A Serenade For The Innocent

I signaled the man behind the laptop to play the audio file. After a few seconds, her voice rang all around the room making me sweat and shake stronger than ever.

I hope no one would notice.

...

My failure is probably due to my own indolence, doctor.

What? You asked me earlier, right? How I started to be the housekeeper of Mr. Earnest and Mrs. Marian. They were a very sweet couple, young and happy together. The kind of family that is very refreshing to see! The two of them are quite admiring, it gives me hope.

So when I first saw this big sign outside their house saying they are in need of a maid I did not hesitate to apply! I was living in the apartment next door so we became pretty close. Especially with Marian, poor girl, she didn"t even know her husband is having an affair. I, myself, didn"t know it too until I saw my boss, Earnest doing the act himself. And for all I know right now he"s definitely not meeting our Creator in heaven!

When I lost my previous housekeeping job after my former boss"s business got bankrupt, the Lange family gave me something to live for. The truth is I was actually planning to end it all when I lost my job before the Langes. I was just so poor and every opportunity that comes for me to get just a bit of cash is something I"d take if I can do it reasonably. It"s going to be like that in the end anyway, so why wait for it to come instead and summon it, right?

I was very happy working with them. There is no problem at all! Madame Marian is even willing for me to watch movies with her in the living room once Sir Earnest leave. She said that she just want someone to accompany her. Honestly speaking, I don"t want to accompany her because watching television all day is a big negligence of my work and I am really happy working with the two of them, therefore, I don"t want to lose this job. But I just can"t leave her alone and isolated in a lonely living room like that.

So I would take my broom away. Put the rag in the kitchen. Throw the trash and watch movies with Madame. I guess I got used to doing it to the point that even if Madame is away or even if Madame is in the house I would neglect doing my job and watch a bunch of movies because seriously, she doesn"t really care. Oh, but I"m not going to call that laziness! I"m calling it abusing someone else"s kindness. I might be good at housekeeping but I"m a bad maid.

I"m old, doctor. I"m already fifty-seven. And even though a lot of people are saying that I"m still young I know that my end is on the clock. I"m just waiting for the death"s visit. I can feel it. My grandmother would often tell me that death is like a trespa.s.sing spirit suddenly appearing in your house dressed in a black robe and it will take you with him to the other side. I say, how long am I supposed to wait for him? Another decade or another happy family to die in front of me? It"s a long wait. I hate waiting. I"m not a patient person.

I see that you like stage plays, doctor. There"s a Broadway ticket at your table. I remembered when I was young and filled with aspirations. Do you mind if I tell you a little bit of my story, doctor? Our session is long, a little bit of chit-chat wouldn"t be that bad, right?

Would you believe it if I say that I was once a stage actress? I was called the Stage Harpy because every critic says that I look like I am flying on the stage every time I deliver my lines. They view me once like a greek G.o.ddess. Of course, you would say you do, it"s your job to agree and listen. My biggest pride and joy is when I was chosen to play Christine, the main heroine in Phantom of the Opera. It was truly a delightful feeling when I first heard the news. I was jumping and bouncing because I am seriously happy, doctor! Very happy!

Tell you what doc; I still remember some of my lines! And maybe my voice isn"t that bad yet. Do you want to hear it?

Here, you will act as the Phantom and you"ll just say sing my angel of music!

And then I will say he"s there the phantom of the opera! And then I"ll proceed to the soprano! It"s easy, right? Come on, I want you to try it with me!

Come on say the lines!

He"s there, the phantom of the opera!

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! ~

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! ~

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! ~

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! ~

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! ~

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! ~

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! ~

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ah! Ahh! My voice! Ah! It made a crack! Ahh... Oh, I"m so sorry doctor I just can"t help but shed a tear. I"m an old crook and I"ve already lost my prime. Whatever happened to me right now, whatever kind of agony that will happen to me is all the results of my own idiocy!

I"m hopeless, aren"t I doctor, don"t you dare say I"m not, because it won"t comfort me at all. I said it, doc, I have lost my prime. And it"s all because I wasn"t good enough. No, all because I"m a lazy, good for nothing, b.i.t.c.h! I wasted my opportunity doctor! I could be a movie star right now, with my ma.s.sive mansion and a couple of million dollars in my bank account, along with my attractive husband and two cute little babies! All of those, wasted!

Sure, they choose me as Christine but it didn"t last long before they take their decision back. I was busy partying with my friends... friends that will soon leave me. I was busy fooling around with a lot of boys and I didn"t get to attend practices, I didn"t even bother to read my lines. I thought I was something special, something good! I thought I was soaring the skies like the harpy they once called me. I thought I could be eternally beautiful and always on top of everyone like a feather on the wind.

So I avoided my responsibility sometimes I didn"t even do anything. I wanted to party! I would often avoid activity just because I want to lie in my bed, my soft, soft bed! I just want to goof off! I would eat and do nothing. I have a lot of phone calls but I didn"t bother answering them and when I was ready to accept my responsibility as an actress a new Christine is already on set. They didn"t even notify me, or perhaps they did. I"m just too lazy to know.

And thus began my downfall.

Fast forward to the present and alas, I"m here! Cleaning, cooking, making tea and coffee, those are just some of the things I do now.

But Madame Marian is very kind, she is the kindest and the sweetest woman I"ve ever seen in my entire life! She would even let me sleep in one of their guest rooms if I"m feeling a little bit tired. She said that if I rest for a while I would regain my energy and get to be more productive once I woke up. As much as I want to refuse it I can"t just say no to such a generous offer! Normally I would sleep for three hours and proceed to do my job again.

But sometimes I"m not even tired at all! I"ll just casually go to that certain room and sleep. Because honestly speaking, if your boss is permitting you to be lazy you will be lazier. And so it became a habit that after I cleaned the house and do some of the ch.o.r.es I would go straight to the guest room and sleep like a log. It became worst to the point that I did not work at all and instead, I just lay down the bed and forget all of my life problems. The Lange"s bed is very comfortable, that I guarantee.

I would wake up and it"s already night and by the time I leave the room everything has already been cleaned by the Madame and instead of feeling bad about it I actually don"t care anymore. Those are some of the things that I truly regret but I can"t do anything about them now. All I can do now is to cry for the death of Madame.

No, I do not feel bad at all when Sir Earnest killed himself in the courtroom. He deserved a certain spot in h.e.l.l. I believe Satan likes to have a company down there.

So that"s how I usually spend my days. I would be locked in a haze in that guest room and sleep as I drift away to the realm of dreams.

One day I"ve overslept and woke up to the sound of moans and footsteps. I quickly hid below the bed and saw Sir Earnest and a woman I"ve never seen before enter the room kissing while stripping each other"s clothes with haste. And for the entire night, I spent my precious time not cleaning but instead to hear the horrifying sound of Sir Earnest as he pounds his thing inside of that woman! I"ve spent around five hours trapped in that torture.

Imagine, a beautiful and kind woman like Madame Marian? How can you cheat that? And he"s going around there in the court saying that he is her "ever loving and faithful husband"? My goodness, what load of baloney! I can testify that Earnest Lange is indeed a cheating demon but he is not a murderer. As much as I hate that monster he did not murder his wife and his brother.

Let"s cut the chase, doctor. Do you want to hear what I saw in that house, right? And yes, I"m not insane, doctor. I really did saw what happened in that house and as much as I hate Sir Earnest for what she did to Madame Marian and his brother I knew that he"s not the one who killed them. It"s someone else. And even I can"t comprehend the fact that I was lucky enough to survive.

When Sir Earnest is pounding her lover that night he forgot that he invited his brother to come to stay the night at their house for Madame Marian"s birthday. Martin, Earnest"s brother, however, came way too early and entered the house the night before Madame Marian"s birthday party, the same night that I caught Sir Earnest having an affair.

To tell it shortly Madame Marian"s birthday is September 24 but Sir Martin went to celebrate the birthday in the night of September 23, it"s his way of staying punctual, by being way too early. But unlike Sir Earnest"s statement last week in the court, the encounter did not happen around seven-o"clock but instead, it happened before midnight. It didn"t even happen the day if Madame Marian"s birthday!

The story goes; Sir Earnest continued to make love with his mistress for the entire night in the bed right on top of me. I was below the bed and the only thing I can see is the closed door of the guest room and the walls around it. Martin Lange opened the door and was taken aback when he saw the two of them casually doing indecent things in the guest room. But Sir Earnest did not murder him. He even tried to calm him down but Martin slapped Sir Earnest"s face and ran outside. Sir Martin was out of my vision when this happened for they were outside but I can hear the sound of a loud, powerful slap against Sir Earnest"s cheek.

But when Sir Earnest tried to follow his terrified brother outside of the room he stopped halfway, right outside the doorway. He keeps saying with a panicked voice not to do it and that he has nothing to do with this "business" and for some reason, Sir Earnest is begging him to not to do what is supposed to happen. I couldn"t see his mistress" feet so she"s probably still in the bed and whatever is happening right now doesn"t seem to concern her.

What happened next are the sound of gunshots and the scream of Sir Earnest and a thudding sound, probably caused by the fallen body of Martin Lange. As you can see Sir Earnest doesn"t have the ability or the will to torture someone, let alone to kill his brother because just the mere sight of someone killing his brother in front of him sent shivers down his spine.

The next thing I knew is the sound of the front door opening and the screaming voice of Madame Marian. She"s asking as to who the mysterious ent.i.ty is while crying probably because she saw the body of Martin dying in the feet of this shady character.

I could hear their conversation loud and clear, doctor. The shady man outside of the room walked slowly, and by slowly I mean the man walking perhaps one step every two seconds. And I can hear a lot of unidentified noises outside, some thudding noise, some metallic objects falling down the floor and the sound of Madame"s panicked gasps. All of these noises are so loud that it"s deafening.

I could see Sir Earnest trembling on his knees, not doing anything when it"s already obvious that a man just casually shot his brother down and is now prowling to get his wife. Believe it or not, although he seems eager to run towards the man, it seems that something along with fear and cowardice is hindering him from doing so. The problem is, I don"t believe that just fear and cowardice is enough reason to make him paralyzed on the floor.

I think that Sir Earnest is afraid of the killer. But even that is something that I am uncertain too.

What I am certain though is that both Sir Earnest and Madame Marian are either too afraid to hurt the perpetrator, or something else is stopping them from attacking him. As if they don"t want to do it, or they"re too dumbfounded to react.

The last thing I heard of the Madame is her cries and her screams along with her agonizing sobs and her panting sounds. That is the first time I"ve heard the Madame cry even if she had had a miserable life being with the Sir. Even the strong and willful Madame is afraid to the face of evil, it seems. Just thinking of what horrifying person made my two bosses trembling before him in fear scares me. And he hasn"t even uttered a word yet.

I heard the Madame cried. Shes pleading, she"s crying while trying her hardest to convince the horrible criminal to spare her. She even quoted, in which even I was shocked, that she was pregnant and said that it happened when the Sir was so drunken and made a move on her one fateful night. Unfortunately, the killer did not take mercy on this fact, I even heard a silent chuckle. And I remembered it vividly, a soft voice, a mellow tone.

I didn"t know how the Madame died, but she wasn"t shot by a gun unlike Sir Martin, I would hear it if that"s the case. The whole room is enveloped in silence after I heard the Madame gasped in pain after being murdered in her own house.

The next thing I know is that Sir Earnest ran towards the dead bodies and started crying and screaming like a lost child. You can feel the agony in his voice, the pain resonating in his tone as she calls the name of his wife and his brother. I can see his face clearly though I cannot see him.

And then I saw him pulling the two bodies desperately into the room and lie them beside him leaving him covered with blood and with a huge grin on his face constantly saying that he"s the one who murdered them. He had established a fact in his own mind that because of him the two of them are dead.

Sir Earnest"s brother was shot in the stomach. And the Madame was stabbed in the heart and her stomach is also stabbed probably with one of our own kitchen knives thrice. Blood is flowing everywhere to the point that Sir Earnest was almost fully covered with fresh blood.

He became bats.h.i.t insane and proceeded to laugh hysterically while holding the two bodies still constantly saying with a joyful tone that he is indeed the one who killed them. He repeatedly said the words I killed them, I killed, them, I killed them... over and over and over again.

He is even talking to himself like a fool! Whispering to himself just like what he did to the courtroom. It seems that he created an imaginary ent.i.ty inside of his head and have casual conversations with it but the kicker is that they"re talking about as to how the Sir killed the two of them. Just like what he kept on doing back then in the courtroom when he shouted in front of everybody in it telling a very disturbing tale and goodness gracious that tale is inaccurate at best! This imaginary friend he made himself sort of gave him a scripted scenario as to what happened that night.

He kept on saying that the Madame was a wh.o.r.e when it was shown in the autopsy that the Madame"s modesty hasn"t been disturbed, at least not before she died. There"s also no sign of strangling, no sign of those disgusting nails on the Madame"s arms and knees and no sign of those disgusting pieces bottle shrapnel that the sir allegedly used to kill the Madame. No, it was definitely a knife, the wound is too clean for a bottle shrapnel. I remember it clearly, I was there.

I also remembered how he proclaimed to the world how he bashed Sir Martin"s face but the only wound in Sir Earnest brother"s body is one single gunshot in his stomach.

Talking to himself, making an imaginary murder scene, turning his own wife a wh.o.r.e and making his gay brother the partner of the said adulterous crime? What utter rubbish!

I need to take a moment of silence for a while, doctor, is that fine? I"m just... I"m not feeling well.

... schzzz...

Do you know what the people call the Lange"s residence? The Colorado Murder house. I just don"t know what to do anymore, doctor... I don"t know if I can continue being a housekeeper after what happened in that place.

And thus concludes the tale. Someone else killed the mistress and Martin, doctor. Someone I failed to see and as much as I regret it I can"t do anything about it. Whatever Sir Earnest said in that courtroom is definitely because of his own mental incapability to handle the death of his own wife and brother. He even said that he caught that two of them cheating when in fact it was the other way around!

Speaking of cheating I never saw Sir Earnest"s lover as well. When the sir suddenly became insane the lover proceeded to dress up and then she kissed Sir Earnest"s cheeks and tell the shady character outside to go and his "job" is already done.

And then they were gone. I didn"t hear them open the door, I didn"t hear footsteps, I didn"t hear anyone talking or walking outside, and I didn"t even hear a car leave. They just vanished in thin air. Just like the Phantom. They were gone and I never heard about them again.

Sin, doctor, that"s how sin works, that"s how the devil punished the weak, and I am not weak. I will carry this story until I die. And when everyone around me seems to not understand what I believed in I will still carry what I believe.

And probably I might even hold a press conference about this matter but I"m in no capability of doing such in my present self. I"d probably do that some other time when I"m already strong enough. Yeah, perhaps I"ll do that tomorrow. Will you help me, doctor? I want my story to be seen everywhere, I want to world to see my story on television, I want them all to know the real truth! I want my story to be plastered in every newspaper and told in every radio!

I want them to see me tell the truth once and for all, doctor. I know you know what I mean.

Oh, our session has long expired, doctor! I"m so sorry for wasting your time like this. I"ll go now, doctor. I have somewhere to go, I don"t know why but for some reason I want to be alone for a while. Oh no, I don"t need any police escort. I can protect myself.

...

The room is filled with an obvious discomfort, the air all around is filled with an almost disgusting animosity. Thankfully, it"s not an animosity towards me but to this new information the police bureau got because of my "help".

"I have included all necessary details about uhh... Mrs. Goodman in the files we have distributed earlier. So um... To summarize this thing I mean, you know, the presentation, I would like to reiterate the information we already know about the case.

"We are all aware the crime scene itself is quite peculiar. There no blood in the scene but every witness we had pointed out on the fact that there is, indeed, a murder that occurred in the house.

"No bodies have been found too. Not a single one, you already know this, of course. Lots of uh... headlines have appeared about it. In fact, the entire house is neat. No sign of robbery, no blood, no fingerprints at all which is highly unusual for a house since you know, people live in it and stuff, you get the point. There are a few knives in the kitchen and we can conclude that one of those kitchen knives can be the murder weapon but they seem to be unmoved, though the possibility of it being used is still a factor.

"Lastly, all of the testimonies we got today do not seem to match with each other. In fact, they seem to be trying to contradict one another. The saddest part about this entire fiasco is that none of them seems to be reliable at all since there"s no evidence.

"And this concludes my report, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to call on Inspector Gerald to speak about the rest of the technical information regarding the case. Thank you very much."

I left the meeting room with hurried footsteps and took a deep, ragged breath. I am out of there. Wow, it feels more like a dungeon there more than an actual prison cell.

Thank G.o.d n.o.body noticed. I pressed my skin on my face and on my arms then pinched my belly and my thigh. s.h.i.t, I knew it, my skin is already getting soft, they"re about to melt soon. I need to get the f.u.c.k out of here and get this s.h.i.t out of my body.

"You seem to be nervous back there, doctor."

What? I turned my head behind me with great haste. There I saw a stranger, a man wearing a black coat and a violet shirt underneath, He seems about thirty, but he seems younger compared to the other moguls inside the room.

"Well, yeah, sorry about that. I was just nervous, it"s my first time."

f.u.c.k. I should have researched a lot more about this old f.u.c.k"s background first before using his skin.

"Yeah, that"s kinda weird, isn"t it? I mean, you did no presentation at all. You let someone else do it for you. But you"re never nervous in front of a crowd, you always seem to just not care at all. This confused me, doctor." The man chuckled.

"Well, there"s always a first time for everyone!" f.u.c.k, there"s no excuses left in me.

"Say, doctor," The man took two steps towards me. The narrow corridor we"re both standing in feels narrower than ever. The dim orange light from above is like a hot caress on my melting skin. No, it"s as if the man is taking all the s.p.a.ce around me for himself, surrounding me with his gigantic aura with his eyes filled with anything but absolution. I am surrounded by him yet he is not. He is standing in front of me with a friendly smile and an aloof body language. That"s all. There is no reason for me to shake and sweat this much but alas, I am. I"m terrified. I feel like this man will murder me with his mere presence alone. "Do you know who I am?"

I have no f.u.c.king idea who this man is.

"What uh..." I stuttered to myself as clench my fist behind my back.

"You don"t know me, don"t you? Even though we have been working for five years, even though we work in the same team for three years, even though I have been presenting your researches for you as your proxy for four years, and even though I married your daughter six years ago and you agreed on it with all your heart and ever since then you keep calling me by my name. Except for today, today is the biggest exception. You don"t look at me in the eye, you don"t smile at me, and you never even called my name, not even once, doctor."

"I… Of course, I know your name!" I chuckled as I scratch the back of my head. However, I"m pulling my hair off my scalp as I try so hard not to show the fear I have been feeling as I look at his dubious eyes. No, I feel like those eyes are not dubious anymore. They are certain.

"In fact, let me ask you a question, doc," he placed his hands on my shoulder and gripped it so hard it feels as if he"s trying to break my bones off. f.u.c.k, if he keeps doing he will tear my skin off! "Do you know who you are?"

"I"m... I"m..."

"In fact, I find it weird that an old psychologist is the one handling an entire murder case when it"s not part of your job to act like a f.u.c.king detective, right, doc? I didn"t know you"re doing forensic now, doc. Did you quit your job already? Too many depressed inmates for your taste? You wanna swap jobs with me now, huh? Why aren"t you saying anything, doc?"

"Well, you"re not really letting me..."

He punched the concrete wall a few centimeters away from my face. I can feel his bones cracking as it shakes in anger next to my face.

"Where the f.u.c.k is Doctor Eagleton?"

I paused. My body is shaking and my gut feels like it"s about to explode.

But not for long.

"Ah, yes, the doctor or maybe the better term is this f.u.c.king doctor." I laughed and smirked as wide as I can while pointing at my body. "You wanna know where your daddy is, boy? Well, you"re in luck! I have all the answers!"

I laughed and laughed as hard as I can. The man in front of me started to sweat and I can feel his body shiver all over, and his face filled with visible confusion. You can see by how he furrows his brows and the slowly widening gape on his mouth he"d realized he"s in for a world of h.e.l.l.

"W-where is he, motherf.u.c.ker?"

"On a dumpster downtown. Oh s.h.i.t, I forgot, you might not recognize him, which is super f.u.c.king sad because he doesn"t have a skin now. Aww! Don"t worry though, I bet even without a face, you can still guess he is the man you"re looking for by looking at his d.i.c.k."

"W-what the f.u.c.k are you talking about?" He took two steps backward, each step he takes his hands is covering his face. "What the f.u.c.k did you do to him?"

"I skinned him alive, boy. I skinned your daddy alive! You know, it"s not a secret in my university that the old man is f.u.c.king his son-in-law in his office every night but G.o.dd.a.m.n, I didn"t know he"s messing with such a snack! And you seem to be such a good c.o.c.k sucker too because you knew right away I"m not your big daddy!" I laughed at my own words as I clap my hands, trying to rea.s.sure myself how much of a comedy gold I recited. As I flap my arms around and stomp my legs trying so hard to contain my laughter, I can feel my skin slowly melting and whisking away from my body, splashing away from me like oil and dripping on the walls. "Well, I guess there"s no point trying to hide now since you already found out about me, anyway. But you know what; this is actually the first time I knew the old b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s name although I"ve been listening to his lectures for months now! How about that, huh? Pat yourself in the back, you gave me another f.u.c.king useless information about your old plaything!"

The man screamed in a panicked frenzy. He doesn"t understand what"s happening and you can see his disbelief as he fell down on the floor. He tried to get away from me by crawling his way out but there"s no stopping me now. He tried banging on the door of the conference room to let him in or at least have someone help him but it"s already too late. No one will hear him now; no one is inside those rooms. In fact, there"s no one inside this building at all, or in this world for that matter. We are all alone in this huge playground and I have him all for myself wherever he might run. But I won"t let him. He will be in this dreaded corridor and I will keep making him remember the dread I felt when he approached me in such a narrow place. I stripped all my clothes off to reveal my already melting body on him. My face, with my smirk still visibly seen, looks like its being stretched from one direction to another as I let it melt from my skull like a chocolate bar in the middle of a desert. I raise my arms towards the air and shaped my fingers like an eagle"s claw. My skin, which is halfway melted but not enough to touch the floor, sags on my arms like featherless wings. I flapped my arms and cawed violently towards the man as he cowers before me like a tiny insect praying for his mother to be eaten first so he may escape.

The man kept banging and banging the door, screaming names I never heard before, screeching like a madman with his voice sounding more and more feminine as he shrieks repeatedly. His voice resounds on the air like a terrible soprano and his banging on the door sounded like a poorly synced drum instrumental.

"It seems you whoring around old men made your voice louder than ever, huh? You f.u.c.king s.l.u.t. You should have gunned yourself in the head before you even approached me because now it"s too late for you to make that decision." I wasn"t smirking nor was I laughing but my face melts my skin as I was cackling earlier. Now, the melted skin kept a smile over my face making it look like my face is being forcibly stretch wide to form a disgusting smile.

"I will make you suffer more than your daddy!" I whisper as I envelop him with my melting skin. I can feel him struggle around me as the now ivory colored goo travels around his body. "You want daddy to touch you so much? Then have at it!" I can hear my voice take a surreal change as well making it sound like my words are melting as it leaves my now deformed mouth.

The man kept on banging on the door but nothing happened, the d.a.m.n thing is not reacting, no one is opening it for him. Until suddenly, the door cracked, not like how a metal or wood snaps, but the rapture sounded as if it"s made of gla.s.s and it. The crack traveled from all directions as the man continued banging the root. Until finally, the entire corridor we are in crashed as if an explosion hit a wall of gla.s.s and the d.a.m.n surrounding exploded all over the place. Shrapnel of the fall fell over my melted skin but I felt no pain, in fact, the broken pieces of gla.s.s sink on my skin like a struggling man on a quicksand.

The gla.s.sy terrain revealed in its destruction endless darkness, nothingness, and sheer loneliness. I continue to drown the man with my skin but I found a better idea that might be fun for me to pa.s.s the time as I await my new body. I pull the man from the liquid goo that is my skin and holds him with my now skinless arms.

"I will use my equipment to change your reality. Oh, and you"re gonna be a good way to test it, huh? f.u.c.k, I bet that would make the old shop owner happy! Since you wanna be a s.l.u.t, I"m gonna make you a f.u.c.king s.l.u.t magnet! You like that, you f.u.c.king bimbo b.i.t.c.h? Yeah, from now on your name will be John Smith, yeah that"s right, like in Pocahontas! I wanna turn you into a college student and I will monitor you all day! I"ll be sending you a picture of yourself every day to remind you of how much of a f.u.c.king ugly s.l.u.t you are! I"ll keep reminding you every day I am always, always waiting for the right time to kill you and I will make sure you have no memory that this entire thing ever happened! Hah! Don"t you wanna be a student again, huh? Maybe get the attention of some h.o.r.n.y old professors and f.u.c.k them hard till then give you an A? Yeah, you like how that sounds, b.i.t.c.h?" I laughed without a hint of cla.s.s, just pure ecstatic laugh that of a drunk junky. "I will throw you back to our world and when my next body expires, you will be the f.u.c.king replacement!"

The man gasped for air as he tries to whisper, "... have... mercy..."

The skin on my face completely melts off revealing nothing but a dark layer of skin, sort of like hardened mucus with a sticking eyeball.

"We will have so much fun together, John Smith! And I"ll be there to photograph every inch of your suffering and I"ll make sure you"ll feel alone while being surrounded by so many people. The two of us..." I smirk as wide as I can reveal my mouth filled with orange maggots. "... will have so much fun."

"... just... a dream..." the man whispered as the gla.s.s shrapnel that fell all around suddenly went back up again like a video on a rewind. The pieces of gla.s.s returned from whence they came. And as the pieces arranged themselves, my skin too crawls back to my body as if it had a mind of its own, covering me with the ivory goo once again as it forms a shape all over my body.

I stood up and held the near lifeless man up above me like a baby being held by his father towards the sky. My skin sags all over my body again as it tries to reform. As I raise him up, the skin on my arms sags again, forming another set of fatherless-looking wings.

I whisper back at him as I smile gently as the ivory goo moves all over my face, reforming yet again to last another day.

"This is not a dream,"