[Keith Stryton III]

I came home from a walk in the park where I watched the ducks and rearranged my chairs in my front room. I placed them in each of the four corners. Then I lay on my bed, face down, and whispered the words to a sacred verse. Now from darkness, there springs light; Wall of Sleep is cold and bright; Wall of Sleep is lying broken; Sun shines in, you are awoken. I got up then. I opened my bedroom door. The front room was silent, except for an intense humming. The chairs were where I had left them. But now there was a black door in the middle of the room. I walked around the door. It didn't seem to lead anywhere. I opened it.

Immediately I saw a scene from last night. Melvyn, Sam and Nige all on my sofa. They were laughing, but in their hands they held serpents. The moon shone through the window like a murderous face. Then, as I looked again, I realised Sam wasn't there.

"Where's Sam?" I asked.

Nige looked up at me. His voice sounded like a slowed-down record. "He went up there," he said, and he gestured to a flight of stairs in the corner of my room.

"I've never seen that before," I said. I walked up there. Melvyn and Nige stood up from the sofa and watched me ascend. They didn't say anything. Their faces were dead white, blank.

I walked up and up and up. "Sam!" I shouted. "Sam!" I felt responsible. I invited him here, now he had vanished up a flight of stairs I didn't even know existed. My voice echoed around me.

"Keith!" Sam's voice. A distant, distorted echo. "Keeiiitthhhhhh"

"Sam!

"Keeeeeiiiittttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

"Sam!"

I kept going. I came to another door. I opened it, and fell into some foul smelling scraggy grass. Mist enveloped me. I got to my feet. There was that bloody house again, looming over me.

Keith's house.

Something moved to my left. I turned. Large grass stalks waving with my head on each of them. My expression was pained and obscene. Bloated red face, the face of constipation.

I walked quicker.

"Christ Sam, you didn't go up the stairs did you?"

I entered. I walked up the stairs. "Sam! SAM!"

Then the alarm went and I was awake. "Christ," I said, getting up. "What the hell was that all about?" I went downstairs and made myself a bacon sandwich. As I was munching it, I heard police sirens. I got up, moved to the window, watched. They swarmed around the block of flats. They took Sam out. He was naked. He didn't look good. He pinned me to the spot with his crazed eyes just before they put him in the van. "YOU!" he screamed. "YOU! GO IN THERE AND GET MY SOUL BACK! FIND IT! FIND IT! AAARRRGHHH BBLLLAAABBBBB AAABBBBBBB BLLAAABBBB Ia! Ia! YAAA fghtan! fghtan!pptthhhhh."

I watched the police car drive off. Then I closed the blinds and glanced at my watch. Bargain Hunt would be on in an hour. I'd worry about all this later.