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Back The Black Maybe Save as PDF
Chapters (13)
  1. Cover
  2. Introduction by Steve Rasnic Tem
  3. To Bite a Dog
  4. Fogtown
  5. The Time Remaining
  6. Return to the Midnight School
  7. In the Snow, Sleeping
  8. Multiplied by Zero
  9. The Amber Complex
  10. Sky Filled With Crows, Then Nothing at All
  11. Walks Among You
  12. The Black Maybe
  13. About the Author

We have been living this way ever since. My house is a wooden cage under the ground. Every once in a while they throw in rotten food. We live in an open relationship; at least she does, as she has found other partners over time. Gender and age are not important; she takes what she likes. She throws them here next to me. If they survive the ordeal and are still capable of speech we often talk. We only talk about her. About our wife.

Although there are now many of us down here, I know that I’m the only one who matters to her. She never asks the others before she takes them. She never offers them a clean death. If that’s not a sign of love I don’t know what is.

Sometimes she visits me. After that, it takes two to three weeks until I give birth. The babies eat themselves out of my flesh; they crawl out from under my skin. I usually die by the time all of them are born, but here death and life are not so rigidly separated. I’m always brought back. I sometimes wish death would last longer so I could rest a bit, but it’s over before I even notice.

My children, dozens of tiny lizards, run around the dark cave in search of hot, living flesh. God bless the tourists we can always capture. Later on, my children enter the pupal stage, and then they gain their secondary form; they become like the girl who visited me in my hotel room. They become the tribe that hunts in the forests.

I don’t know what form follows after that.

Sometimes they let me out of the cave to help serve the tourists in the city’s restaurants. A centipede lives inside of me in the place of my spine; it watches over me so that I don’t escape.

Why would I escape?

I’m writing this report with their consent, what’s more, at their insistence. The Nameless Lords kindly welcome fresh visitors who are ready to multiply their lives by zero.

Those who feel determined enough or have abandoned all hope already should feel free to call the toll-free number at Abaddon Travels! Our employees are kind and considerate, they will quickly guide you through the administrative laby­rinth.

Those who feel like they are not yet prepared for this journey should by all means choose a more conventional
trip.

But even they should not forget: there will be a time when the Nameless Lords feel like taking a break. Just a little holiday; maybe in time when the Sleeping Lords awake.

Soon.

Then we’ll come and visit you all.

The Amber Complex

The Amber Complex