Here is my entry for IF 2-2. Original story. Do enjoy 
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He falls hard.
The cold concrete does nothing to soften his landing. A pained moan escapes him before he can stop it, its sound strangely loud and alien to him in this place.
Lying on the floor with a trickle of blood running from his nose, he waits for a few seconds, desperately trying to hear if his pursuers have noticed him.
Nothing.
He can not even hear the soft treading of their feet. They must be too far away for him to notice.
A flicker of hope arises and he slowly pulls himself up.
If they have truly lost his trail.....he might be able to get away from them.
Slowly he tries to raise, careful to not use his left hand, the black veins that run along it pulsing dangerously.
The moment he finally gets on all fours, his breath is stopped. As if someone had shut down his entire body, he can feel his heart stop beating. Flesh and Blood simply....freeze in time. The air becomes a coffin of steel, unyielding and unmoving, his thoughts are...crippled....neurons caught in mid-thought. Like an insect caught in amber.
And yet....yet he can feel the sudden cold that invades his body from his stomach upwards. He can feel it as it freezes its way through his innards, icy legs trampling all over his inner organs, ice cold chitin gliding through his veins...
The moment he realizes his mistake it is too late.
Time is returned to his body. Oxygen is not.
He heaves and retches, his body trembling as he fights against the things that have invaded his body.
Blood leaks from his nose and finally he puts his shaking fingers into his mouth...and pulls. Blood flows out...and with it do the insects. He throws them up, dozens at a time, wiggling, jerking. Most of them are colored bright red by his blood but he continues to pull them out of himself.
Hundreds of them.
Hundreds of Maggots, wriggling beneath him, in that red colored sea that is his lifeblood. Spit and Blood are running from his mouth but he doesn't care.
He takes a feverish breath, still feeling the illusion of their disgusting bodies crawling through him.
Air fills his lungs again.
The sound of slow clapping destroys any joy he may have felt at finally being able to breath again.
When he turns around, one of his pursuers stands in the hallway of the abandoned building he took refuge in.
His smile shows black teeth in a pale face.
And all around black veins.
And the eyes are pure darkness. Nothing human remains in those eyes. All that remains is the completely alien mind that fills this puppet.
But the monstrous look of his pursuers does not terrify him, he has seen them far too often already. But....this one....
ôYou are dead!ö
He whispers those words but the monster surely must be able to hear them as it begins to smile.
ôSuch...charming innocence. I see...why the LADY treasures you so.....ö
ôYOU...ARE....DEAD!ö
His whisper from before has turned into a shout. Rage is giving him the strength to stand up as he shouts.
ôI killed you myself...you goddamn monster!ö
The puppet laughs. It laughs so hard and loud that he falls back on his ass again in shock...and disgust as with every bark of laughter, maggots fly from its mouth, staining the floor in front of it.
He can only stare at the macabre sight of its laughter till it finally regains its calm.
ôYes.....yes you did that splendidly....such rage, such hatred. It was a cunning plan. I must admit....I admired the mind twisted enough to come up with such a plan such as yours. You killed me spendidly, yes.....ö
The puppets grins at him, again showing its black teeth.
ôBut I serve the LADY, and so....Death may not touch me. After all....you can not kill what was never alive in the first place.ö
Again it grins and then its head explodes, black blood and white maggots flying everywhere.
The headless corpse falls to the ground, crushing some maggots as it does so.
ôTarget eliminated, prepare yourself for evacuation HIEROPHANT.ö
The voice echoes through the empty building. The man however is still staring at the corpse in front of him, his face stuck in an expression of satisfaction and hatred. He does not replay to the sniper.
ôHIEROPHANT? Do you copy me? HIERO..WHA!ö
Through the connection the voice of the sniper can be heard, yelling at someone.
It takes only a second.
The next thing he hears is the sound of flesh tearing, blood exploding outwards and of thousands of little legs crawling on cold concrete.
ôSplendid.ö
He can hear the word clearly.
But it should be impossible.
Because the mouth that speaks those words does not exist anymore.
Because the head that it belonged to, is nothing but a gooey mass on the floor.
Because the lips that speak those words are a mass of wriggling maggots, gushing blood and pale scraps of skin.
Yet....yet he can hear the words that are spoken. He can watch with his very own eyes as the dead puppet is returned to its mockery of a life.
ôTo have survived this long against us....the priests of the LADY......and even while fleeing....you were able to coordinate your assassins......SPLENDID....I can see why the LADY desires you as her sacred mate!ö
ôSHUT UP!ö His horror at the the puppets resurrection is pushed aside after hearing those words.
Instead....another horror raises up from within his memories.
A memory of shivering insects, of lips full of blood and.....a touch....so utterly wrong....so utterly alien.....so terribly sweet.
A single touch of the LADY.
A touch that did not understand humans.
His head split, his bones crushed, his blood burned.
A touch that was not even capable of holding them.
His soul dispersed, his mind torn apart, his very self turned into a mockery of itself.
And yet.....
The Puppet laughs again.
ôYes.....do you remember....her TOUCH? Her.....love?ö
A wave of heat, of disgusting arousal fills his body at the memory of his meeting with the LADY.
ôstop....it.....don't...make...me...REMEMBER!ö
ôYou resist...so splendidly....but you must know....that in the end it is useless. You can not defy the LADY. You are her chosen mate. You shall lie with her. You shall teach her passion. And when you reach the end, when you show her the final, absolute height of pleasure, she will know life. For the first time the LADY will KNOW. In that moment the LADY shall become one with all life.ö
His mind is racing through the fantasy the puppet-priest creates in his mind. The thought alone nearly tears him apart. Blood starts to flow from his ears too as the heat fills his body.
The Priest grins at him again, his head fully regenerated.
Black Veins, Black Teeth, Black Eyes.
ôAnd when that moment ends.....so shall all life!ö
That is right.....if he is caught....all that awaits the universe.....is death.
A quick, painless death by the plan of something not of this universe.
If asked to, he would not be able to describe the LADY, even though he could remember her so well.
More proof that he was already crazy.
No one could gaze upon something as wrong as a total outsider like the LADY and remain unscathed.
And now....now the end had come.
The puppet-priest was still smiling at him but the outcome was now sealed. He would be brought before the LADY.
And it would all end.
IS THAT OKAY?
Everything would simply...cease to be.
HOW PATHETIC!
And all it would take was quick and dirty fuck.
HOW DISGRACEFUL!
It was goddamn ridiculous.
HOW LONG DO YOU PLAN TO IGNORE ME MORTAL?
Laughter bubbles up from within.
When he sees the puppet-priest frozen in time he loses all inhibition.
He laughs like crazy, throwing his head back and letting it all out.
HOW FRAIL. HUMANS. SO WORTHLESS!
ôAh shaddup. I'm tired of this shit. First the LADY...and now what? You? HUH? Yeah.....I can tell. You're just like the LADY, aren't you? YOU FREAK?ö
IGNORANT LITTLE MORTAL. I AM TO THE LADY AS SHE IS TO YOU.
The man throws up. The voice he hears now is sickening him. He can feel it. Every word it speaks is twisting his insides around.
What comes out is blood and vomit. No maggots. Not anywhere.
All those that came out before....are dead. Every single one.
He takes a breath again, tasting the bitterness in his mouth.
ôSo what? YOU ARE THE SAME!ö
The voice does not answer immediately.
Instead the space in front of him...dies. It is as if reality rotting away in front of him. The sound of escaping air. A sudden push as the air is stopped.
And then he sees it.
There is no way to describe it. It is like the LADY.
Something that could not possible have been born in this universe.
One thing....one thing alone he can name.
The crown.
The thing wears a crown of some sort.
A crown of nothingness.....no....more like it wears the absence of a crown.
That is the type of being it is.
And he realizes something, as his mind if destroyed once again by the view of another Outsider. Even though he can no longer remember his name or which country he is in. Even though all that remains of his memory is a flash of scrambling maggots and bloody lips and that crown that is not there.
That thing....as monstrous as it is.....is her enemy.
And the enemy of my enemy may be useful.
FINALLY. NOW SERVE ME.
He is ready....but....there is one last thought, one last hope, one last shred of humanity remaining.
And so he must ask.
ôWhy...do you oppose her?ö
YOUR DEATH IS OUR GAME. MY MOVE WAS THE FIRST. ALL OTHERS MUST BE HINDERED.
Another realization.
Maybe it is madness, maybe it is the influence of the uncrowned one in front of him, but he understands.
The destruction of his reality....is their game. The one that kills all life....wins. The uncrowned one had been granted the first move of the game. But now the LADY was on the move.
The other players had failed but the LADY.....the LADY was dangerously close to succeeding. She would bring herself into this universe. Would become one with all life...and tear it with her into unreality soon after.
So she had to be stopped.
Because the uncrowned ones move was slow, oh so very slow.
But then it was a sure kill.
ENTROPY. END. DEATH.
Yes....its gift was the first one, the first move against this universe.
It had been nothing less but a proclamation of doom from the very first moment. It was the most cruel move one could have made.
With a single move it had taken all hope from this universe before anyone had even understood what was going on.
For all that it was worth...he should hate it more than even the LADY.
But......Entropy was slow.
The End could be prolonged.
Death could be opposed by new Life.
So....there was no choice.
YES. NOW SERVE. MY VICTORY MUST BE SECURED.
Again he dies.
The uncrowned one too, does not understand humans.
Again he is reborn.
The uncrowned one is gone.
He stands up.
The black veins on his left hand are gone. The blood is gone. Everything is gone.
The puppet-priest's time is free once again.
ôNow....come, the time of your delightful struggling is over. The LADY has been waiting for so long after a....ö
It stops in mid-sentence.
Only now does it realize that its surroundings have changed.
The maggots are dead.
That's its biggest clue.
The next one is the hand that pierces its chest.
ôUnfortunately....the LORD has been waiting longer.ö
The hand is withdrawn and the puppet-priest falls to the ground. The hole in its chest is bleeding black.
ôWhat....did you do?ö
He glares at it and it turns silent.
ôFollow me.ö
When he walks it obeys instantly. Without regard to its own will.
He reaches a hole in the wall.
The house they are in is at least a hundred meters tall.
It suits his needs perfectly.
When he puts his hand against the cold concrete and speaks the words he knows that it will obey.
WALK
Because now, he speaks for the uncrowned one, the one that rules.
The Earth shakes as the building tears free of the ground.
He turns around to the puppet-priest behind him and smirks.
Golden Veins, Golden Teeth, Golden Eyes.
ôAre you happy now, Monster? Now I too serve!ö
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He falls hard.
The cold concrete does nothing to soften his landing. A pained moan escapes him before he can stop it, its sound strangely loud and alien to him in this place.
Lying on the floor with a trickle of blood running from his nose, he waits for a few seconds, desperately trying to hear if his pursuers have noticed him.
Nothing.
He can not even hear the soft treading of their feet. They must be too far away for him to notice.
A flicker of hope arises and he slowly pulls himself up.
If they have truly lost his trail.....he might be able to get away from them.
Slowly he tries to raise, careful to not use his left hand, the black veins that run along it pulsing dangerously.
The moment he finally gets on all fours, his breath is stopped. As if someone had shut down his entire body, he can feel his heart stop beating. Flesh and Blood simply....freeze in time. The air becomes a coffin of steel, unyielding and unmoving, his thoughts are...crippled....neurons caught in mid-thought. Like an insect caught in amber.
And yet....yet he can feel the sudden cold that invades his body from his stomach upwards. He can feel it as it freezes its way through his innards, icy legs trampling all over his inner organs, ice cold chitin gliding through his veins...
The moment he realizes his mistake it is too late.
Time is returned to his body. Oxygen is not.
He heaves and retches, his body trembling as he fights against the things that have invaded his body.
Blood leaks from his nose and finally he puts his shaking fingers into his mouth...and pulls. Blood flows out...and with it do the insects. He throws them up, dozens at a time, wiggling, jerking. Most of them are colored bright red by his blood but he continues to pull them out of himself.
Hundreds of them.
Hundreds of Maggots, wriggling beneath him, in that red colored sea that is his lifeblood. Spit and Blood are running from his mouth but he doesn't care.
He takes a feverish breath, still feeling the illusion of their disgusting bodies crawling through him.
Air fills his lungs again.
The sound of slow clapping destroys any joy he may have felt at finally being able to breath again.
When he turns around, one of his pursuers stands in the hallway of the abandoned building he took refuge in.
His smile shows black teeth in a pale face.
And all around black veins.
And the eyes are pure darkness. Nothing human remains in those eyes. All that remains is the completely alien mind that fills this puppet.
But the monstrous look of his pursuers does not terrify him, he has seen them far too often already. But....this one....
ôYou are dead!ö
He whispers those words but the monster surely must be able to hear them as it begins to smile.
ôSuch...charming innocence. I see...why the LADY treasures you so.....ö
ôYOU...ARE....DEAD!ö
His whisper from before has turned into a shout. Rage is giving him the strength to stand up as he shouts.
ôI killed you myself...you goddamn monster!ö
The puppet laughs. It laughs so hard and loud that he falls back on his ass again in shock...and disgust as with every bark of laughter, maggots fly from its mouth, staining the floor in front of it.
He can only stare at the macabre sight of its laughter till it finally regains its calm.
ôYes.....yes you did that splendidly....such rage, such hatred. It was a cunning plan. I must admit....I admired the mind twisted enough to come up with such a plan such as yours. You killed me spendidly, yes.....ö
The puppets grins at him, again showing its black teeth.
ôBut I serve the LADY, and so....Death may not touch me. After all....you can not kill what was never alive in the first place.ö
Again it grins and then its head explodes, black blood and white maggots flying everywhere.
The headless corpse falls to the ground, crushing some maggots as it does so.
ôTarget eliminated, prepare yourself for evacuation HIEROPHANT.ö
The voice echoes through the empty building. The man however is still staring at the corpse in front of him, his face stuck in an expression of satisfaction and hatred. He does not replay to the sniper.
ôHIEROPHANT? Do you copy me? HIERO..WHA!ö
Through the connection the voice of the sniper can be heard, yelling at someone.
It takes only a second.
The next thing he hears is the sound of flesh tearing, blood exploding outwards and of thousands of little legs crawling on cold concrete.
ôSplendid.ö
He can hear the word clearly.
But it should be impossible.
Because the mouth that speaks those words does not exist anymore.
Because the head that it belonged to, is nothing but a gooey mass on the floor.
Because the lips that speak those words are a mass of wriggling maggots, gushing blood and pale scraps of skin.
Yet....yet he can hear the words that are spoken. He can watch with his very own eyes as the dead puppet is returned to its mockery of a life.
ôTo have survived this long against us....the priests of the LADY......and even while fleeing....you were able to coordinate your assassins......SPLENDID....I can see why the LADY desires you as her sacred mate!ö
ôSHUT UP!ö His horror at the the puppets resurrection is pushed aside after hearing those words.
Instead....another horror raises up from within his memories.
A memory of shivering insects, of lips full of blood and.....a touch....so utterly wrong....so utterly alien.....so terribly sweet.
A single touch of the LADY.
A touch that did not understand humans.
His head split, his bones crushed, his blood burned.
A touch that was not even capable of holding them.
His soul dispersed, his mind torn apart, his very self turned into a mockery of itself.
And yet.....
The Puppet laughs again.
ôYes.....do you remember....her TOUCH? Her.....love?ö
A wave of heat, of disgusting arousal fills his body at the memory of his meeting with the LADY.
ôstop....it.....don't...make...me...REMEMBER!ö
ôYou resist...so splendidly....but you must know....that in the end it is useless. You can not defy the LADY. You are her chosen mate. You shall lie with her. You shall teach her passion. And when you reach the end, when you show her the final, absolute height of pleasure, she will know life. For the first time the LADY will KNOW. In that moment the LADY shall become one with all life.ö
His mind is racing through the fantasy the puppet-priest creates in his mind. The thought alone nearly tears him apart. Blood starts to flow from his ears too as the heat fills his body.
The Priest grins at him again, his head fully regenerated.
Black Veins, Black Teeth, Black Eyes.
ôAnd when that moment ends.....so shall all life!ö
That is right.....if he is caught....all that awaits the universe.....is death.
A quick, painless death by the plan of something not of this universe.
If asked to, he would not be able to describe the LADY, even though he could remember her so well.
More proof that he was already crazy.
No one could gaze upon something as wrong as a total outsider like the LADY and remain unscathed.
And now....now the end had come.
The puppet-priest was still smiling at him but the outcome was now sealed. He would be brought before the LADY.
And it would all end.
IS THAT OKAY?
Everything would simply...cease to be.
HOW PATHETIC!
And all it would take was quick and dirty fuck.
HOW DISGRACEFUL!
It was goddamn ridiculous.
HOW LONG DO YOU PLAN TO IGNORE ME MORTAL?
Laughter bubbles up from within.
When he sees the puppet-priest frozen in time he loses all inhibition.
He laughs like crazy, throwing his head back and letting it all out.
HOW FRAIL. HUMANS. SO WORTHLESS!
ôAh shaddup. I'm tired of this shit. First the LADY...and now what? You? HUH? Yeah.....I can tell. You're just like the LADY, aren't you? YOU FREAK?ö
IGNORANT LITTLE MORTAL. I AM TO THE LADY AS SHE IS TO YOU.
The man throws up. The voice he hears now is sickening him. He can feel it. Every word it speaks is twisting his insides around.
What comes out is blood and vomit. No maggots. Not anywhere.
All those that came out before....are dead. Every single one.
He takes a breath again, tasting the bitterness in his mouth.
ôSo what? YOU ARE THE SAME!ö
The voice does not answer immediately.
Instead the space in front of him...dies. It is as if reality rotting away in front of him. The sound of escaping air. A sudden push as the air is stopped.
And then he sees it.
There is no way to describe it. It is like the LADY.
Something that could not possible have been born in this universe.
One thing....one thing alone he can name.
The crown.
The thing wears a crown of some sort.
A crown of nothingness.....no....more like it wears the absence of a crown.
That is the type of being it is.
And he realizes something, as his mind if destroyed once again by the view of another Outsider. Even though he can no longer remember his name or which country he is in. Even though all that remains of his memory is a flash of scrambling maggots and bloody lips and that crown that is not there.
That thing....as monstrous as it is.....is her enemy.
And the enemy of my enemy may be useful.
FINALLY. NOW SERVE ME.
He is ready....but....there is one last thought, one last hope, one last shred of humanity remaining.
And so he must ask.
ôWhy...do you oppose her?ö
YOUR DEATH IS OUR GAME. MY MOVE WAS THE FIRST. ALL OTHERS MUST BE HINDERED.
Another realization.
Maybe it is madness, maybe it is the influence of the uncrowned one in front of him, but he understands.
The destruction of his reality....is their game. The one that kills all life....wins. The uncrowned one had been granted the first move of the game. But now the LADY was on the move.
The other players had failed but the LADY.....the LADY was dangerously close to succeeding. She would bring herself into this universe. Would become one with all life...and tear it with her into unreality soon after.
So she had to be stopped.
Because the uncrowned ones move was slow, oh so very slow.
But then it was a sure kill.
ENTROPY. END. DEATH.
Yes....its gift was the first one, the first move against this universe.
It had been nothing less but a proclamation of doom from the very first moment. It was the most cruel move one could have made.
With a single move it had taken all hope from this universe before anyone had even understood what was going on.
For all that it was worth...he should hate it more than even the LADY.
But......Entropy was slow.
The End could be prolonged.
Death could be opposed by new Life.
So....there was no choice.
YES. NOW SERVE. MY VICTORY MUST BE SECURED.
Again he dies.
The uncrowned one too, does not understand humans.
Again he is reborn.
The uncrowned one is gone.
He stands up.
The black veins on his left hand are gone. The blood is gone. Everything is gone.
The puppet-priest's time is free once again.
ôNow....come, the time of your delightful struggling is over. The LADY has been waiting for so long after a....ö
It stops in mid-sentence.
Only now does it realize that its surroundings have changed.
The maggots are dead.
That's its biggest clue.
The next one is the hand that pierces its chest.
ôUnfortunately....the LORD has been waiting longer.ö
The hand is withdrawn and the puppet-priest falls to the ground. The hole in its chest is bleeding black.
ôWhat....did you do?ö
He glares at it and it turns silent.
ôFollow me.ö
When he walks it obeys instantly. Without regard to its own will.
He reaches a hole in the wall.
The house they are in is at least a hundred meters tall.
It suits his needs perfectly.
When he puts his hand against the cold concrete and speaks the words he knows that it will obey.
WALK
Because now, he speaks for the uncrowned one, the one that rules.
The Earth shakes as the building tears free of the ground.
He turns around to the puppet-priest behind him and smirks.
Golden Veins, Golden Teeth, Golden Eyes.
ôAre you happy now, Monster? Now I too serve!ö