Dark Ripples

by Richard King Perkins II

It hadn’t happened often in her millennia of existence, but Sondra was caught right now without a single defiance hanging nearby. Not surprisingly, it took time to pierce the outer layer of our mundane universe and tap into the dark ripples of power that lay beyond. She could feel the presence of the incubus following, its warped heat pressing on her no matter how quickly she moved.

Sondra began to urgently explore her ancient memory for the complex formulas needed to access the nearly mystical energies that awaited. She rejected Spray of the False Ego and decided on Shell of the Vagrant Soul. She calmed her thoughts and began to visualize the multi-dimensional sequences needed to tap into the malleable potency of the shrouded world. Her defiance began to form, vines of ether snaking from her pulsing aura to pass through the occult barrier.

Given her vulnerable circumstances, Sondra Thoene had distanced herself as far from human clusters as was possible. Her Shroud of Buoyant Leaves had carried her hundreds of miles in mere minutes, but that had exhausted itself days ago.

Still, the incubus pursued, and she had run and stumbled through the wilderness until this desperate moment. The energies she was plying were immense, but they had to be. To destroy an incubus was nearly impossible. The humans would find some way to explain what had happened. They always did. An asteroid, a natural gas explosion, Tesla’s death-ray.

Only Sondra and the very few others of her kind would know what had happened. Realizing her defiance would protect her and nothing else, she looked wistfully at the quiet Siberian forest. The incubus and eighty million innocent trees had only milliseconds to live.