As your story ends the flames grow dimmer.  The fire darkens but its warmth persists.  Was that right?

 

Okay.  Good.

That was a fun story Evelyn.  It's kind of an engrossing thought don't you think?  Getting turned into a bug.

 

Oh, I guess you're right.  She was only controlled by a bug and not turned into one I guess.  Sorry.

 

Sorry, for apologizing so much.  Oops, I did it again.  Sorry.

 

Damn it!  Okay, I'm just going to start the story.  Everyone ready?

 
Let the scorched stars lament my words as I being our eleventh story.

 

 

Water rushed over my head as I plunged downwards.  Panicked bubbles burbled out of my mouth up towards the surface, achieving the buoyancy that my body lacked.  I should have been more careful; Tenkiller Lake is well known for sudden, gaping holes along the bottom.  I kicked and thrashed with the hope of propelling myself upward.  To my credit, I'm fairly certain the light of the surface got a little bit closer.

 

Then something grabbed my ankle.

 

It felt like a whip of rope suddenly and firmly anchored to my leg and dragging me further downwards.  Most of the remaining air in my lungs escaped as I silently screamed in shock.  I kicked my captured leg wildly but whatever it was didn't let go.  I doubled over in a last attempt to save myself and clawed at the tether.  It was surprisingly rubbery yet able to maintain a taut and firm hold on me.  I felt my lungs burning for air as another tether latched onto wrist, then another onto my shoulder.  My vision faded as my body resigned itself to sucking in a mouthful of water.

 

Suddenly I was coughing;, clearing the water from my throat and replacing it with sweet, cool air.  The world around me was dark.  I wiggled my fingers and found that I was still underwater, floating somewhere deep beneath the surface.  I puzzled over my peculiar situation for a minute, letting my breathing steady in the meantime.  It began to dawn on me that there was something off about the air, that smelled too sweet.  I raised my hand up towards my head until it was blocked by a translucent, rubbery dome.  A burst of light erupted from where my hand hit it and rippled outwards to fill my vision.

 

With both hands now I tried to pry the light-filled bubble off of my head, only for my arms and wrists to be lashed and bound by unseen tendrils and forced down to my side.  The air around me got even sweeter smelling; my mind began to feel fuzzy.  I shouted for help and then realized that only I would be able to hear it.  The light surrounding me dimmed in places to create interlocking and whirling patterns any way I looked.  As I watched them, they began to move and dance around me.  My mind began to feel sluggish and sleepy.

 

My eyes locked on to a particular series of patterns, interlinked circles and swirls spinning endlessly, and soon my mind emptied of everything other than focusing on the pattern.  I was no longer afraid or worried.  Every concern and pang of terror had been eased away by the too-sweet air and spiraling lights.  My body relaxed in the grip of my captor, resigned to whatever its plans for me were.

 

A new pattern appeared in the lights as I felt a simultaneous jerk of my left arm into a certain position.  Then another symbol and another manipulation of my left arm.  Things continued in this fashion for awhile: a symbol would flash in the lights and my body would be puppeted by a number of tendrils attached to my arms and legs.  After a few cycles of this, I began trying to move into the position before the tentacles could each time the symbol flashed.  A brief burst of perfume in the air rewarded me for correct configurations; the scent tickling my mind in the most pleasant of ways.  I rehearsed the movements for an eternity, until I was able to execute every one of them correctly when the associated pattern flashed. 

 

Then I felt something I had thought I would never feel again: the cool air of the surface on my neck and shoulders.

 

Behind the haze of slumbering bliss I felt the difference in temperature and weight as my body rose out of the water.  I didn't know where I was or where I was going; I only moved in the stiff, programmed ways that I associated with the patterns in the light.  The feeling of no longer being submerged in water continued down my body bit-by-bit until finally I felt my feet shuffle on to dry dirt.  The lights in the dome around me flickered back to spiraling circles, a pattern with no movement associated.  I docilely watched it, not caring about anything other than how good it felt to watch it.  A thought began to form, wondering where the creature that had taken control of me intended to go, but I lost track of it quickly as I watched the pretty lights.

 

After a short period of rest the patterns in the light that made me move began to flash again and I, and the creature controlling me, marched off to fulfill its alien purpose.