Chapter 23

He snores, dreaming about finally finding the courage to ask his coworker out to lunch. She’s cute, and he’s had a crush on her for the longest time. He just doesn’t have the self confidence to do anything about it. His nose is stuffy, making him snort like a pig as he dreams.

After a while he starts mouth breathing. The pig noises stop, but his snoring gets louder. He doesn’t know he’s such a loud sleeper. How could he, when he’s slept alone all his life?

As he lay there, mouth wide open, a green sludge comes climbing through his unlocked window. It squeaks the window open, pushes itself through the crack, and slides across his bedroom floor. Hearing the loud snoring, its slithers up on his bed to take a look. It stares at the man with its bright orange eye. It moves closer and closer, slowly creeping up toward his face. It looks down into his open mouth, curious as to where it leads. As the man takes another deep breath, the sludge forces itself into his mouth, choking him awake.

He sits up, unable to breathe for a second. He clears his throat, swallowing a weird taste in his mouth. He sticks his tongue out, the slimy texture stuck to his tastebuds. “Did I eat a bug or something?”

He goes to the kitchen to rinse his mouth. After that doesn’t help, he gets some beer to drown out the taste. He drinks one can, then two, then a whole case. The disgusting sliminess isn’t going away, but he’s not feeling drunk either. He looks at the can, wondering if he bought non-alcoholic by mistake. “No, this is the good stuff. Maybe it’s just a bad batch.” He looks at the clock, realizing it’s almost time for him to get ready for work. He doesn’t feel like he got enough sleep, but lately that’s how he feels every morning.

He eats some leftover pizza from the fridge then takes a shower. Putting on his suit and grabbing his briefcase, he’s ready for another day of boredom at work.

He leaves his house, gets in his car, and starts driving to work. As he gets stuck in traffic, his arms start twitching. He tries to hold the steering wheel tighter, but his arms jerk slightly one way, then the other. “What the hell?” They stop moving on their own, returning control to the man. The rest of his commute goes smoothly.

Arriving at his office, he parks in the underground lot. He opens his car door and goes to step out. One leg moves fine, but the other won’t budge. “What now?” He doesn’t understand why his body’s acting so weird today. He just writes it off as lack of sleep.

Finally he makes his way inside the building’s elevator, riding it up to the twenty second floor where his office is located.

He walks past his coworker’s desk, the one he has a crush on. As usual she doesn’t even notice him. No one notices him. From the moment he steps off the elevator, all the way to his office, he passes about forty seven people, none of which even greet him good morning.

He closes his office door aggressively, an anger building up inside him. People ignoring him is an everyday occurrence, so why does it make him so mad today? He starts to wonder if it’s about time to quit this stupid job and find work somewhere else. Walking over to his desk, he punches the wall, his hand going straight through the drywall. He pulls his hand back out, surprised by how easily it broke through.

His neck starts twitching, then his eyes. He feels like he’s having a stroke. It goes on for a few seconds, his body moving more and more uncontrollably. Then it all stops.

His eyes are open, but he can’t move them. He can feel his body, but he can’t control it. Suddenly his left leg steps forward, then his right. Then his arms start swinging along with them. Left, right, left, right. He walks circles around his tiny office.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? he thinks to himself, no longer able to control any part of his body.

He walks to the door, pulling it open, then takes a step out of his office into the wide open bullpen where everyone else works. He steps over to the first cubicle nearest to him, staring at the woman working at the desk. Beside her is a stack of letters, a letter opener placed on top. The man grabs the letter opener, and without hesitation, stabs it into the woman’s neck.

WHAT DID I JUST DO? I’M DREAMING! THIS MUST BE A DREAM! The man tries to convince himself as he watches his body go from one cubicle to the next, massacring all the office workers one by one.

The office fills with screams, people panicking to get away.

BLOOD! THERE’S SO MUCH BLOOD! WAKE UP! WAKE UP DAMMIT! His body kills every person in sight, the man unable to stop himself.

That’s when he sees her. The girl he dreams about. NO! NO, PLEASE NO! He walks over to the girl. She’s terrified, curled up in a ball in the corner of the room. Her head’s wrapped in her arms as she rocks back and forth.

STOP! STAY AWAY FROM HER! he tries to tell himself. It’s no use. He takes the letter opener and stabs it into the back of her neck, killing her instantly.

NOOOOOOOOO! YOU SON OF A BITCH! I’LL KILL YOU! YOU HEAR ME? I’LL KILL YOU! he yells to himself, unable to do anything else.

His body looks around the room, not a single person left alive. He then turns to the giant plate glass window. He takes a step toward it.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

His body starts to run.

WHOA! THERE’S NO EXIT THERE! WE’RE ON THE TWENTY SECOND FLOOR! WHAT ARE YOU–

His body sprints straight into the glass, shattering it as he jumps out the window, falling toward the pavement.

As he falls, the man gives up, losing all sense of what he thinks is real. THIS WILL WAKE ME UP FOR SURE! IT MUST! IT’S THE ONLY WAY! THAT’S WHY I JUMPED, RIGHT? TO WAKE MYSELF FROM THIS FUCKED UP DREAM! THAT MUST BE WHAT’S HAPPENING! 

His body hits the ground, splattering like jello. The only thing left of the man is the red goo that’s stained the sidewalk. From underneath all the red goo, a green sludge emerges. It’s bright orange eye stares at what’s left of the man’s body, thinking about how much fun it just had. 

It wants to try again.