dangerous vision

I was watching a toad sitting on a lily pad.  He was on the large painting hanging on the wall. It was a dark gloomy nighttime picture. There were ominous tress stretching out their limbs towards the sky like souls reaching out from the underworld in the background, and at the bottom, in between the trees, was a tiny little cottage, barely visible. A peculiar little cottage.
I watched it. The way the artist had so perfectly hidden it in between the trees was great.
I wanted to see the cottage. Be the cottage.
And then I was flying right at it.
Just the light. No more thoughts.
Just light.
It was pulling me in like a magnetic field, like an imaginary tractor beam.
I felt nothing but the light from the window.
Not one other thing.
Except for the hunger.
I was hungry, so very hungry, like I had never been before.
I was craving blood. Live, rich, nutritious, juicy, tasty human blood. I could smell it now.
Coming from the cottage.
And then...
Bang!
I crashed into an invisible power. There was nothing there, and yet, I had smacked right into it.
Head first. And it hurt.
Bad.
There was nothing to do really.
Except.
Try it again.

I shook my head vigorously, startled by the images that had just gone through my mind. I walked over to my small refrigerator to get myself a beer. When I turned around, my cat, furball, was on my wooden table, next to my plate.
Eating my sandwich!
Get out of here, I screamed.
I was hungry and that was my sandwich.
But the dumb cat kept on gnawing away at my sandwich. So I  took the beer bottle and through at him.
The cat screamed loudly and dashed toward the door. I let him out but not before kicking him once with my boot.

I sat down at my seat again, and took a sip of my beer. I turned to the painting. There was a full moon to the top left that I hadn’t noticed before. It was also hidden behind the trees. The moon was illuminating the pond. A few dark clouds were hovering at the top, just past the reach of the trees. There edges were glowing bluish-green from the moonlight shining behind them. The moon gave the picture it’s light. Only the tiny little cottage in the forest, had light of its own.
It was coming from a tiny window.

And then that big fat toad again. The protagonist of the picture. On a lily pad. Do really toads sit on lily pads?
I didn’t know.
I focused on the picture, felt the picture.  I closed my eyes and stretched out with all my consciousness towards the toad, and then I was in the picture.
And I was the toad.
Croak. Croak. Croak. I was the toad. And once I was the toad, I could do nothing else other than.
Croak, croak, croak.
That’s because that’s all that toads do.
They croak.
Or they eat.
I saw a mosquito buzzing nearby. It was a large female and it had surely just feasted on one of the humans in the little wooden cottage, which was somewhere in that creepy forest, 50 yards away from my pond.
I wanted to eat the mosquito. I wanted to eat it badly.
So I stopped croaking, and I cocked my tongue.
The little mosquito buzzed by. Close.
But not close enough.
My body was rippling with tension, my tongue ready to burst out and get the juicy little bloodsucking vampire demon. Ready to crunch it’s wings and head and feel the human blood ooze into my mouth.
And here it came.
Buzzing...
Closer, closer...
And zap, I got him.

And again I was at my wooden table, sitting on my creaky wooden chair. Such a peculiar painting. The forest behind the pond was pitch black in many places. Only the outstretched tree limbs could be seen, visible only in contrast to the slightly lighter backdrop of the sky that was brightened by the moon.
Those writhing branches were the only things you could see back there.
Except for the cottage.
Just black and the cottage.
I wanted to know what was in that blackness. There was more to black than met the eye.
I stared at the black.
And stared.
And then it wasn’t so black anymore. Everything was greenish blue and I could see...
Everything.
I scurried over tree roots and in between trees. I ran and jumped over dead braches and stones with incredible speed and agility, bursting through the forest in an incredible rage. Just running.
Running for the sake of running. I ran in circles, up and down trees, everywhere. Over little creeks and ditches, crashing into mushrooms and shrubs.
I did this for a long time. Eventually, I noticed I was going slightly uphill through the blue green forest.
But that didn’t matter. I felt I would never tire. I pushed off with my legs, threw my arms in front of me, landed on them, retracted my legs and kicked hard into the mushy, dead-leaf earth, once again projecting myself forward at incredible speeds. I was hungry.
So very hungry.
And then I smelt something good. Something tasty.
Meaty, fleshy, bloody.
It was coming from the cave.
A dark cave. So dark, I couldn’t see anything. Just black.
But the smell. So good, so fleshy, so juicy. Somehow familiar. Maybe a pig.
I entered the cave.
Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly...
One step at a time. Ready to turn around. Ready to run. Ready to... 
I smelled something else now, mixed with the good smell. Something not so good. Something damp and moist, something smelly, something alive.
And now I heard it breathing. Slow, deep, monotonous, breaths. Powerful wet sticky breaths. It was something big.
Something very big.
And then oh so much Fear. Deep profound instinctive fear.
I ran like I’d seen a ghost. I ran down the slope so much faster than I’d run up it. I ran as fast as I could.
Finally, after a while, I turned around and listened.
Nothing.
I caught my breath and walked around a bit, wondering what to do, where to go. I was still hungry.
So very hungry.
So I decided to go back.
The big thing was sleepy. It had already eaten.
And indeed, when I got back to the cave, the thing was now snoring.
So I sneaked in as quietly as I could and started eating from the corpse. It was a crazy thing to do, I know. But boy did it taste good! The best meat ever. Not too bloody, not too tough, not too soft, not too dry.
Just perfect.




The picture was driving me nuts. What was going on here? Was I dreaming? And that blasted Toad! I hated it now. It had a big yellow eye and it seemed to be staring right at me.
What are you looking at Toad? I asked.
There was no response.
Toad, I said angrily. What are you looking at with that big yellow jellybean eye of yours?
The toad said nothing. I looked at his mouth.
Was that a smile? The toad didn’t have any lips, but the seam that separated his jaw from his face seemed to be curled slightly upwards.
Was that an actual real life toad smile? Was the toad laughing at me?
Are you laughing at me toad, I screamed in rage, holding my beer in my hand, ready to toss it at him.

And then I was the toad again, sitting on a lily pad.
Croak, croak, croak.
That’s what I said, because that’s all that toads ever toads ever say.
Except...
When they see a female toad.
Now I stopped croaking.
There she was. A large round sexy female toad swimming in the water. Not too far away from me. She was twice my size and she had beautiful skin. It was green and slimy, without the slightest imperfection. Perfect, wet amphibian skin. So slippery, so wet. The moonlight was reflecting on the beautiful toadess as she elegantly swam through the pond power, kicking her massive sex hind legs only every once in a while, the little drops of body water rolling off her perfect body. Had she responded to my Croak?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
But I didn’t care. I wanted the toadess and I would have her. I would get me that big slippery amphibian body if it were the last thing I would do.
Oh yes, I would have her.
Now. Right now.
Even if it were my last toad feat.
And with one gigantic leap, I crashed head first into the water.
And boy did it feel good. I had been on that lily pad too long.
Now, where was my toadess?

I had to get away from that picture. I finished my sandwich and turned off the light. Tomorrow was an important day and I needed some rest. I took all my clothes off and crawled into my bed. I closed my eyes and tried to think of something pleasant. Beautiful women. That always worked. I saw lots of them; in bikinis, strolling down the beach, swimming carelessly. Wind blowing. Waves crashing. Long legs. Nice skin.
And then I heard it.
Croak! Croak! Croak!
The toad! I pulled my blanket over my ears. I tried to ignore it, but it wouldn’t go away.
Croak! Croak! Croak.
The toad wouldn’t stop croaking.
In fact, he seemed to be having a great time. He kept croaking, always in faster and faster intervals, louder and louder,
Croak, Croak, Croak, Croak...
Please toad, I screamed. Just go away!
But he wouldn’t stop.
Croak, Croak, Croak...
And then it was enough! I jumped out of bed and grabbed my gun. I was going to kill that toad, and if was the last thing I was going to do.  And besides my cat, furball, she was still outside, I didn’t want to leave her alone all night.I dashes outside wearing nothing. It was cold.
But I didn’t mind.
Kill the toad. Kill him.
That’s all that mattered. And he wasn’t hard to find in the little pond, croaking like a maniac, riding a toadess into ecstasy.
Croak, croak, croak.
I loaded my semiautomatic rifle gun and with a sly smile, aimed and said: Good-bye toad. I shot six shots into the water. It was incredibly loud and the sound echoed into the night.
I smiled contentedly.
No more toad.
I turned around to leave, but then, I heard it again.
Croak, Croak, croak...
What!?
Die Toad Die! I yelled as loud as I could, pouring every last bullet into the pond. The water was gushing and spraying in all directions.
Click.
The cartridge was empty. I sighed and listened tentatively.
No more croaking.
Ha! I said triumphantly. That’s what you get toad! That’ll teach you.
I listened one more time to make sure he was gone. He was. But then I heard something else.
Something deep, low and moist. Like breathing. Big powerful breaths.
I hardly had time to react, I was swept up by my feet by an immensely powerful creature. It grabbed me around my thighs, its teeth were already sinking deep into my flesh. I was öocked between his jaws.
I winced in pain and anguish.
But there was nothing I could do. Nothing to do but wait for death.
And wait I did.
A long time.
I begged the animal to just finish me off but he wouldn’t. He just kept my body clamped between his powerful jaws as he panted on me running uphill. A terribly smelly smell was coming from its throat and stomach.
I hated the idea of having to go down there.
The animal carried me a long way through the forest, around trees, up a slope and into something so black, so dark, I assumed it must me be hell.
Here the creature lay me down and, finally, I was released.
And he began to eat me.