Banks of the Juruá River, Amazon, Brazil
I came to Juruá because of the sound.
Not just any sound—a recording found from a 1952 anthropology expedition, when a French research team vanished without a trace. The recording contained whispers in an unrecognized language, repeated by a small child. But in the final moments, the sound shifted to a growl... or perhaps a prayer? And it always ended with one word: "Tsathoggua."
Maíra, the local guide, led me through the heavy, wet forest. There, the Kulina tribe spoke of the legend of "The One Who Sleeps in the Stone," an entity that breathes nightmares into the heads of lost humans. They warned of the "breathing place"—a cave with warm air pressing out of the earth, as if the forest itself was breathing.
We found it on the fourth day.
The cave was small on the outside, but inside, it opened like the belly of a giant. Its walls vibrated gently, and in the center, a black stone shaped into a face split in two. On its walls were symbols... eyes in a circle. The fifth.
Kaká, the Kulina child, began drawing in the dirt with his finger. He drew five eyes connected to a central point. Then he spoke in a voice that wasn't his:
"When the five eyes gaze to the sky, the sky will turn and look back."
That night, I dreamed of the sky falling like torn fabric. Of shadows coming from beyond the stars, and a song played by formless creatures, ushering in something that should never awaken.
And from the mouth of the cave... a prayer was heard. Not from humans, but from the earth itself.
---
Five eyes have opened.
In America, Japan, Morocco, Indonesia, Slovakia, and now Brazil.
All are connected.
And in the sky, something begins to move.