Oct 30, 2013

The Apartment

There is something strange about (wrong with) this apartment.

When I stand directly in front of the main door (escape route), I can look down the narrow (claustrophobic) hall into the bathroom at the far end. I can see the tub (closed shower curtain), the rounded front of the toilet seat. There is no window (escape route) in the bathroom. I have to pee.

I walk slowly (fearfully) down the hall, aware of the pressure on my bladder (the weight of six feet of dirt on a closed coffin). On my left, a door opens onto a bedroom. There are too many beds (an impossible number of beds) inside this room. Who lives here? (Do I live here?) This room is safe. I can feel it.

A throbbing in the air as I proceed (am drawn) to the end of the hall. On my left, another door opens onto another bedroom. This room is empty (no it isn't). I need something from this room (I don't want to go into this room). I'll pee first, and then I'll get the thing that I need and leave (what is it that I need?).

The light switch in the bathroom does not work. I leave the door open. Red light from the second bedroom filters (pulses) in. I do not look in the mirror (look). I do not look behind the closed shower curtain (look). I push my pants down and pee, pushing the urine out of my body as fast as I can, wipe, flush.

The red light throbs (calls) and I enter the room. I look around to find that thing that I need (what do I NEED?) but the room is empty (no it isn't) and my pulse (the pulse in the room) quickens and suddenly there is something in front of me (there is something EVERYWHERE) and I (try to) scream and I (try to) run and I make it out into the hall and there is the doorway (escape route) at the (impossibly) far end of the hall and I somehow reach the door and something is behind me and I fumble with the lock and I am going to die (yes) if I can't unlatch this chain and the chain falls free (no it doesn't) and I twist the doorknob and yank the door open (the door remains closed) and I run out into the hall and past the elevator (there is no elevator) and slam the door to the stairwell open (there is no stairwell) and I fly down the stairs two and three at a time (there are no stairs) until I reach the main floor and I escape (no you don't) into the black, black night.