My ribs creaked under the pressure of the invisible hand that suddenly grasped me from above. Though I struggled, the Great One—whatever malefic thing it may have been—had a grip on me that no man could have broken! I thrashed in vain to break free while some queer energy pulsed from the invisible manus, tearing me from the physical world into somewhere deeper and far more sinister. As my consciousness faded, I could have sworn I heard the voice of that wretched man-spider, Patches.
"Oh Amygdala, oh Amygdala..." his cackling voice resounded in my mind. "Have mercy on the poor bastard..."
***
Starting awake from a sharp pain in my side, a creeping dread settled upon me. I knew not my surroundings, nor the nature of the shadows that skittered at the edge of my vision. A dull, sallow light filled the musty air. Even though I was outside, the thick scent of mildew filled my nostrils, stirred up from the dirt and dust beneath me with every movement. My eyes focused and I surveyed my surroundings with renewed curiosity and fear.
Walls, hewn of basalt yet ornately carved, surrounded me in a wide ring. At the far end of the arena-like expanse stood a towering obelisk, each inch covered in hieroglyphs depicting some malign being of colossal evil being worshiped by a host of thralls. Before my mind could comprehend the meaning of the aeons-old symbolism, the creature emerged.
Leaping over the wall, it landed with an earth-shaking tremor. Each foot-fall seemed a funerary toll, declaring the end of my journey as it drew inevitably closer. A towering beast, the being known as Amygdala stood before me. Easily twenty feet tall, its body was at once withered and shriveled, but full of alien vitality. The skin was pachydermal and pitch-black, with spurs and clumps of coarse hair at irregular intervals. Four menacing arms sprouted from the thing's massive back, but most distressing of all was its head. Resembling something of a morel mushroom, the Amygdala's head looked like a lattice hewn from an over-sized almond, filled with a trembling black goo.
It stood over me now, my body paralyzed by fear—or perhaps out of some instinctual attempt at self-preservation. Gobs of a thick, gray mucous dripped from its vacuous head as it positioned itself over me. One hand slashed across my body in a flash, leaving naught but tatters of my garb. Another hand held me down with ease, its massive palm covering my chest and pressing me roughly to the ground.
I heard the Amygdala rumble with what could only be described at contemptuous amusement. The sound of more fluid hitting the dry ground directed my attention near my ankles which were between the creature's gnarled feet. Matching the fluid leaking from the Amygdala's head was further discharge from its monstrous nether region, though I dared not look!
It was at that moment that I remembered the old adage: Every Great One loses its child, and then yearns for a surrogate.
I wondered if this creature wished to make me its child, yet when the being's massive hips descended towards my exposed lower half, I realized that instead she was not satisfied to give up her quest for offspring just yet.