PSYCHOPOMP - CHAPTER FIFTEEN (Twitter Novel / Keitai Shousetsu)

to start at Chapter One, click here

Wake up. Walk to the bathroom. Take a piss. Walk back. Write in your dream journal. Realize that all the ones you can remember have to do with the freakish couple at Phuket last night. Walk downstairs. Put the water on for coffee. Turn on the computer. Pace. Open the front door to check the weather. Put your hand out. Notice that it is warm and clear and windless. Walk back inside. Spoon coffee into the French press. Pour the now-boiling water into the French press. Wait. Depress the plunger. Pour a cup. Add cream. Take a sip. Take a seat at the computer. Check your e-mail. Become disappointed. Walk to the pantry. Take cigarettes and lighter off top shelf. Walk outside with coffee and cigarettes. Sit down in the wicker chair. Shake out a cigarette. Light it up. Inhale. Exhale. Take a sip of your coffee. Inhale. Exhale. Look across the road, see the sunshine dappling through the elms arrayed by the roadside. Inhale. Exhale.

Look harder. See the sun dappling through the line of elms onto the shiny hood of a black car. Inhale. Exhale. See that the car is behind the elm trees, and realize that this makes no sense. Inhale. Exhale. Stand up. Keep pretending that you must be mistaken, and that everything is going to be okay. Inhale. Exhale. See that the sun is reflecting off the hood of a black American car, indeterminate make, indeterminate vintage. Look harder into the windshield. See the man smiling in the passenger seat. Recognize him from last night at Phuket. Look at the driver. Realize that you cannot make out any of his features because he is completely in shadow. Hear the rear door slam. See the blonde woman from last night at Phuket, grinning her idiot grin, stumble forward. Remember that her name is Suzie. See the smiling man with the crusts over his eyes get out of the car. Remember that his name is Charles.

Listen to Charles. Listen to what he has to say. Listen to him say, “We came to see if you’re ready now. Ready to come with us. We brought the bus driver.” Watch the driver get out of the black car. Realize that he is not dressed in black, he is black, all over, like a photo negative. See his blank gray eyes. See his white sigil tattoos, all over his body. See his mouth, open now, square like a grid, metal mesh like a radio speaker. Listen now, to the chaos of sine waves, radiating across the road, through the air, into your head. Drop the coffee, the cigarette. Run inside, grab for the phone. Alert the authorities.

Continue to Chapter Sixteen by clicking here