Man In Picture Chapter One v3.0

I know things you don’t. Things you can’t. Things you would deny vehemently even if you knew them to be true.

Because of these things I know, I have suffered.

I am going to tell you a story. Before I am done, you will be sorry you heard it. By the time I am done you will most likely begin to doubt everything you thought you knew. Before I am done, you will have trouble resting your head on your pillow at night. By the time I am done, there will be no peace in your bed, between your sheets and blankets or in your head while it rests on your pillow.  Because you will see no reason why it cannot happen to you.

This is not my objective.

Well, maybe it is.

Sorry.

All human beings serve at the pleasure of evil no matter what name they give it.

I know that now.

I feel like I first noticed him by accident.  I didn’t see him as the goddamn devil or anything.  Not at first anyway.  No horns,  no cloven hooves, no bifurcated tongue or stench of brimstone.  He did smell dirty.  Porcine.  I will tell you that before it was all over I was reduced to praying to a God I never believed in.

It was no accident.

Still, in the beginning, I had fun with it.  For awhile.  It’s true, I did. I wasn’t afraid at first.  Not really anyway.  I was cocky.  Dumb.  Cynical.

At first it was like picking a scab or scratching a rash.  I hated it but I liked it.  Savory and sweet.  It’s how evil works.

All this until he stood over my bed one windless night and some sense caused me to open my eyes.  To surface from twilight wandering.  He inhaled with a rattle.  He sucked back ropes and vines of spittle and mucus from his lips and giant teeth.  He dropped an index finger on my sternum and it reeked of dirt and grease and gasoline.  His nails were long, black and mottled.  He said nothing but he looked right at me.  Not through me, but straight at me.  He stank of things rotting and seething in dark places.

He fucking stank.

He sighed then, as though he lamented being so disturbing.  Like he was sorry for just how horrific he was, lit only by the moon breaking through my window behind him.

He paused for a time and vibrated with naked rage over my bed with his finger on my chest.

I was frozen.  Paralyzed. The sliding door to my balcony was open,  and some breeze finally clattered the vertical blinds, bringing the odor of animals.  Pig shit.  He turned and walked away tapping the walls as he went, away from my bed and out my front door. I heard him close it quietly behind him and somehow lock it from outside.  He rapped the walls with his knuckles all the way down the hall and down the stairs to the street exit.

I know because I heard it.  Somehow, I could hear it.

The cancer seduces you and before you know it, you’re complicit.  You are stained all over.  Within the cage of a single season I was neck deep.  I was delivered from sobriety and inebriation into madness.

I slept in my own piss.

Goddamn.

 

7 Responses to “Man In Picture Chapter One v3.0”

  • David:

    Sometimes it takes the suspension of disbelief to begin believing in something we’ve denied ourselves. Sometimes it takes an actual event or powerful vision to make us embrace change. And other times, well just a few hits of acid and a powerful giant bong hit. Whatever your demon is Mike, you have enough in you to beat it…

  • Guido Colacci:

    WHEW! Like a punch to the solar plexus delivered with the thrust of truth… AMAZING Michael…

  • reiya:

    I MET THEM ONE DAY AS I STROLLED BY ADMIRING THEIR LOVELY GARDEN
    SHE REACHES OVER THE FADED WOOD FENCE TO EXTEND HER SMALL KNARLED INTO MY PALM. WITH NO RESISTANCE I’M BEING SUCKED INTO
    THEIR WORLD OF BOTANY AND TAXIDERMY. SHE HAS A PH.D,IN SOME SUCH
    SCIENCE, HE STUDIES INDIGENOUS TRIBES oF THE CARRIBEAN, & HATTIE
    ALONG WITH ANIMALS, WHICH HAVE GONE EXTINCT.

    THEY SAY NOT TO COVET,THAT WHICH IS NOT YOURS AND TRULY
    I WAS ONLY ADMIRING THE UNUSUAL FLOWERS, IN THE EXTENSIVE GARDEN
    THEY KEEP. AS I SAY IN SOMEWHAT OF FRENZY THIS SMALLISH ENERGETIC WOMEN INVITES ME IN TO GIVES ME A TOUR. OBVIOUSLY THESE PEOPLE HAVE UNIQUE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HERBS AND HEALING POTIONS.
    AFTER A TIME GATHERING BERRIES, FLOWERS , SEEDS AND THISTLES WE
    GO UP THESE CREAKY WOODEN STEPS INTO HER KITCHEN. I WATCH HER SQUEEZE A LARGE RIPE FRUIT INTO THE BOILING WATER ON THE FIRE,WHEN EDGAR THE TAXIDERMIST, BOUNDS INTO THE KITCHEN.

    AS WE ARE INTRODUCED, I OBSERVE HIS OILY HAIR, AND THE SAME SHINY
    WAXY PINK FACIAL GLO, THAT THE WIFE EDDY HAS.

    I DON’T KNOW I GUESS I WAS ALSO A BIT LONELY FOR HUMAN INTERACTION. I’D BEEN CAMPING AT THE END OF THE DEAD END STREET,
    IN A SMALL R.V., I’D ACQUIRED FROM A FAMILY MEMBER WHO HAD
    RECENTLY PASSED AWAY. THE LOTS ON THE STREET WITH LARGE OLD HOUSES WERE VERY LARGE HARKING BACK TO A TIME LONG AGO.

    TO BE CONTINUED..,

  • reiya:

    I NEED TO GET SOME SLEEP; THE NIGHTS START OUT O.K., PARKED ON THE RIVER I HEAR TO THE WATER ROLL AND SING AGAINST THE ROCKS,DASHING TO PURIFY THE CITY BELOW. THEN RIGHT ABOUT 1A.M. I’M STARTLED AWAKE, BY A HORRIFIC HIGH PITCHED WHINE, AND A LOUD SNAPING VIBRATION, THEN A PREHISTORIC GRINDING SOUND. I GO STIFF, JUST FREEZE IN FEAR. I’M THINKING TO MYSELF PLEASE THIS IS ONLY A NIGHTMARE; HAVE ALIENS LANDED? CAMPING ALONE REALLY SUCKS. WHAT AN IDIOT I WAS TO VENTURE UP TO AN AREA WHERE I CAN’T GET PHONE RECEPTION. I’M FRICKING PETRIFIED, FROZEN SCARRED, THE BONES AND JOINTS ALL OVER MY BODY ACHE…SEEMS HOURS PASS BY, WHAT ARE THOSE SOUNDS,I WANT TO BELIEVE IT IS MOVING AWAY, AND OCCURING LESS FREQUENTLY… I HEAR OTHER ODD SOUNDS,A SUTTLE SHIFTING & OTHER QUIET MOVEMENTS, BREATHING? PAIN AND STILLNESS PUSHES ME TO LIFT MY BODY UP TO LOOK OUT THE WINDOW… THE AIR IS THICK WITH A WET COLD VAPOROUS BOG. THE GREY COLD MIST IS SOLID LIKE AN OPPRESSIVE STEAMY FOAM.

    I STRUGGLE TO SEE MY SURROUNDINGS OUT THERE. I’M STRUGGELING TO BREATH, THE WORLD IS CLOSING IN AND SUFFOCATING ME. THIS IS FUCKED, I WONDER ABOUT THAT WIERD COUPLE OVER IN THE LARGE HOUSE; HOW WIERD ARE THEY? I GET NO COMFORT FROM MY THOUGHTS, I SHOULDN’T THINK ANYWAY…I CAN’T! I PROP UP MY PILLOWS, KEEP BREATHING, BRACE MYSELF BUT LAY BACK IN BED, HALF SETTING UP. ANOTHER HOUR GOES BY, I ASSURE MYSELF,MORNING IS DUE SOON.

    THIS IS THE WORLD, YUK… IT’S HELL’A UNPREDICTABLE, THAT’S LIFE! I’M NOT GOING TO STOP LIVING OVER ANY SHIT, I DECIDE TO CREATE AN ATTITUDE OF COMFORT, I AM WOMAN I CAN ROAR…HAaa, BULL SHIT. I JUST WANT FUCKING REST. I BEGAN TO DRIFT ..BUT STILL FEEL THE DAMP COLD, AND CHILLED BONES.

    I RECLINE, SWATTLED IN BLANKETS, AND DRIFT. WHEN I OPEN MY EYES LOOKING FOR THE LIGHT OF DAY,THAT IS WHEN THE REAL HELL BEGINS. STARRING INTENTLY AT ME, THREE INCHES FROM MY FACE ARE TWO GIGANTIC HORRIFFICLY SHINNY PITCH BLACK EYES. HOW CAN THOSE EYES HAVE A SHINE; THERE IS NO LIGHT ANYWHERE NEAR HERE? NO.. CAN THIS BE HAPPENIG?…I’M ALONE IN HELL, I CAN’T SCREAM, OR REACT..THIS IS REAL BUT WHAT; I’VE NEVER SEEN EYE’S THAT ENORMOUS OR THAT TEXTURE OR COLOR, EVER! WHAT DOES THIS BEING WANT, INCHES FROM ME AS IT IS READING AND WATCHING ME BREATH… AS I EXHALE, IT SUCKS IN MY CARBON DIOXIDE, BATS IT’S WIERD GLOBLIAL ANGLED EYES, SEEMS TO SMIRK & GULPS.

    JESUS…, A STILLED GLEAMING SLIMY BLACK DARKNESS, IS WATCHING ME.

  • CH:

    Hey brother, I don’t have my original handy to pick and peek at, but this reads pretty damn good. Is this line new?: He stank of things rotting and seething in dark places. That’s my kind of rotten stank. Good to see Brainspank is back in action. I’d of notices earlier, but my head can only see so much when it’s so firmly packed up my own fudge factory…

  • Ga Underwood:

    My favorite genre. I feel fully present in the room. “All human beings serve at the pleasure of evil no matter what name they give it.”–> I love that. Now I’m hungry for more! Thank you for sharing and for serving this tasty treat. Hopefully it was the appetizer preceding the next course.

  • SwapnaBaumann:

    I dont know what to think. I did feel sick to my stomach….it felt real. I wish I had not read this.

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