Death of a Nightmare

Anne sat in the deep dark leather chair across from a large desk ornamented with metal snarling gargoyle handles with their faces twisted into various screams. Perhaps the boss’ relatives? Anne put her hands in her lap. Too formal. Maybe cross her arms? No, too angry. Perhaps elbows on the armrests with hands folded? That seemed slightly better. She felt the dampness of her hands and tried drying them against her wrinkled blouse. The door burst open like a screen door in a hurricane and Anne jumped.

The boss, always a consummate professional, slinked past her with nothing more than a chill breeze against the back of her neck before its black mass materialized into a toothy amorphous blob that roughly took up the shape of the large leather chair on the other side of the enormous desk.

A tentacle shot out of the black blob, suctioned to a clipboard on the desk, and then whipped back into the haze.

“These numbers are truly terrible. Some of the worst I have ever seen.” Pupilless eyes appeared and stared at Anne, who still seemed preoccupied with smoothing out her skirt.

Anne sighed, “I’m sorry. I’ve just been off my game recently.”

Anne could hear the echo of pages being sifted through from somewhere deep in the blob of darkness.

“Seems like you’ve been having a bad year. These are truly the worst fear numbers I have ever seen.”

Anne shifted in her chair as the leather squeaked like some dying bird’s last gasp at life, “It's not my fault, it's that new Klevinix drug everyone is taking…”

“I don’t want to hear excuses, I want to hear solutions.”

Anne tried to think of something, “Maybe, I could be a mime or a clown?”

The pointed teeth of the black blob turned to a frown. “We both know you’d make a terrible mime and I know people in the office think that being a clown is easy, but it takes real talent to pull it off. Back in my day clowns made children happy. It took years of hard work and PR to get where clowns are now.”

Somehow Annie could sense the pupilless eyes conveying annoyance.

“It’s almost midnight. I’ll give you one more witching hour to raise your score or you’re fired.”

Anne threw herself to her feet, “WHAT? One hour? That’s impossible! I could never do it.”

“Well you better figure it out sweetheart.”

Anne’s chest started to tighten, her hands went numb, “What even happens to someone like me if they get fired?”

The eyes retreated back into the blob before it slunk towards the door like a long shadow, The boss’ reply echoed from each corner of the room right before the door slammed shut. “Don’t know, don’t care. At the moment you’re completely useless to me.”

Last time she was in this office she was accepting a reward for her absolutely brilliant tooth loss dreams. Tapping into those deeper anxieties had always felt more poetic than the creepy jump scares that seemed to be all the rage these days. She took a deep breath and tried to exhale her way into some sort of calm. It didn’t work. It never worked.

She hurried back to her desk and paged through her old files. She’d need an easy mark tonight. Her fingers settled on a man named Parker Smith. Hypochondriac, toxic girlfriend, stressful job, and oh thank god, his cat is dying.

The first gong of midnight vibrated through the office. A tarantula in the cubicle next door took his last sip of coffee before pressing a button on his desk and disappearing in a quick puff of black smoke. Annie looked across the office as other puffs of black smoke rose from other cubicles. “Goodbye everyone. It was nice knowing you.” she whispered to an empty office. 

Just as the last gong of midnight struck, Anne too, turned to smoke.

Anne appeared in complete blackness, illuminated with only enough light to look down at her clipboard by some unknown light source from above.

Without words or gestures the blackness morphed into the inside of a house with white walls, white floors, and white furniture. The paintings on the wall were empty white canvas surrounded by large white frames. A white bed with white blankets appeared in the middle of the room with a man, Parker, sleeping in it.

A white fluffy cat, appearing from nowhere, hopped onto the bed with a purr loud enough to vibrate through the mattress springs. It flicked its flowy long tail at the face of the man till his nose wriggled. The man opened one eye and smiled before scooping the cat into his arms, “Oh my little Snookums how are you today? Are we doing so well? Oh yes we are.” 

The cat leapt from the man's arms off of the bed. In the corner of the room a gray aluminum trash can appeared, tuned on its side, leaking some sort of phosphorescent green liquid mixed with white chunks of maggots and the smell of rotting meat. The cat sauntered over to it, turning its head back to look at the man as it licked its lips.

“Don’t you dare.” said the man, like he was scolding a toddler. The man tried to get up, but his legs felt tangled in blankets. The cat dropped his head and gave the green ooze a good sniff before turning his head back once again.

“Don’t you do it Snookums. Don’t you do it." He tried to move his legs but they seemed stuck in mud. He swung his upper body towards his cat and fell to the floor beside the bed. Snookums lowered his head, “No Snookums! No!”

The cat lapped up the green liquid with loud slurps as clumps of wriggling maggots gloopped onto the cat’s tongue. The man crawled towards the cat, his legs dragging behind him. Just as the man reached out to grab Snookums, the cat turned and rolled around in the green goop. It steamed and hissed as the long fur squished into it, matted with white pulsing clusters of writhing bugs.

The man grabbed his sticky wet cat and pulled it towards his chest. Immediately, Snookum's fur wilted off of his body. The cat began to heave, its back arched. Gallon after gallon of maggot infested meat spewed from the cat’s mouth and onto the man's chest. The man screamed.

Anne snapped her fingers and the scene flashed to another location. The man stood behind thick glass peering into a small room with Snookums chained to an operating table and a single yellow light dangling from above. Only a few strands of white hair remained, revealing a dark gray skin underneath, pockmarked with oozing sores. A feeding tube reached into his mouth and the only sign of life was the incredibly quick rise and fall of his chest.

The man began to cry, “Why Snookum’s why?”

Snookums turned his head towards the man and gave a weak cough, “hooman,” it whispered, in a pathetic child-like voice,  “why did you let me eat the garbage? I thought you loved me hooman.”

“I do love you,” sobbed the man, his hands and face pressed hard against the glass “I tried to stop you.”

“I… I can’t hear you hooman.” The voice ran cold. The eyes turned glassy. “All I feel is loneliness and betrayal.” Then somewhere off in the distance a heart monitor flat lined, and the cat’s eyes closed for the last time.

“A little over the top don’t you think?”

Anne turned on her heels. Shit. It was Kevin.

“What are you doing here?”

Kevin walked slowly towards her before meeting her with a cool smile cocked to one side, “My job, of course. Same as you.”

He peeked a look at the now dead and chained up Snookums, “Getting a bit desperate are we?”

Parker peeled his hands off of the glass that separated him from the cat and stopped crying and looked at Kevin.

“I mean, what kind of hospital is this supposed to be?” Kevin chuckled, as he mindlessly pointed about the room. “And cats can talk now for some reason?” He laughed again, “I mean, where’s the subtlety? I’ve seen a lot better from you.”

In Anne’s haste she hadn’t completely built the room and Kevin simply walked around the thick glass and into the room with the cat like he was visiting the set of a low budget television show. He touched the dangling light fixture and it immediately detached from the ceiling and crashed onto the table below. Kevin squealed, but it morphed effortlessly into a laugh.

As Kevin pointed out the flaws around the room, the hospital began to shake and blur like an old movie film. Parker seemed to stand a bit straighter, his tears now completely dry.

Anne gritted her teeth and clenched her jaw, “leave, I’m busy.”

Kevin shrugged, “You know I can’t.”

He approached Parker and slapped him on the shoulder, “Your cat’s going to be fine. Cats just act weird sometimes.”

Anne rolled her eyes, “That’s not true.”

“Of course it is, the one universal truth about cats is that they’re weird.”

“No, not that. That his cat is going to be fine. It is clearly dying.”

“So says you.” Kevin gestured for the man to look at the cat, “It doesn’t even look like his cat. His cat’s a tabby.”

 The dreaming man looked back at the cat and seemed to consider the room for the first time, like a man first coming out of a coma. The hospital blurred almost out of existence, like a camera searching in vain for something to focus on.

Anne tried to burn Kevin with her eyes, “I can’t do this with you tonight. Stay out of my way.”

With a flick of her wrist the last vestiges of the hospital disappeared and gave way to a beautiful small chapel with beams of bright yellow light steaming in through stained glass windows. High ceilings echoed the sound of an organ playing the Bridal Chorus over a hushed crowd of well dressed onlookers. Parker stood on the edge of a stage at the front of the chapel flanked by a set of well dressed men and women.

The door to the back of the chapel flung open and a slender woman in a white gown with a brilliant long train slowly made her way down the aisle.

The officiator, a large round man with only a wisp of hair left at the top of his head, motioned for everyone to sit and the ceremony began. Anne checked the clock against one of the walls, already 12:30. The minister skipped right to the vows.

“Do you Parker, take this woman to be your wife?”

Parker smiled and squeezed his bride’s hands, “I do.”

The officiant turned to the bride, “And do you…” shit, Anne hadn’t bothered to learn the girlfriends name, “... future bride. Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

The bride pursed her lips and looked over Parker’s shoulder towards the line of groomsmen. She smiled at Parker, but in the way one smiles at a small child or a cashier at the grocery store. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.”

She pulled her hands out of Parker’s and approached the best man, throwing her arms around him and kissing him. Tongue - so much tongue. A few in the crowd gasped, a few awed, but the kiss lasted long enough for the stunned Parker to be left in silence. The bride, winded from the kiss, finally turned to Parker, “I’m sorry Parker, but I’m actually in love with your best man. I have been for ages.” She squeezed the best man’s biceps and giggled before continuing, “He’s just better than you. He makes way more money, he’s a way better kisser.” The crowd murmured in agreement. She dropped to one knee in front of the best man, “Will you marry me?”.

The best man gave an enthusiastic yes and whisked the bride off her feet as the organ sprang to life with triumphant music and the crowd applauded.

“Wait, I have a great idea,” the bride yelled between giggles, “Why don’t we just get married right now.” 

The two of them giggled their way up to the altar as the other bridesmaids and groomsmen ushered the now stunned Parker to an empty spot in the front row.

The officiator moved straight to the vows, seemingly unperturbed, but only got to “Do you” before clutching his chest and falling to his knees. 

“My heart…” 

The crowd gasped. Two of the groomsman caught the man before he could tip over the edge of the stage. They dragged him to the side of the sanctuary and performed CPR. “We’re losing him!” Someone shouted. The man gasped, and clutched his chest again, “Please, I beg you, my last request is that this wedding would continue.” And then with one final exhale his body went limp.

A moment of silence descended on the crowd, the two new love birds still standing at the altar. 

“How will we get married if the pastor is dead?”, the new bride pouted.

Then the best man, now the groom, smiled and ran towards Parker in the first row, “Parker, didn’t you take that online ordination class last summer? You could marry us.”

“Hold it, hold it, hold it,” Kevin waved his hands in the air from the back pew of the chapel. He turned to Anne. “My god Anne, I admit the heart attack took me by surprise, but this has to be a new low for you.”

Anne felt the blood rush to her face as the other guests froze in mid motion around her.

“You didn’t even bother to check his girlfriend's name.”

“Shut up.” was all Anne could muster.

Kevin strutted down the aisle towards Parker with the same cocked smile from before, “Parker, you know your girlfriend loves you. She is crazy about you. She’d never cheat

on you.” 

Parker looked over at his frozen girlfriend and the whole chapel flickered into a blurry kaleidoscope for a brief moment.

Anne scoffed, “You know that’s not true.” She held up the clipboard in her hand and pointed to it. Her eyes challenged a response. 

Kevin brushed it away with his hand, “Don’t be silly.”

Anne huffed, “It's all right here.” She paged through the papers, “His girlfriend is cheating on him with two of his friends right now. Just the other night he saw her texting his best friend. She wrote, and I quote, ‘Eggplant emoji, peach emoji, tomorrow night.’ What more damning evidence do you need?”

“Clearly a shopping list. And besides, Parker isn’t an ordained minister. He can’t do weddings.”

Parker nodded his head in agreement and the colorful scenes in the stained glass windows started to dissolve into drooping irregular shapes that deflected colorful light like a garish disco ball.

“Don’t try to change the subject.” She threw her finger at Kevin, dropping her clipboard in the process. “You are delusional and you have made my job impossible. These idiots will believe anything you tell them. Why won’t you just go away!” 

She tried to say more, but only an unintelligible warble came out. And soon after, her eyes filled with tears.

Kevin’s smile softened and his shoulders dropped and he inched a little closer to Anne, “Hey, why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?”

Anne tried to keep her teeth clenched, but before she realized what was happening, drops of tears spilled down her face.

“They are going to fire me. If I don’t have the best nightmare of my career tonight, I’m done for.” 

Kevin looked down at the floor, “ah, I see. Maybe there is something I could do to help.”

“No, there’s nothing, it's already 12:45. I only have 15 minutes. There isn’t enough time.” snot started pouring from her nose.

“Perhaps I can help in another way.” Kevin reached into his pocket and pulled out a green and white pill with the trademark name stamped onto the side, “Klevinix”.

She looked at the clock and then back to the pill. What did it matter now anyways. She took the pill and threw it into her mouth. Kevin gently patted her on the back.

“They won’t fire you, you’re great at your job. They’ll give you a second chance and you are going to come up with the best nightmares they have ever seen. I think your boss really likes you. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

Anne could feel her heart rate slowing and her tears had finally stopped. She took a deep breath, and this time she could feel the exhale warm her body. Kevin was right. She would be fine, nothing bad would happen to her. She was worried over nothing. She sat down on one of the now empty pews and closed her eyes. And let this new feeling wash over her like a cleansing cool rain. She stayed like that until the last gong of 3 o'clock echoed through the chapel. 

When she opened her eyes she was already in the boss’s office. She let her hands dangle off the sides of the chair and her body slump. Her boss’s black blob seemed to ungulate in an erratic manner, teeth in a menacing snarl. But she could hardly care or listen. The words sounded like whispered poetry, beautiful but unintelligible. She was good. She had no worries.

She watched as some hairy thing from security put some of her belongings in a brown box and then escorted her to the door. She could still hear Kevin’s voice as the door opened and revealed an inky blackness, “There’s nothing to worry about. It's all good.” And then she stepped through the door into nothingness.