The KnocturnMan

Jessie a single man 29 years of age a janitor , a nobdy in Detroit. Has The Nightmare that has all of us kicking and screaming.

The KnockturnMan

A short story by Joe Petree.

Hello my name is Jessie, I am 29 years old .

Lately I haven't been sleeping well.

I spend nights alone at home usually, tossing , turning on my mattress, even flipping my pillow to the coolside.

But tonight was different ...

Tonight was the night I dreamt of him , The Knockturnman .

I had a long days work, cleaning toilets , mopping , the janitorial job at the local middle school is def a drag , but it pays the rent n utilities .

After work I headed out with the highschool buddies to the local bar , just a piss warm chango kinda bar .

You know the kinda bar with one brand on tap , the service is jack s**t & the bartender always has a look in his eye , letting anyone know seen a thing or two .

the last thing you wanna do is piss a guy off with that kinda look , especially if hes serving your hootch.

Mexican town isnt much , but its home .

After we polished a few pitchers & couple hours of the same old home town drinking machismo, I left Danny , Laurence , and Flip .

Flip was Danny's kid brother , we called him flip because , well I guess because we all couldnt help but to like the little dip s**t .

As I got home that night , smelling like an alley bum, wishing the booze breath n alchy soaked clothes I had on , was just the smell of piss warm chango, it was so strong almost unbearable to smell my own breath .

I took all my clothes off in the bathroom , tossing my keys on the shut toilet seat lid .

I grabbed my pack of marborrow reds and my zippo , I drop trow n turn the warm water on , drunk as a skunk some could say .

I put both hands on my tubs rim, sat creeping down slowly only wearing my boxers , I relax with my elbows now at the rim of the tub.

I light my red as I take in a deep deep drag, and close my eyes exhaling scaling a hit so good the ciggarette sticks to my lip before it releases, God that soft moist skin on my beautiful cancer stick .

I let my mind go, and soon I feel nothing, I'm fading out , careless to the world , asleep , no tossing , no fuss, no nothing .

I enjoy the finalality of peace I'd anxiously been fighting for the last few nights.

Then it happens .

I'm asleep but , I start seeing things , my eyes flicker , my body sulks, I see nothing , nothing but blackness, dead nothingness , just pure shadow , but wait...

I see letters , big ones, bold, there black type writer keys pounding and pounding .

Then a man , but hes so young & well dressed , a white Male, hair black as a ravens breast with a hue of brown, average looking enough .

Hes fighting himself maybe his own habit out of necessity, shoes he says no , he replies shirt, then shirt no time no time he replies , then again no shoes .

Then it happens, I watch him.

The faint image of this mystery man haunts me yet I dont have any inkling as to why .

I watch the book open before my eyes, thick almost like a auntic tome of sorts .

Then all these brown aged must filled pages the words , at first so bold and full , suddenly disappear , as if it never existed , not even as if they'd faded into nothingness.

But the pages almost look like white bed sheets of linens, maybe silk sheets.

Then I see it .

I see the end .

I see how he kills me ,

I am i am , not a man of sand ,

I am i am he sang almost quietly so only he and i could here .

I am i am , again he sang, not a man of sand, but you may know me in your nightmares, as he who kills us all .

You may call me the KnocturnMan .

As my body in the tub splashed, my stomach lunging out of the water ,my body's movement in the air , inches from where I lain.

Hurling my ciggarette out my bathroom window as reflex , launching my zippo to my shoes underneath the pants I wore to the bar ,smelling of piss warm chango.

And as it were I flop back in the tub like a fish , relaxed , breathing slowly.

As i let go , as the frailty of my body eases as the sleep deepens .


I am I am he sang, as the pages turned red in the back of my eyelids , fading to darkness , I hear what hed sang clear .

I am I am , not a man of sand , I am I am, the opposite at hand , i am i am the man who kills us all in our dreams , I am the KnocturnMan.

The End .