She pierced the sharp end of the stone into her flesh between her legs, then carved it along the fresh scab, opening it again, right up to her neck. When the cut was wide enough, she grabbed the edges and tore them apart. I heard the skin tear; she didn’t need to be gentle because it was of no use to her anymore. The real Nora crept out of her old shell, accepting her final, true form that she’d been hiding even from herself. That was the first time I really met my beautiful wife and learned her true name: Kth’far Ark’the’k, the niece of a Nameless Lord.

She spilled over the floor, her old shell collapsing on the ground like a worn-out coat. My wife crawled towards me on legs that kept popping up from underneath her new skin; fresh eyes opened up all over her body. She grew bigger with each step, filling up the space around her until she could grow no more. I tried to scream, but I could manage only a painful whisper.

My wife grabbed me by my limbs like a piece of meat; she was already gigantic by then, her skin wet and hot. She tore off my clothes. From the depths of darkness horrible things dragged themselves out to witness our wedding night. They sang distorted, toneless songs to accompany it. I recognized some of them from the bus; they were singing the local hits.

A new organ emerged from my wife’s body and it shattered my flesh and soul. It entered me through all of my orifices at the same time. Resistance was futile, my muscles were no match for this new intrusion. I tried to let go, to relax, understanding that I could do nothing, just try to look at my body from the outside as if I were a stranger to myself. I could hear the cracking of my bones, the tearing of my flesh. That was not me, it was somebody else, I thought. But then I understood – it was me! It was all me, at the hands of something greater than myself, and even though it was painful, humiliating, and destructive, it cleansed me of everything my life had become, even of myself, because now I had become nothing; pure emptiness. It wasn’t just the destruction of my body when my wife entered me, she entered my mind as well, my memories, my psyche. She took it all and impregnated it with herself; nothing was left of me but her. There was no hope anymore, and I no longer needed it.

I was home.

When she was done, she tossed me away like the rubbish I have become.