The Seam at the Base of His Neck

Kael first noticed it as a coin-sized patch of warm skin at the base of his neck, pulsing faintly beneath the surface. It was subtle, barely perceptible, and easily dismissed as a trick of the body or a passing irritation. But over the next few hours, the sensation grew. It wasn’t painful, just… unsettling. It felt like something was shifting beneath his skin, something alien. By day three, pale, firm bumps had clustered there, small and symmetrical—too symmetrical to be natural. They stood out against his skin like minuscule mountains, each one slightly raised and tightly packed together. He inspected them in the mirror, running his fingers across the ridges. They were cool to the touch, but there was an odd, firm texture to them. Too solid to be a rash, too deliberate to be a simple irritation. On the fifth night, Kael dreamed of crawling through a slick, nodule-lined tunnel. It was damp, the walls pulsating as though alive, the air thick with a metallic scent. As he moved deeper, the sound of faint clicking echoed around him, resonating from within the tunnel’s walls. It felt as though something was following him, something watching, but he couldn’t look back…. CONTINUE READING…