Who are these people? Why are they smiling at me?
"Don't smile! Take the kids out of the room! Can't you see?..Can't you see? There is a man hanging above the dinner table! Stop smiling...
You disgust me! I went to all this trouble for you...do you know how hard it is to hang a man from the ceiling? What do you want me to do to make you see? Flay him? Gut him? Just because he's dead, it doesn't make him invisible...You rotten people! I am going to hang you next to him if it makes you see..Look at him! I SAID LOOK AT HIM!!"
There was a short, indistinct pop when my eyelids snapped open. I felt them dry and itchy whereas the rest of my body was swimming in sweat and shivering under the covers.
"Every night the same thing...when is it ever going to stop?" I wondered and looked at my pale face into the small mirror above the bathroom sink.
Cold, running water froze my hands and I twitched but then how else was I supposed to get rid of all that grime under my fingernails, I hate dirty fingernails...What is this thing anyway?
A thin, red film of a red, fleshy substance fell in the white bowl as I scrubbed the tips of my fingers as hard as I could.
"Maybe I scratched myself or something."
I lifted my pyjama trousers but my legs were intact and so were my arms and back.
On my way to the kitchen, I stopped and sniffed. There was that smell again, like a thousand dogs were rotting behind my walls. My empty stomach rolled in disgust and I started to open all the doors and widows of my flat to let some fresh, night air in.
(Photo by Aristotle C. Pramagioulis)
I ran to her, grabbed her from the shoulders and shook her with all my strength. Her head rolled backed and forth like a stuffed doll's but she didn't move nor did she resist. She just stared ahead with her big, brown eyes and suddenly opened her mouth in a great, long oh. It was all black inside, its thick inky stuff oozing out on her chest. It smelt of decay and I pulled back disgusted.
Then something inside her mouth moved. A black scorpion tail came out and rested on her cheek. I stared in terror at the thing.
"Why did you kill the two women and children?" I asked softly.
"I killed no one." she said but her mouth never moved.
"I am going to end this.." I said and felt the long kitchen knife in my hands. With swift movements I sliced her wrists and stabbed her chest, yet again she didn't move.
By now the scorpion had come out of her mouth completely. I bent closer without knowing why and it leapt on my face.
"No, no..." I shouted but the moment my mouth opened it went in it.
I choked, put my hands inside my mouth and tried to pull in out.
Nausea, horror and sharp pain.
I glared at her, still bleeding on her floor. "I hate you.." I choke.
"I didn't kill anyone." she mouthed, "You did."
My eyes snapped open and immediately the pain travelled down my nervous system, all the way to my feet.
I was standing. I was not in bed.
I was standing in from of the bathroom sink, covered in blood.
The big, kitchen knife was in the sink and so were three of my teeth..Had I pulled them out?
Blood was oozing from my mouth and and I fell on the floor, confused and horrified. The putrid smell reached my nostrils; it emanated from the very floor underneath me...under the bathroom tiles.
Vomit and blood escaped my mouth and I saw something moving inside it. It moved on the floor away from me and crept inside the crack of a broken tile.
It was a black scorpion.
