Walking throughout the ruins of what had once been Trent Davidsen's studio, I
was overcome by the magnitude of the damage. Everything was destroyed. At a
glance, nothing could possibly have been salvaged. All of the electronics
... the
fireproofed file drawers housing hard copies of the music Trent had written
as
well as the tapes he had recorded... everything was gone. And what the fire
had
not destroyed, the fire department had. Huge chunks of the walls taken
out...
doors beaten in... everything waterlogged... all for the sake of attempting
to
extinguish an inextinguishable fire. What a waste...
As I gingerly stepped around piles of rubble, pools of steaming water, trying
to
navigate my way through the still heavy clouds of smoke and ash, I came to a
door that had not been smashed in... for that matter, the door seemed
untouched
by the devastation surrounding it. I reached for the doorknob, realizing too
late
that it was bound to sear and burn my skin, the heat of the fire still
contained in
the metal of the knob... and yet it was cool to the touch...
I turned the knob and the door opened inward... it was very dark, but enough
light
shown from behind me that my curiosity was piqued, and I entered the room.
It
seemed to be more of a wide corridor than a room... and completely empty.
Taking a few steps into the room, I could make out what appeared to be a
table
some ten feet away... walking over to it, I could make out that it was an
immense
table... maybe 6 feet square... and something white lying on top of it...
covering
most of the surface. As I reached the table, I realized that it was a white
sheet
covering the objects on the table... and apparently the objects beneath the
sheet
covered almost the entire table surface.
I took hold of the sheet and threw it back... and discovered a pair of
bodies, laid
out side by side and it became obvious this was like a physician's examining
table. But there was something wrong with the bodies laying on the table...
because of the darkness of the room, I couldn't quite make out the details.
Reaching into my jeans pocket, I pulled out a cigarette lighter and flicked
it on.
As the small flame penetrated the dark I was horrified to see the bodies had
been
decapitated...
Held by morbid curiosity, I lowered the lighter toward the bodies and saw the
heads of the two bodies lying atop the bodies' chests. I was even more
horrified
to see that the heads of the bodies belonged to Trent and Ishta Davidsen.
Out of horrified shock, I dropped the lighter and went running toward the
door to
escape the room... but the door slammed shut and locked of its own accord...
a
growing greenish-yellow cast of light began emanating from the ceiling... and
from
all directions, I could hear laughter... a man's laughter... no, that could
be no
man... Sweet Jesus, help me... He had done this! It was Burton... Burton
Jones...
And I began to scream...
*****
Sitting up in bed screaming... the images rapidly fading from my
subconscience, I
realized it had been just a dream... I looked over to Daren's sleeping form
beside
me, needing to have his strong arms around me, protecting me, telling me it
was
all right, lulling me back to sleep... but he was still asleep himself, his
back to
me...
I leaned over Daren's sleeping body to kiss his cheek... probably
subconsciously
hoping to rouse him to at least roll over and put his arm around me... but as
my
lips touched his cheek, he began to chuckle... and then to laugh hideously...
and I
realized too late that it wasn't Daren in my bed, but Burton Jones... and I
began
screaming...
*****
I sat up in bed, in a cold sweat, quickly looking over at the empty pillow
beside
me... Daren hadn't spent the night because he had a full and early day come
morning... I glanced at the clock... it was 4:26 a.m.
I got up and made a pot of coffee vowing never to eat pepperoni pizza again
before going to bed...
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