Episode Details

Nemo
by Cryohydra911
It looked up at me with sallow eyes, sunken into his decrepit skull; tear trails of blood stained taut, crusted cheeks. Lips drew tight against foul-looking teeth, the corners stretching to the edge of a lower jaw bone. Holes entered the skull where cartilage of ear and nose should be. It sat hunched in a corner, completely hairless; leathery and scarred skin barely covered bone, wiry sinew the only thing showing life in the rest of the skeletal body. The fingers ended in pointy claws with small, broken nails adorning both grotesque hand and foot.
My back was against a wall. The only door to this room was across it, next to where the thing had apparently been hiding the entire time. All my hairs stood on end, and it hurt to breath, I was so scared. I dared not move, in case it would attack me.
The silence stretched out between us in the torchlight. I forced myself to breathe, albeit short and shallow gasps, my hands nervously twitching against the wood planks of the wall behind me. The thing never moved. It just sat there, curled up in the corner, gazing into my eyes with sadness. I finally worked up the nerve to say something.
“Who – what are you?”
The creature flinched at my question.
“What are you?” I asked the gray form again.
It shifted a little, moving away from me and pressing its bony side into the wall. Those gray, sunken eyes never left my own, staring sideways at me.
“Can... can you understand me?” I asked hesitantly.
It looked away for a second, and then returned its gaze to me, moving its head up and down in an almost imperceptible nod.
“Can you talk?”
A visible shift in what appeared to be the creature's adam's apple produced a dry, husky swallow. It nodded again.
I worked up my nerve, and then took a small step forward towards it and the door. I kept my fingertips on the wall behind me.
“What are you?” I spoke once more.
Its eyes seemed to glisten with moisture, and it looked away again. I debated taking a step closer, and then a heaving, scratchy voice hissed through the room as the creature opened its mouth, and I took a step back as it spoke to me for the first time.
“I am nightmares,” it said, turning its mournful gaze back to me. “I am the thing that stalks all dreams, all fears. I am the boogeyman, the monster under your bed, the vampire. I go by many names.” It paused a moment, its lower jaw trembling. “But I am none of these things.”
I hesitated before questioning further; the hissing stung my ears and chilled me to the bone. “So what are you?”
The beast snorted once, twice, three times in what almost sounded like a slow laugh. “I'm nothing you know, or ever will.” It wrapped its bony arms tighter around itself and began rocking back and forth, removing its gaze from me and tucking its chin behind the knobby knees.
“Do you have a name?”
The thing shook its head. “I have no name I go by.” It stopped rocking and looked back at me. “But I have one I would like to be called.”
“What's that?”
A moment's silence. “Nemo.”
“Nemo?” I echoed dumbly. “Why Nemo?”
It took a moment, looking as if considering something. And then it unraveled and stood up.
My body cowered in the corner; I pressed myself against the wall, pulling my legs close to my chest, my heart beating hard in my ears.
He stood nearly eight feet tall; the top of his skull brushed against the peeled ceiling, bony shoulders scrunched up around his ear holes. I could see each rib as it radiated out from the sternum and wrapped around to the creature's protruding spine; an empty, desiccated gut was visible through the bundle of skin stretched taut between the chest and pelvis. A small shriveled something-or-other dangled between his thigh bones. Veiny sinews reached up from each thigh onto the hips, and created almost frost-like patterns under the skin. Spindly arms hung down, the fingertips of each u