Continuing the Story

That time stamp. What? It says my last post went up like two minutes after the previous one, even though my time in the electroshock room was at least 20 minutes, including the time it took to be brought in. And the City...I was in there for at least a day.

Time...what is time? It makes no sense now...

Anyway, after I entered the Door I found myself on top of a building. I nearly died by stepping off the edge by mistake. In fact, I did step off the edge. I just happened to suddenly find myself in a stagnant swimming pool in the backyard of a worn-down, abandoned house.

Spitting leaves from my mouth, I climbed out and looked around. No birds. No bugs. No people. Nothing. Nothing at all.

I decided to check out the house. It was boarded up, so I had a time of tearing some of them free from the back door. Inside were just piles of dust. No furniture. No signs at all that anyone had ever lived there. I slept awhile. Exhaustion makes you accept any bed you're offered.

When I awoke, the Voice returned. "Go back into the water. It's the only way you can ever find your way out."

I was puzzled, but this Voice had been right before, so I went outside and dived back in.

And I dived in. And I dived in. And I dived in. I thought I would be stuck like this forever. Was this some kind of purgatory?

At last I found myself running down a long street between two high buildings. When I reached the halfway point, I found myself face to face with someone I hadn't seen until I was almost upon him.

He stared me in the eyes, but seemed not to be addressing me. "The Bright Ones will not be pleased!" he cried. "The Bright Ones will NOT BE PLEASED!!!"

Then, before I could say anything, he took out a knife and drew it across his neck.

I winced. "No!" I wanted to shout, but it stuck in my throat.

His head flopped backward, the cut having been deep enough that he was almost decapitated. He fell backward to the ground, motionless. Curiously, there was no blood from the wound.

I felt sick to my stomach as his skin began to writhe in unnatural undulating movements. A beak poked out of the hole. Then some feathers. Soon, an entire bird, some kind of large crow, emerged, followed quickly by dozens of others.

I was frozen in shock. This unimaginable gathering of birds had just flown out of a dead man's body, like Pegasus from Medusa. As they flew, a dark cloud without rain moving over the city, they screeched so loud I had to plug my ears with my fingers as deep as they would go.

I had pushed too far in. My ears began to bleed. As I recovered my bearings and turned to finish the journey down this dismal road, I saw that it was now a dead end where before it had been open.

"Follow the birds," said a familiar voice. It was mine. I was standing there before me. But the other me had dirty, damaged clothes.

"Follow the birds," he (I) said again, this time more sternly. "Hurry!"

Trusting that myself was a worthy guide, I did as I was told and followed the birds. They had gone over one of the buildings, but there was a door that I was able to enter. I ran through the empty building to the other side, where a wall had been knocked down.

From there I was able to follow the screeching birds (fortunately they were far enough away that their shrieks did not cause pain, yet close enough to see) through the streets for awhile. I think I could see flashes of lightning from time to time. After what seemed like hours, and being close to losing sight of the winged monstrosities, I saw another Door. I opened it and stepped through.

I was in an elevator which seemed to be racing to the top of some skyscraper, the cables whining under the strain. Then, the elevator froze.

Before I knew what was happening, it began to plummet back down in a free fall. I knew then that I was going to die. However, in the free fall, I was weightless, like floating in space. A Door appeared in the middle of the ceiling, where the hatch would be. I reached upward and grabbed the knob. I turned it, opened it, and pushed myself through. As the Door closed behind under me, I could hear the tremendous crash that I had barely escaped.

I found myself in the middle of a sidewalk, with the birds in sight again. I continued following them until a rather tall Door stood before me and the birds. I went through after them, but when I emerged I was in my bedroom again, the birds nowhere around.

After cleaning myself up and trying to process what had happened, I wrote down the previous post.

That electroshock doohickey was something else, though. My head's better now, but that feeling sure lasted awhile. I hope there's no permanent damage.