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become only symbols for dreams, even if they don’t realize
it. Still, such a doomed enterprise is not necessarily without
its worth. There is wisdom in madness, just not the kind
belonging to this world. It was that alien insight that Tom
Hush, the eater of darkest secrets, worked through.
While madness was busy endowing shadows with lungs,
I couldn’t help but laugh at the passing sights. The wardens
were being overtaken by the manifest infirmities of their
wards. A fairly stout man, who likely possessed an infinite
happiness only when cruelly exercising his limited authority,
was being filled with locusts, and no small representation of
the species, either. The faces he made as they turned him
into a human hive were beyond hysterical. When they came
bursting out of his mouth, flying away with chunks of his
organs, I nearly burst open myself. But it was to the madness-
repurposed custodian with the handgun that I was forced to
direct my strictest attention. He tried to say something—
which his new foot-long tusks made quite difficult—as my
sister passed through the pipes of his throat. Likely, it was
something terribly menacing passed along from the mind of
Mr. Hush, but I had little time for an exchange of threats, as
unfortunate as that was.
My shoulder opened the way into an adjacent room, as
the hallway before me had become complicated by a web of
barbed and knotted flesh embellished with dripping spears
and hooks fashioned from the bodies of once-wardens.
Some of them were still trying to push screams out of
their red, clogged mouths—those who still possessed that
particular orifice, at any rate. The Red Dream was upon
me again, engaged no doubt by my proximity to prey—my
strength ignored the customs of its construction, allowing
me to smash through the wall and circumnavigate the fleshy
custodian-barrier with relative and enjoyable ease.
I couldn’t help but chuckle as some of the remaining
wardens and a small group of garden-variety mad-persons
took me for their savior, following my path, hoping I might
174 | Mark Anzalone