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With the nightmare music gone, I slipped from the room
and reentered the hallway, approaching the apartment where
the unearthly music seemed to have originated. I took to
the deepest shadows, minding my every movement, yet
I couldn’t resist peering as far into the room as I could.
The apartment was filled with rusted musical instruments,
suspended from the walls by large hooks, strung with
glistening webs of what seemed to be saliva. Sitting in the
middle of the room was a man sharply dressed in the dusty
apparel of an orchestra conductor. Instead of a conductor’s
baton, his right hand held what appeared to be a lion tamer’s
whip. He was apparently sound asleep, bearing the signature
features of a man afflicted with the advanced stages of the
infamous sleeping sickness. His eyes were completely sealed
shut, so much so that there was no distinguishing the fact
that eyes had ever occupied the unbroken expanse of smooth
skin that now lay placid and pale above his cheeks. He sat
disturbingly still, only occasionally whimpering in his sleep.
The pathetic sound seemed to come from an impossible
distance buried somewhere deep within the man—as if he
were crying out from the yawning depths of a deep pit.
After squeezing myself carefully through a large window
and onto the fire escape, I paused to survey the night air and
the dank alley below. I pondered my chances of getting out
of the city alive—or more accurately, awake. My eyelids
had already gathered more weight than was normal, and
exhaustion closed upon me like a vice. But to sleep was to
die, at the very least.
A seperate fire escape clung to the building across the
alley. The distance was outside my comfort zone, but not my
ability. Another determined leap saw me to the other side,
my movements precise and unsounding. I climbed to the
roof, ever aware of things eager to catch me off guard. Yet I
also felt my family’s vigilance surrounding me like smoke,
seeking to feast upon the screams of whatever would take
me for prey. Having reached the top of the building, I caught
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