in the grass between the walkway and the building. He retched, throwing up all over the lawn in front of him. The smell of it rode the night breeze over to me, and I could see it, orange-brown on the perfectly manicured Fescue. Whatever had just happened had been rough, but it seemed to be fading fast.
    Is he okay? Why is he sick?
    Immediately I felt guilty at the thought. I’d been sick not even thirty minutes ago.
    The air swished behind me, and I turned.