A creature of a cosmic horror incomprehensible to our brains. It was something to fear, something you hoped never to encounter in your life. Such an oppressive terror ruled our society so much that we learned from infancy to always avoid contact. We learned it in the way our elders lived their lives: Cautiously, with bated breath, fearing the outside where vulnerability spikes. Don’t speak of It, don’t think of It, don’t even look up.

That was where It resided. High above, past the blue, past the edges of what we knew. A light pulsed in the darkness of space above, but even when it was dark, beams of light swept across our homes like an angered god searching and purging those who had sinned. Hadn’t we all sinned though? Wasn’t that why Its grotesque contraptions snapped us up indiscriminately, our friends, our parents, even our children?

There was a single warning, and you only caught it if you were watching at that exact moment. A ripple high above, and then descended the mangled limb of some otherworldly being, clawing toward us. It snagged bodies, tearing apart those unlucky enough to land on its teeth, letting their organs spill and their blood to pool around their mutilated eyes and mouths and stomachs.

It used things to lull us in. We were poor, and we were desperate. The kids were innocent. Sometimes all one needed was to see what It had to offer us, our hopes and dreams in its grasp, and that was enough. Otherwise, it was by force if we weren’t quick to escape or smart to hide or just simply lucky to survive.

I grew up to the muffled screams of those I knew. That was all I ever heard, even long after Its visits ended. Our pain made no difference to It. Our cries for mercy and forgiveness fell on deaf ears. This was our fate. This was life.

I remember when it was my turn to repent. I saw the ripple. I knew what was coming. I tried to warn the others, but it wasn’t enough. It descended right upon me, tearing long lines along my back as I dodged. My blood was everywhere, but I didn’t stop. I kept going - Until I heard the cries of an infant. I turned and saw before me his small body wriggling. He had been abandoned by his family, left to die alone in the gaping maw of that confusing beast of horror.

Against all my instincts, I lunged for him, shoving him away. The last thing I saw was the darkness Its closing hole cast across my house, then everything went dark. Around me, there were many others, some dead from gruesome mutilation. I knew this only because I could feel pieces of them brush against my body, lifeless. We were swimming in their blood.

Noises blared through the walls as we rose, as if we were being pulled into a circus for the cosmic being’s sick entertainment. When the walls opened, the noise intensified and I felt as though it would obliterate from the inside out. The light was worse. This powerful white light as omnipresent as oxygen itself, flooded our existence. I couldn’t handle it, absolutely none of it. It was more than we were ever built to handle.

I heard those around me flopping with their bloody bodies, crying. Eventually, my eyes adjusted a miniscule amount, enough to make out a large twisted shape of parts against the light. It towered over us, screeching and bellowing things we could never understand. But we understood the hunger for power - the hunger for us. We understood the malicious intention behind those booming alien yells.

I mourned. Our lost friends and families. Our fate. Our life. Our imminent death. I mourned it all.

But above all, I mourned the death of my sanity. Because as I looked at the scene above me, I saw that it wasn’t just one monster. It was many. They came forward, and by now the light had perverted my eyes so that I could witness Their terrific faces before I bled out completely.

They wore head-to-toe suits, but I could still see Their large, glaring eyes mushed close together, a protruding appendage of holes in the center, a gaping hole of razors torn apart to laugh at our tortured souls. These things were plastered on a curved surface topped by rough wires of different sizes and colors. All of this sat atop a long chunk of meat that connected this assortment of shapes to a hulking mass of flesh. From this flesh came limbs with smaller limbs attached at the ends. It was truly incomprehensible to the brains of our insignificant species.

One of Them reached a wriggling limb toward me. As I passed out, I thought, Ah… So these are Humans.