Free Glitch by Curtis Hox Page A

I cross the Void and give myself. I empty myself; I leave myself. I cross the Void and give myself. I empty myself; I leave myself ...” She heard her mother repeating the mantra, and she said the words her parents used to visit the entities, and she prepared to meet her entities on their home turf. Pure mind, she’d heard her mother mention more than once. It was an experience everyone should have. But it was something you had to resist, like too much chocolate.
    Simone danced and she spoke, and soon she was a dervish, and the world melted away. Yancey and Skippard Wellborn watched as the glowing form in the yard disappeared as if a light had gone out.
    * * *
    Simone awoke in the dark ... luminescent colors bubbled, and whispers echoed somehow tinged with the smell of cream and cinnamon. The first of the presences imbued her with itself. It was like being riddled with infinite filaments of energy, each one an individual with something to say.  
    We welcome you, Simone Lord, to our domain. We are many. You are one.
    She spoke a gargling noise that sounded as if she had a mouth full of Listerine. What are you? Are you the Lords of Order?
    The laughter was telluric and titanic all at once. The ground she imagined beneath her feet shook, rattling every fiber of her mind, as if the entire universe were being tickled by a cosmic feather.
    We are more. One voice emerged above the rest. We were with you. Our time to feel was denied. We are displeased. We wish to return again and feel your world of blood-flesh and bone. Open it to us now.
    Her mother had been explicit, and Simone remembered the words now floating in the back of her mind: “When they demand to come back with you, dear, like a child demanding more candy, tell them no. Tell them you’ll summon them when you need them—and be firm.”
    Simone denied their request, as her mother instructed, and she heard a sea of voices bubble up in protest as if each eddy in a shore of crashing waves complained.
    Her mother also told her: “Repeat your demand that they show you what they are. After you see, come back. Just come back. You’ll know how.”
    What are you? Show me.
    We are more. We are all. We are everything. We will show you one of us. We will show you the Yancey Lord’s favorite.
    Simone emerged out of her mind into a physical form. She exhaled outward as if a great wind left her body. She heard herself saying, oh my god, oh my god , oh my god , as a massive leg lifted as if from a sun god striding across a continent. The body that was hers contained other bodies, as if every cell was an individual with a voice speaking up, saying, “Hey, pay attention to me!” She commanded them to be quiet so that she could see. When she looked out of eyes that had to be as big as twin moons, she saw a vast landscape of mountains hanging upside down with tips touching other mountains.
    We are Myrmidon , she heard, and she recognized the name of her mother’s entity.
    But the collective being that allowed her access continued to stride, and she was carried along, as if she were the god-thing, and she wanted to forget about tiny, insignificant Simone Wellborn and lose herself for some time.
    What are you? she heard herself ask.
    We are all.
    She looked inward and saw a host of beings as numerous as the stars in the sky.
    She remembered the command of her mother: “Stop saying the words, dear, once you see.”
    * * *
    When Simone stopped mumbling her mantra, her dance slowed; she returned to the reality of the dark woods with the soft light on the porch of the cabin. The crushing weight of the world landed on her.
    I’m so small, she thought. She floated over to her family, trying not to feel overwhelmed by her insignificance.
    “So?” her mother asked.
    “I have no idea what they are,” she said. “But they’re big. I met Myrmidon. Still, I don’t ...”
    “Good,” her father said. “Your mother’s entity is ... emblematic. Besides, it doesn’t matter that we