Glass Noodles

It's taken a while to get back here, behind the keyboard, on my blog, writing horror... life kept getting in the way. The apprehension of existence is subtle in the way it drives one towards the mundane in pursuit of unattainable completeness. Far too soon, years have sped by and the soul remains as bare as old Mother Hubbard's newly installed aluminum pantry cupboard.

Anyway... I'm back. Behind the keyboard. Struggling to think of new and original ideas that would make your hair curl and blood curdle.... Nothing yet, but you'll know when I get there...

You see, the thing is, it's not hard to spin tales of horrifying creatures that linger at the back of my brain, reminding me that their truth needs to be told like stabby steely knives. The problem is, I haven't figured out how to deal with these horrible things. You don't just want to know about the monsters, you also need to know that there is a way of dealing with them... some way of defeating the buggers. Otherwise, the evil stays, goodness fails and there is never a happily ever after.

Come to think of it, life is exactly like that as well. Our real life monsters, more often than not, come out victorious and we just have to deal with the inconclusiveness of what happens in our own lives. Maybe that's why we need stories to come to a proper, wrapped-up end... because they never do in real life.

The creatures in my head want to get out. And you want to see them. But with the power to imagine these nightmares, also comes the responsibility to keep them safely locked away until the mean's to their end is also imagined.

For instance, I woke up the other night, mouth as dry as week-old crackers, and did my customary zombie shuffle to the refrigerator. Grabbing a bottle of water from the bottom shelf, I unscrew the cap, lift it to my lips and pause as I see something move within the bottle. Wait... not just one thing, a whole bunch of somethings. Translucent like stringy glass noodles. They seem to sense that I see them and start thrashing around.

Oh, I'm imaging things, I know, but still, I gently place the bottle down on the counter and reach for  the kitchen tap. Nothing but a sputtering noise and a short cough of water from the spout followed by a short thin trickle, and then nothing. Water cut, probably! I curse mildly, then turn back to the fridge.

*gurgle*

I turn back to the sink. It starts spluttering and stops again.

*gurgle, gurgle, splutter, plop!*

Wait. Plop?

I walk back to the sink. Squirming at the bottom of the sink are more glass noodles. One of them still hangs like a string from the faucet before it falls to join the others at the bottom of the sink.

Right. Enough! I'm thirsty, half asleep and my mind has again decided to go off on a maggoty tangent and my problem not solved. Time to wake up proper and send the creatures back to their cages.

No big effort needed. Simply shrug off my dreams and everything is back to normal.

"What are you doing?" My wife has woken up to the sound of running water. The sink tap is gushing and she's standing at the door.

"Mm?"

"You're just standing there, staring at the open tap. Wasting water!"

"Yeah... was thirsty..."

"Don't drink from the tap!" She pushes past me and turns the tap off. Bottled water in the fridge."

"Yeah... took one out..."

She looks at me for a while. Doesn't say a word. Shakes her head and goes back to the bedroom.

I reach for the bottle on the counter. I take a very close look. No glass noodles. I am about to raise the bottle to my lips for a second time, then pause again. I reach for a glass, pour out some water and scrutinize the liquid. Clear. Nothing squirming in the water.

I take a good, long, refreshing swig, swallow, and then another. I return to the fridge and then, one final swallow. I make the mistake of slipping back into a half-dream again, and feel the wriggling slimy worms slip down my throat...

Goddammit! Not yet! I still don't know what they are or what damage they can do, much less how to kill them. And now they are in me. Wake up! Maybe they'll disappear back into their cage in my mind...

Ugh! I can feel them inside me. I need to go back to bed now. Take control of my imagination and make sure that the glass noodles are harmless. I must not imagine them with sharp teeth protruding from mouths that look like open sewer drains. Teeth that promise to never let go when they latch on to my intestines.

That was two nights ago. So far all I have been able to dream up is ways that those translucent, slimy worms are able to survive, not how I can kill them. And that has me slightly worried. I am not quite sure whether I have been able to put them back in their cages at the back of my mind.

*Ow!*

Hell, that hurt! Usually, I feel the knives at the back of my mind...

*Oww!*

Again! Just above my abdomen. Hurts like a b***h! Wait... is that blood?

*AAAAHH!*

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*aaahhhh*


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