I was used to spherical patterns, but this one had an irregular outline. It looked more like a tear in a piece of tar paper. Behind the tar paper was a light that rippled and resembled flame. Perhaps it was flame, but I couldn’t tell. A common property of rips between worlds was the distortion of vision. But one thing I was sure of, the Beast was there inside that rip. It was looking at me even as I examined it in return. I knew it had to be the Beast, rather than some other alien, because it was huge. So huge that only a single eye was visible. That eye had to be four feet in diameter, surrounded by the flame-like edge of the rip. The iris was a shimmering greenish-gold. The pupil alone was a foot across. Dangling directly in front of the great eye was my ring. It glittered in the yellow-orange glow of the rip, which shone up out of the drain like firelight. I suspected the Beast had attempted to devour it, but had failed due to the properties of such objects. Wanting to determine the nature of the thing it had tasted, it had then moved its mouth away.
