Samuel woke with a groan. The very air of the
room itself seemed alive, as if it were crawling across
his face. A single shotglass on the bedstand boasted a
cigarette butt and a quarter inch of amber liquor turned
muddy and thick from the ash. He opened one swollen eye
and glared at the shotglass, with all the intensity his
hangover would allow. There was a noise, a hideous
repetitious noise cutting across his brain like a
rusty razorblade.
He reached out with his trembling fingers and
smacked the alarm into silence, hitting the snooze button
with all the force he could muster, then rolled back up
under the covers. His stomache heaved once, then subsided.
Again the alarm sounded. Samuel felt himself
slowly drift into awareness, the dream he was having
swirled about him until there was only the hot darkness
of the conforter and his own sour breath. The alarm
continued to rattle him, setting every screaming nerve
on edge. His face was damp with sweat, his stomache
gurgling for relief. He threw back the covers and
winced against the noonday sun that streamed through
the windows.
Reaching out, he overturned the shotglass while
aiming for the alarm. "Fuck!" he said, his voice rough
and phlegmy. The last bit of alcohol washed across the
bedstand, leaving behind the cigarette butt now almost
unrecognizable, a smear of grime and stained paper,
flecks of tobacco in pools of yellowish liquid. The scent
of whiskey ripped at his nostrils, triggering an upheaval
he was unprepared for. Holding back vomit, he rolled out
of bed and staggered for the bathroom.
The toilet bowl was already up, fortunately,
as he was already retching by the time he reached it.
His mouth full of vomit, he disgorged himself into the
porcelain, dropping to his knees. In the bedroom, the
alarm's screetching continued, but mercifully, both
Samuel's vision and hearing faded into a kind of white
noise, blanketing his dream from his mind.
Do you know what the killing wall is?
The question had arisen in his dream over and over.
What is the Killing Wall?
The Killing Wall… A secret stockade outside time
where fifth dimensional entities suck the mind and
soul from a human. Like the chutes down which you
guide a cow to end it up in a little narrow chamber
where you slit its throat… same idea, only outside
space and time… think mirrors shattering into another
place.
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