A hole

I was getting changed in the dressing room in preparation for the evening when Ted Vaaak’s unctuous son appeared. I was furious at first but then remembered I was currently shirtless and exposed and stepped hastily away from him and pressed my back to the wall so that he would not be able to see. But he had already seen

“What’s that, Toby?”

“What’s what?” I replied, nervous in the way that I always am when questioned by young Egrehelm.

“You’ve got a hole in your back.”

“Don’t be absurd!” I barked. “A hole! Madness!”

I pushed against the wall even harder, hoping that perhaps the vacuum would cause me to stick and I would not be able to be pulled away, like when a snail gets fastened irretrievably to a window. But Egrehelm’s hands twisted me away and I was left there, exposed.

“See, there is a hole. I told you.”

I was glad he was behind me so I could not see his face. I just stared down at the floor in shame.

“There’s music coming from it. It’s… it’s beautiful.”

I knew what was coming next. It always happens like this. That maddening piper within me. I cursed her, despite all that she has taught me.

I felt Ted’s son’s hand upon the rim of the hole.

“It’s so dark. How far in does it go?”

“Quite far,” I replied blankly. I was already distant, advance shock setting in in expectation. I was barely now even Toby, reduced by my nakedness and helplessness to a lesser creature, such as a robot or a human.

He pushed his face in next, and I heard the whirl of the blades that lurked just beyond the event horizon, and then Egrehelm was no more, just assorted lumps of meat tumbling down towards the ætherphone at the heart of the void, their approach toward its central mast producing a delicate rhythm. It was, as he said, quite beautiful.

Or at least I assume that is what happened. Due to having a regulation neck and an immortal fear of mirrors I have never seen my back hole, nor especially whatever it is that exists within. But I have conducted tests and conclusions have emerged.