Tinnitus pervaded the depths of my mind, drowning the silence surrounding me, contorting into screams encouraging me to capitulate. A jarring clatter sprung forth from the depths that held me hostage-coldness rushed through my subcutaneous tissues. The sound sought me, it had for every night for seemingly an eternity, it had purpose.
I awoke to my alarm, darned thing, another needlessly early morning. My jaw ached, it had probably been clenched throughout the vague eternity that I had recalled. I trudged to the bathroom, somewhat dragging my hefty body. I took a gasp of water to quench my thirst, and hunched over the sink, staring at my visage- pale and sunken with glazed eyes.
I lay in bed for the remaining hours of the early morning. During the day my coworkers showered me with their concerns, I replied in a lacklustre tone- too drained to express emotions beyond the primal domain. Arriving home for the day, hanging my standard issue leather broad-brimmed hat, I was once again tormented by the looming threat of sleep, however my exhaustion caught up to me and I proceeded to lose consciousness.
At work I felt a bit tired, however I got through the day. I hyper focused on my monitoring duty and end up working into the eve. I closed up the office for the day, and make my way outside. I had forgotten that I had walked to work that day. The night approached peculiarly fast and I feared the prospect of sleep that accompanied it, even although my deam the night prior was untainted...wasn't it?
...
I have no recollection of last night nor this morning. My ears begin to ring, the noise disfiguring to maniacal laughter. I ponderously pan my head around the wood that sprouted from the plains I had been walking through.
The enigma of my terror met my gaze, the spotlights implanted in its skull shifted from pale yellow to a blue-magenta, its malice affixed upon me. The truncated cone forming what one would describe as its head and neck sent a pulse toward the stump, as though attempting a vocalisation, the tar like undercarriage of its cranium burst to reveal a mouth- scattered masses of dentin and churning bones trying to crunch together in order to create a coherent jaw. The tar on its mimic neck congealed and tensioned into fibrous cords which proceeded to reverberate to convey its amusement in a laugh that sounded like steel cabling being whipped in a hurricane zephyr. It cocked its head to the side and flashed a mocking grin. I tried to sprint- no response from my legs, I slumped to my knees, the tears of a corpse subdividing my lower face. The creature pulled a discontented expression; I laughed- my shredded mind irked me to do so. I felt my eyes rotate to face my sockets and began to bore through my orbitals, puncturing the cranial cavity and being lathered in cerebrospinal fluid.
I stared into the depths of my mind.
I awoke, a thirst urged me to the bathroom. My body felt dense and sluggish. I opened the faucet and placed my lips into my cupped hands. Abrasive, the tang of iron distinct and intertwined with the taste of decayed meninges- a flavour tellingly implanted in my mind- the liquid was curdled and possessed a grainy consistency. I reviled at the concoction. I stood in front of the mirror; my face was not my own.
