Grimoire Volume 5

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It rifled through the coarse fabric of the bag with its left hand, grasping for shapes of interest. Its right hand gripped the soft bicep of the bag’s owner. The Unseen’s poor quarry squirmed. It made pathetic whimpering noises punctuated by worried nasal exhalations. The Unseen did not concern itself with the creature’s strife. It sounded like a blind piglet snuffling for its mother’s teat. A piglet would have been just as feeble in this encompassing blackness. The Unseen was attuned to the rustle of the bag, its fresh smell, the clutter brushing by its fingers like a shoal of salmon past a bear’s hungry paw.

Cold, metallic. It had plenty of those. Tangles of fibrous, wormlike cord. There is no use for such a thing.

Coarse, greasy surface held within a crinkled packet. Almost certainly salted meat.

The Unseen’s breath hastened, it’s right hand quickened its grip. The sound of the Unseen’s breath was a movement in and of itself. A great, intermittent, choking gust supported by what must have been a large, skeletal rib cage. It heaved with the rush of immoral acquisition.

The creature held within the Unseen’s waxy grip, gasped and squirmed with what must have been a squirt of adrenaline. The Unseen’s attention shifted with the shock of a poorly-shod foot on slimy rock. It struck its quarry in the skull with a boney fist. It’s pathetic prey let out a pained howl of condemnation. The Unseen’s own glut of adrenaline accentuated the smell of the being. It gripped the spongy, quivering pile, once more with its right hand, still grasping the bag in its left. With spastic jolts it hauled the sobbing mass close against its clammy skin. The stench from the man was full and rich. The Unseen could taste the creature’s fear. Fear of never seeing its kind again. Of enduring the indignation of such a cheap demise. The slick scent of sweat gathered into the recesses of the Unseen’s long, jagged fingernails: Salted meat.

During the brief scuffle the bag had been neglected but now the Unseen could give it its full focus. It delved back into the bag with its left hand, it’s lithe fingers wriggling like the legs of a cave spider on the wrong end of a pointy stick. It reached the bottom of the bag, scraping around for anything unusual, anything curious, when it found a round object wrapped in a fine fabric, a bulbous knot at the top. There was something inside it. Even through the fabric the scent of its contents crept up the Unseen’s numerous cilia. They covered its fingers and the great bulk of its twisted form. Each hair, in turn, in a great wave, stood to attention and for a moment the tumultuous motion of the Unseen paused. Following a sharp intake of breath, the sickly movements of the sniveling creature at the Unseen’s side followed by example.

The Unseen released the creature. It was weak. It cannot see. It knows not the way. Its stumblings will lead to naught as it cuts its fingers on razoredged tunnel crags. It will give up and would be found just as easily as the first time. With a flurry of footsteps and the slaps of palm on stone the creature stumbled and sputtered away.

The Unseen heard the creature falling to the cold, unforgiving rock a great deal more times than is dignified.

Four appendages.

Like me.

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Amalia Shipman-Mueller (Germany) Breath series p31 / p 32 Ana Jovanovska (Macedonia) Uknowing p7 Traveling p8 Asja Tustanowska (Poland) Metamorfoza p15/ p 16 Transformacja p13 / p14 Beshir Riabi (Tunisia) I Against I p3 Modern Anubis p4 Breathless p5 Bogomil Bratoev (Bulgaria) Neo Steppenwolf p64/p65/p66/p67 Castell Lanko (Egypt) Artificial Death p 9 Lonely Dolls For Dinner p 10 Dejan Batrićević (Montenegro) Risto Sotona p19 Epitaphios p 20 Evelyn Carr (England/ Scandinavia) Unseen p6

Kateryna Repa (Ukraine) Arch Earth p 29 Evolution Arch Air p 30 Lavoslava Benčić (Slovenia) berač skupaj p 37/ p 38 Leopardmoth (Latvia) Membrane p 21 Darvas Ezers p22 Ezers p23 Mi6a p 24 Luca Zanta (Italy) Optimi Consiliarij mortui p 39/ p 40 Marco A. Reynier (Espagne) Forest Creatures p 41 Thousands Years in the desert p 42 Monochrome creatures p43/ p44 Martyna Dzianach (Poland) Iron p1 The Mask p2 Mateja Drev (Slovenia / Netherlands) W p25/ 26/ 27/ 28

Frater Teth (Greece) Dominion in Polarity p 33 Transformation of the Shaman p 34

Rim Bouras (Tunisia) p 45 Thinking p 46 p 47

Guillaume Bouges (Belgium) Trouble-fête cover / p61/ p62/ p63

Saif Fradj (Tunisia) Untitled p49/ 50/ 51 / 52

Helge H. Paulsen (Germany) Ritual p 35 Beautiful Hair from Behind p36 Henrik Kublick (Denmark) Untiltled p68/69/70

Sophie Templeton (Scotland) Sinew Limbs p53 Mastication Series two p 54 Clutched p55

Hernando Urrutia (Portugal) Look at you from the dark p59/ p60

Sylvain Brillault (Belgium) welcome to paradise p 48 overwhelmed by getting so close p 56

Jasmine Chebil (Tunisia) Fallen p17 Alice p 18

Thit Senstius (Denmark) Birth of an Iceberg p71 Overload p72

Jongwook Park (Canada) Ontology p11 / p 12

Youssef Marweni (Tunisia) Hiding p 57/ 58

GRIMOIRE TEAM ; Yasser Jeridi \ Bochra Taboubi \ Oussema Gaidi