I/ The TikTok Lady’s Meditation

Family reunions are an invention of the Antichrist. But family reunions that last 10 days are literally the eighth circle of hell.

Here I am, stuck without Wi-Fi in the middle of nowhere in Kent in a boring house, full of boring adults, and the only person roughly my age is my boring cousin.

It’s not that Charles is a bad person, but he always carries crystals and “magic” pebbles in his pockets. He hugs trees, he’s convinced he’s the reincarnation of some old Greek man in a toga, in short, he’s a bit off his rocker. So, I have to admit, when he told me tonight:

“I saw a TikTok of a powerful medium who explains how to open your third eye, to see behind the invisible veil and distinguish the spirits and forces of the universe,”

well, I wasn’t exactly blown away.

“Apparently it’s super easy. You just have to practice for 10 minutes a day for a week. Come on, let’s do it!”

I strongly resist the urge to roll my eyes. I sigh softly and then agree. In this house with no cell service or TV, if we manage to see spirits, I hope at least they’ll do something entertaining because we still have eight days to go.

There we are in the dark, sitting on garden chairs, watching this powerful medium who apparently has nothing better to do than film TikToks. Charles is super focused and nods his head from time to time as if she’s preaching universal truths. Okay, we won’t lie, she’s got a face you just want to slap and she spouts a load of nonsense every second, but after two days of being bored stiff, well, I’ll take it.

Okay, here we go. Charles taps his screen again and the TikToker’s voice fills the silence.

“Get comfortable outside, and what I want you to do is look into the darkness.”

OK

“Relax your eyes and just stare into the darkness.”

But, damn it, how do you relax your eyes?!

“Keep looking. Focus on relaxing. Focus on your breathing.”

Okay, fine, I can do that.

“While you’re at it, pretend your heart has nostrils and breathe through this imaginary nose on your heart.”

I glance at my cousin, expecting him to laugh too, but instead, he’s super focused. Well, I don’t want to offend my only companion in misfortune for the week, so I take a deep breath, choose a direction to stare in the darkness, and try my best to relax my eyes while breathing from my heart.

At the end of the interminable 10 minutes, Charles happily discusses the experience. He says he’s sure he can already feel a change in his chakra, his karma, his aura. I didn’t really listen.

II/ The Kaleidoscopic Pain

For the next three evenings, we repeated the exercise. I have to admit, it’s not so unpleasant after all. Every day, it becomes easier to relax and control my breathing. I’m starting to understand what people appreciate about meditation. Especially since, on top of being stuck here, I’ve had a terrible migraine for the past few days, and these moments of relaxation are the only times I don’t feel like banging my head against the wall.

I’ve had migraines since childhood, and migraines with aura are the worst. As if the throbbing pain weren’t enough, I also get this kind of luminous kaleidoscope that takes up all the space in front of my eyes.

To get some respite, I do the breathing exercise several times a day. It doesn’t change much about the auras, but it effectively relieves my pain while I meditate. Finally, thanks, Charles, for watching TikTok.

This morning the pain is still just as intense, but the auras are different. They don’t really overlap everything I see anymore. It’s strange; I still see everything through a kaleidoscope, but it’s much lighter. Only certain areas are intensely colored and constantly shifting. Usually, the luminous shapes follow the movement of the eyes, like when you stare too long at a lightbulb and can see the point of light in front of you when you blink. Here, the affected areas are independent of my eye movements. Some are motionless in the middle of the room, and the most intense ones are around people.

The pills I usually take are clearly not effective enough, and the pain is keeping me awake. My only source of relief is the breathing exercises I now do for several hours a day. Still through the blinding pain, the areas of luminous kaleidoscope have gradually become clearer shapes.

III/ They Appeared

It was on the seventh day that I began to see them clearly. I staggered downstairs for breakfast, and as I entered the kitchen, I let out a scream that seemed to rip my skull apart. Clinging to half my aunt’s face and torso was some kind of enormous, scarlet, slimy larva. I was paralyzed with fear. The pain pierced my forehead.

My aunt, worried, rushed towards me, and ugh, the horrible, oozing creature, still attached to her, swayed with every step like a disgusting rag doll. A violent urge to vomit overwhelmed me. I fell to my knees and… nothing.

I woke up in my bed. For a few seconds, suspended between sleep and wakefulness, I thought I’d had a nightmare, but when I opened my eyes, nausea shook my heart again. My mother, my aunt, my uncle, my uncle, and a man I don’t know are all gathered around my bed. They all have the same disgusting creatures clinging to their faces, torsos, and sides.

My ears are ringing, and I’m clutching my mouth with both hands to keep from screaming and vomiting. I honestly don’t know which one would come out first. I stare wide-eyed at these enormous, bloated larvae, dripping with a thick, snotty fluid that no one else seems to see or smell, wriggling with every movement of my family members. The man I don’t know is apparently a doctor. I can’t concentrate on what he’s saying, horrified by his enormous, slimy parasite, which is barely moving with a rhythmic, breathing motion.

After that, I was dragged from hospital to hospital, from CT scan to MRI. Dozens of doctors, but no treatment relieves my pain. Only breathing exercises offer me a few moments of respite.

The creatures are everywhere, not just on people, but on walls, animals, the ground… When they aren’t attached to living beings, they crawl listlessly in search of a host. The tip of their slimy bodies is a kind of giant mouth from which grotesque and sickening sucking noises escape.

The more days pass, the more I remain secluded in my room. I meditate for about ten hours a day to calm the migraine. As the weeks go by, the reality I’ve always known slowly gives way to a viscous world.

My family members are now nothing more than dimly lit kaleidoscope shapes until the day, which I know is near, when they will disappear completely from my sight, leaving me alone in a swamp of organic, oozing, scarlet flesh.

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I’m not quite sure what to call this part of the article. “Debunking,” “explanation”? I just wanted to explain where I got the idea for the story.

Unfortunately, I lost the link, but the “Magic TikTok” post is by a real TikToker, and her speech is quoted verbatim. Yes, “Nostrils on the heart”—those are indeed her words. I’m being a bit sarcastic, but she really made me laugh. As for the idea of ​​the larvae, it’s just that while jogging, I came across some slugs, and combining the two gave me this story idea.

Hugs and kisses! See you soon.