I am Null

Taking one of these red paisley fronds and subtracting all embellishments, then proceeding to superimpose this atop a shadowy mound of blackness would serve as a glimpse into what the creature in my dream resembled.

If one were to take this smoke and congeal it seven-fold, then form it into an upper-tapered cylindrical mass and superimpose the red paisley frond above on it in accordance with the description provided, one might get an even closer glimpse into the appearance of the monster.

## Advanced Info

### Scenery and Places

Xorshaffe's Old Home and A White Plane; "Escher-land"

In my dream I was stationed in my old home whilst standing, in which I appeared to be alone doing so, for there were no other family members around at the time. What I did become aware of however was a vague uneasiness and the sensation of my peripheral vision darkening. This invoked in me a similar feeling to when I had walked to school with no gloves or coat on, (as was my devious custom I would walk a few paces once entering the woods near my home before taking off my coat and stuffing it in my backpack), in sub-zero to single-digit weather, and consequently, when I'd gotten to school the edges of my vision were blackened and veined in a most peculiar way. This was the sensation I was under now, where I felt a brooding presence that might arise any which way I looked.

I wandered cautiously into the next room, when out of the mirror came forth a conglomerate of smoke, ash, and blackened wind, which was blocking my path to the kitchen. I was taken aback, equally by the threat of endangerment as well by the appearance of the abomination. It had a face crinkly and wrinkled like an old leaf, but a body of velvet black skin that glistened in the sunlight shining from outside the kitchen window.

It swiveled it's head my way before saying in a voice scarcely audible on account of it's proximity to the lower threshold of human hearing: "I am null. The zeroes you cast daily, the nightmare you forget about the next day, the thought that you have but never express no matter how much you fancy you've just had it in your mouth a moment ago, words spoken to people that have disappeared long ago, songs of silence and symphonies of notes departed - I am null, and the vacuum that fills you when nothing else can". (While I'd like to fancy my memory is as pronounced as the great Shereshevsky's, the facts run contrary to this, and therefore it should come as only a minor surprise I improved slightly on the monologue of the eldritch caricature.)

With this I turned to run out the front door, but felt myself frozen as if behind ice when in my vision appeared swirling black vortexes. My sight remained the same but I could still move, and the effect was uncanny, like that of scrolling on a web-page but observing no perceptible difference in the location of the text on the page. I felt a cool embrace of the creature's body protruding out like a small growth on a cactus creating smaller visually similar version of itself, as it grabbed hold of my arm and dragged me backwards.

I awoke in a white plane, of which there appeared to be no end, and in the distance there were large black squares, which I realized formed a sort of checkerboard floor, and yonder which were doves, bees, and shapes impossible to realize in the real world without sacrificing the advantage of being able to view such a geometric paradox from all angles, (for these were objects such as triangular frames with all right angles and staircases on which you'd be always descending but never reaching any significant depth as you only went around in circles). I perceived I had been transported to a world full of Escher's creations, and reached out to touch a Möbius loop, when at once the dream ended.

**Dreamer: Xorshaffe**