I heard them at night. The sound of their voices carrying through paper thin walls, sharing their sinister secrets. When I first met them upon moving into the small duplex that has become my prison they seemed like a normal couple. Normal enough...
(more)
The couple, their cat, a bookshelf stuffed with dusty tomes that I didn't bother to examine. The tour of their congruent side of the home was brief and hurried, they said it was only because "Your half is the exact same, and repetition is so dreadfully boring." Smiling the whole time.
The first night was fine. I sleep like the dead. But the next night, it took longer. The next even longer, and the next longer still! Medication didn't work, nor any paltry folk remedy.
I started talking as I lay in bed. Nonsense at first, or so it seemed to me. I had no idea where the garbled phrases were coming from, I just uttered them as my mind slowly descended into dreams and it helped.
The more I talked the more I slept but then I started hearing them. They were talking about me. In the drab darkness of December their intent for me became clear.
A gateway. That's what they wanted me to be. My mind replaced by some one... no /something/ else's. Then I had a thought. "Leave," my mind whispered, and the simplicity was so beautiful.
So I tried, but they knew and now I'm here. I'm sitting on the cheap sofa and I can't stop talking. The guttural grumbling has become frighteningly macabre material but no matter how much I try my jaw jabbers up and down without end. I can't stop repeating the words.
I want to leave, but I can't. I can see the silhouette of someone out there.(less)
