Katrina couldn’t sleep. It had only been a couple of days since the building she worked in burned down and still the events of that day troubled her and filled her mind with so many thoughts that she could hardly sleep. Of course, it wasn’t specifically the fire that kept her mind racing, it was the voice she had begun hearing that day. The voice that had offered to help her get out of a meeting. The voice that, once she’d agreed to accept its offered help, had somehow set the building on fire, triggering the alarm, and getting her out of her meeting. Thankfully no one had died or been injured.

In exchange for helping her, the voice asked her to care for the strange purple flower that had begun growing in her front yard. Who or what the voice was, she didn’t know. She’d been looking online for any clues as to what it might be but so far she’d come up empty.

For now, she took care of the plant and waited nervously for when the voice would speak to her again. As the voice had instructed, she’d dug up the flower and placed into a flower pot and been feeding it curdled milk. The smell wasn’t terribly bad, but it was also only the second night since shed begun caring for it. She hoped it would grow quickly so she could be done with it soon.

YOU ARE TROUBLED, the voice broke into her mind.

Katrina stiffened in her bed. The voice hadn’t spoken to her since that day and she wasn’t expecting to hear from it again until either the flower was ready or it had another favor to ask of her. She’d already decided she didn’t want to start relying on the voice for help, considering the sort of solution it had provided last time.

“I just can’t sleep,” Katrina said, trying to downplay her fears.

YOU CAN’T, the voice said knowingly, BECAUSE YOU ARE TROUBLED.

“Yeah, well, having your job burned down tends to have that effect on people,” Katrina snapped back.

HAS IT EFFECTED YOUR ABILITY TO WORK?

“No,” Katrina muttered begrudgingly.

Truth was, she had found the last couple of days to be among her most productive as far as work was concerned. She already ran her department primarily through email so everyone beneath her was able to begin working from home without losing any efficiency. The real bonus came in the form of not having her workday constantly interrupted by pointless meetings. Sure, she had spent the first day sorting out new shipping schedules and routes while the fire damage was assessed and repaired, but there were always warehouses for rent that could take the place of their main building for the time being.

I CAN HELP YOU GET BACK INTO YOUR OFFICE, the voice offered.

“No, it’s fine,” Katrina insisted. “They’ll get it all fixed in good time.”

It was quiet, and yet somehow Katrina knew the voice was still there, still aware of her and probing her thoughts. It was an eerie sensation, a sort of gentle buzzing in the back of her mind. She tried not to think about how much it made her think of spiders crawling around the inside of her skull.

THERE IS WORK YOU CANNOT DO FROM HOME.

Katrina felt the buzzing in her mind intensify and then, as though bidden to the surface by the voice, thoughts of those packages she slipped into and out of the company shipments rose up. Without physical access to the warehouse and shipments she couldn’t adjust them in any way. It wasn’t too much of a problem. For now at least.

WHAT HAPPENS IF THIS GOES ON FOR TOO LONG?

That was the same question she had been worrying about even before the voice came to her that night.

“I’ll lose some clients,” Katrina said while trying to make it sound unimportant. “I’ve already notified them about the fire so they’ll have to either hold onto their packages for now or find some other way of shipping them.”

YOU HAVE A VERY NICE HOUSE, the voice observed.

Katrina didn’t respond. She wasn’t sure what sort of reaction the voice was trying to get from her anyway. Was it threatening her?

“How long do I need to take care of this flower?” she asked instead, trying to steer the conversation back into a more comfortable area.

UNTIL IT BLOOMS AND WILTS, the voice said. THEN THE SEEDS WILL BE READY AND YOUR WORK WITH IT WILL BE DONE.

“Any idea how long that will be?”

AT LEAST ONE FULL CYCLE OF THE MOON.

“Great,” Katrina sighed.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU NEED FROM ME?

Katrina rolled over onto her side to stare at the far wall. The shadows cast through the window were often fascinating, snaking and shifting as the branches outside her window waved in the nightly breeze. This time, however, the wall was almost completely black. At first she thought there must be no moon that night but then she saw the organic twists and turns within the darkness that hinted at an anatomy.

She screamed and leapt up in her bed, scurrying away to the far corner of the mattress.

DO NOT BE FRIGHTENED, the voice told her as the shadows knotted themselves into impossible shapes.

“What are you?” Katrina gasped.

The form before her was almost painful to look at. Her eyes began to water from the strain and the buzzing in her skull began to feel less like insect feet and more like so many needles.

I’VE TOLD YOU BEFORE, the voice said, YOU CANNOT COMPREHEND WHAT I AM.

“Try me,” Katrina pressed anxiously.

She needed something, anything, to help her make sense of this thing. It reminded her of her drawing from the other day, and yet just as a drawing can never really capture the reality of a thing, so too had her drawing failed to fully depict the horror of the thing in her room.

I AM THE WISHING AND THE FULFILLING OF WISHES, the voice said. I AM DESIRE AND GRATIFICATION. I AM WANT AND FULFILLMENT. I AM THE HUNGER AND THE AMBITION. I AM THE FEAR FOR THE UNKNOWN. I AM THAT WHICH HOLDS YOU BACK. I AM THAT WHICH DRIVES YOU ONWARD.

“But those are just feelings,” Katrina said. “Are you saying you’re the source of all those things?”

NO, the voice said. THESE ARE MERELY APPROXIMATIONS, ATTEMPTS TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM. I DO NOT CREATE THOSE THINGS, RATHER I AM COMPRISED OF THEM. YOUR BLANKET IS MADE OF CLOTH, BUT THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT THE SOURCE OF ALL CLOTH.

“I can see you though,” Katrina stated, you must be made of something.”

WHAT YOU SEE IS JUST MY IMPRINT UPON YOUR UNIVERSE, the voice explained, SOMETHING MORE AKIN TO A SHADOW THAN MY ACTUAL FORM. INTERESTING THOUGH THAT YOU CAN SEE EVEN THIS. MOST DO NOT.

“Are you trying to get into this universe?” Katrina asked, terrified by such a potential reality.

There was silence for a time and the thing inside her room continued to writhe and squirm before her. Her head ached from the strain of looking at it for so long but she still didn’t dare take her eyes off of it. Somehow, she knew that if she did, it would turn into something even more horrible. It was like staring down an angry dog who would only attack if you turned your back on it.

At last, the shadows faded into their usual shapes and the buzzing in her mind ceased. The strain of her brief interaction left her drained and shaking. She broke out into a cold sweat and for a long time she just lied there on her bed quivering.

She still didn’t know much about what the voice was, but she knew one thing for certain now. There was no way she was going to continue taking care of the plant. She was too weak to get up and throw it out just then, but she set her mind to doing it first thing in the morning.

With that last thought, sleep finally swept over her.