Page 58 - TheRedSon_PrintInterior_430pp_5.5x8.5_9-22-2019_v1

seemed to be drawing closer. I slipped through an open
window leading back onto the street. Quickly afterward,
I ascended a rickety expanse of stairs wrapped around a
gigantic apartment complex. Interestingly, the building
seemed to be breathing. The observation only momentarily
focused my attention as I opened the door at the top of the
stairs and entered with little hesitation—the darkness initially
seemed quite welcoming. I found myself in a bedroom with
a massive four-poster bed, only slightly discernible from the
flowing webs draped across it. The footsteps were getting
louder, now emanating from under the huge bed itself.
Suddenly, I remembered—I needed to wake up. I was so
immersed in the darkling beauty of the city—not to mention
the memory-dimming fog of dream—I had forgotten the
danger I was in. Something was coming for me, to replace
my waking eyes with dull expanses of featureless flesh.
I searched for a door out of the room but found nothing,
not even the door I’d initially entered through. I was trapped.
The footsteps acquired company as they moved along. But
most important to me were the sounds I couldn’t hear—the
sweet laughter of my sisters and the terrible rage of my
father. My family was gone. I was alone.
The surrounding darkness intensified, forcing me to
stand out to whatever ascended the stairs beneath the bed.
Fortunately, I sensed weakness in the trailing shadows that
limped along with the stronger packs of darkness, turning
from my gaze whenever I looked upon them. With supreme
effort, I seized these stragglers with barbed thoughts and
glaring eyes. I wrapped them tightly around my fists and
poured them across my body until they soaked into my
blood, conjuring depthless voids from what used to be
my eyes. I ripped the alien silence from its hiding places,
bending and breaking its body across my will, and when
nothing of it remained save for loyalty to me, I draped its
carcass over myself—until I was every inch the nightmare
that was coming for me.
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