Reflections of a Symbolic Phallus

His eyelids shot open. The shadow lifted from his face, and his blue eyes bulged out, bloodshot. Tentacles slithered up his neck, choking the air from him. He tore at them with his hands, desperately struggling for air.

Screams of terror filled the hall around us. It was as if a spell had been broken. Or perhaps a shroud had been pulled back, revealing tentacles worming their way around everyone in the room.

That box had now clattered to the ground, all but forgotten in the clamour. More tentacles spilled forth from it, jockeying with the others for room. Merely looking at the box caused my mind to rebel. It couldn’t reconcile the tiny receptacle with its yawning opening, as large as a coffin. And yet, both were real.

A loud gasp drew my attention from the box. Behind me, Blaine struggled in the grip of an especially thick tentacle. It clung tight to her body, causing her curves to bulge under her expensive suit.

Despite the desperate situation, a heavy feeling welled up from the bottom of my heart. I didn’t understand it. Did I want a perfect figure like hers so desperately?

With a loud plop, William ripped the tentacle from around his throat and slammed it against the wall until movement ceased. He wasted no time running to my side to help me with my own tentacle.

“The box,” I managed to mouth as another tentacle snaked toward his ankle. Fighting the tentacles individually would be fruitless. There were simply too many of them.

He stomped the oncoming tentacle beneath his dress shoe. Fetid pus burst from the tip with a wet gurgling sound. When it mixed with a mucus pool, it hissed and bubbled. Stepping carefully over it, he picked the box up off the ground. Despite the girth it held, he lifted it as if it weighed nothing. He tried to grab the tentacles by the root and force them into the box, but his hand couldn’t fit around them. Out of sheer desperation, he grabbed the lid and tried to force it shut.

To my great surprise, it worked. The tentacles shrivelled, fell away from our bodies, and retracted into the box.

The muffled screams ended, and the sounds of heavy breathing filled the hall as we all regained our composure. Were it not for the mucus all over the floor – and frankly, our clothes – I might have dismissed the whole incident as a mass delusion.

My mother, of all people, was the first to come to her senses. She rushed over and started wiping my dress down with her handkerchief, as if that tiny square of silk could magically scoop up the mess and smooth the wrinkles. Her brow furrowed when it didn’t work, but that only caused her to wipe harder.

“What are you doing?” I gently grabbed her arm. “Don’t waste your time. The dress is ruined.”

“It’ll be fine,” she muttered. “You still look… The wedding can still continue.” She looked at me with a burning intensity in her eyes. I recognised that look. Whenever she got like that, there was no talking her out of it. I’d never once in my life won an argument with her when she got serious. But in this case…

“There’s no way,” I said. “This place is cursed. We need to get out of here.”

“Cursed?” My mother’s laugh, shrill, sardonic, echoed from the rafters. “No, no, no. That’s silly. Cursed. Pfft.” As she spoke, some of the guests limped toward the exit, but she pretended not to notice. “Look, no one was hurt. It was just… a prank.”

William approached, clothing the box so tightly that the veins on the back of his hands popped out. “Who could possibly pull off something like that?”

My mother turned on her heels to face him. She was a good two heads shorter, but she still looked down on him. “Now that you mention it, your father has always been opposed to this wedding, hasn’t he, dear?”

The box cracked and cracked as William crushed it with his fingers. I thought his blood vessels might burst, but he kept a wide smile on his face. “I can assure you, Martha, something like this is beyond him. Or anyone, really.”

As if to emphasise the point, he held the box up to her face. She pushed it away. “But he was the one who handed you the box, was he not?”

“Well…”

“And I refuse to let him win. You will marry my daughter and make her happy. I will not wait another year to see my grandchildren. We’re all going to be one big, happy family, so get back up on that altar and let’s get this show on the road.”

It was insane. She was insane. The pressure mark from a tentacle across her face only made her seem more unhinged.

And yet, there was no denying she was a force of nature. As she marched off to drag the guests back – by force if necessary – I could feel the air become heavy around me. It felt similar to the oppressive atmosphere just before the box opened.

Blaine seemed to notice something was wrong. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. “Julia, come on. Let’s get out of here.”

But I couldn’t move. My feet were glued to the floor out of fear. Mother wouldn’t stop until she got her way. This was her dream. I would marry a man from a well-to-do family, have three children, become a stay-at-home mother, support my father and her in their retirement, and holiday with them every year at a posh resort. After working herself to the bone for thirty years, this was her just reward. And when I successfully married off my children, I would follow in her footsteps.

She would never have it any other way.

If I left now, things would only get worse for me. She’d force me back into the church later, and by that point, who knew what evil would be haunting it then? After all, she was right that no one had been permanently harmed.

William placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. He knew just how overbearing she could be. “Relax. Breathe. We’ll rush the ceremony and then get the hell out of here. It’ll be over before you know it.”

I nodded. As crazy as that sounded, it was the only way forward. If you thought about it objectively, it was even funny. William would have to keep holding that box through the entire ceremony. Wasn’t that just a laugh and a half?

Or… maybe he could just open the box again? Yeah. Yeah. No matter how strong-willed she was, Mother couldn’t win against the tentacles. Maybe they’d even drag her into the box, and I’d never have to see her again. Oh, God, what kind of daughter am I, to wish my mother would disappear forever? But then I could be free for the first time in my life.

The sound of her footsteps, sharp, powerful, grew louder as she returned, guests in tow. She’d actually done it. The wedding was going to happen after all. The air grew so thick I couldn’t breathe.

This was it. Time to sign my life away. I stepped up to the altar. How appropriate that what should have been the happiest day of my life turned out so grotesque.

The celebrant stepped back up to the altar and regarded me with an empty stare. Although everyone else had returned to looking normal, he still resembled a desiccated corpse. I suppose he must’ve always looked like that.

“Are you ready to resume?” he asked me.

“I –” The words caught in my throat. I had to do this. I couldn’t see any other way out.

But I forced the words down. That morning, I had been prepared to consign myself to William, and the ironic thing was, if it hadn’t been for the tentacles, I probably would have. Maybe I was just in shock, but they had reminded me just how wrong this whole wedding was.

“I can’t. I’m sorry, William, I don’t love you. Not really.”

“Objection!” My mother shouted, as if this were a court of law. “Love can come later. You’re not getting any younger, you know. Unless there’s someone else you’d rather be with.” She smirked, believing I wouldn’t have an answer to that.

I looked to William, out of habit, but the expression of pure heartbreak on his face forced me to look away. I couldn’t stand it. So instead, I turned to Blaine. She smiled back, her lips twitching nervously, but I couldn’t read her true emotions. After everything that had happened, did she even care anymore? Did she just want to get this over with so she could leave? Or was she honestly happy that I was finally speaking my mind?

Hell, I couldn’t even get a grip on my own feelings. “There’s… someone,” I said.

“Who?” my mother challenged.

I hesitated. When I thought about it – really thought about it – there was one person who had always been there for me. One person who I relied on. One person who I always held more precious than even myself. But I had never thought of them romantically, not even in my wildest dreams.

Because they probably didn’t like me the same way. Even if they did, my mother would drive them away. Besides, I’d have to give up everything to be with them.

If I let that person into my heart, even for an instant… If I admitted it aloud… Well, that would truly be opening a box I could never close.

I couldn’t say, “I do,” but I couldn’t say their name. I was trapped. The world was closing in on me from all sides.

Just then, a knocking sound came from the box in William’s hand. “Help! Let me out!” It was my voice. “Help me, William! I’m trapped in here.”

“Julia,” my mother gasped. She stared daggers at me. “You must be an imposter. My Julia would never disobey me. Hurry, William, let her out.”
Sceptical, William cracked open the lid of the box and peeked in. Tiny tentacles shot out and wrapped around his head. He was pulled into the box face-first, just as I had imagined happening to my mother. The box clattered to the floor. I ran over and tried to close the lid before any more tentacles could come out, but William’s hand emerged and grabbed my wrist.

There was something different about his hand. It was too warm, too wet. His fingers slithered around my wrist.

William pulled himself free of the box. But he was no longer the William I knew.