Off-phased. A train screeching sideways on the track, A motorless cart dragged forward by fraying rope. Off-phased. Air-thin walls pressed against the back of my neck, blackness swallowing sight. It feels fucking off-phased! Existence unfolded from the depths of my mind. A backseat passenger. No driver. No wheel. I can't see, only breathe it. A slow pull tightening around my chest, A murmur—soft at first—then a weight. Feel it. The pressure. The pulse. Expanding, colonizing the spaces. In your veins, in your lungs. What does it feel like to resist it? Should you resist it? It's certainly not natural. You know there's no peace in surrender. Is there escape from it? But can you outrun it? It is always coming for you. It doesn’t stop. It doesn’t care. And it feeds, it grows. But so do I. Arms around it around myself around us. Are you ready? Here is the seal You think you can push it back? Not yet. Taste the burn, smell the ache. Boiling soft tissue annihilation. It’s not coming— It’s already here. Mute stir is what you always wanted. So it begins. No relief. PHASE - Mirror reflex. FACE - Pupils thicken. PHASE - Rising screech. FACE - Revolting smile. PHASE - Weak beast, wicked condition. Face - Fear. I seize it with might, Fracture with a grin, Devour its appendages, And it's all mine! Summon the force of my own defiance: I call upon independence. The Phase Equalizer.
- Gabriel Lima Jacinto, The Phase Equalizer.