Mind and Flesh Read online

  There are animated pictograms showing a hand inserting a card in the slit.

  I introduce my card in the slit.

  The machine whirrs.

  Then I hear a crunching noise.

  The screen now shows a nasty smile.

  I am angry.

  I want to punch the machine.

  But I see on the wall above an object shaped like a sphere.

  A video camera.

  I resign myself, shoot one last glance at the machine, and resume walking.

  No one else seems to be out now.

  The lights are getting weaker.

  I start to feel bad.

  Something is not right.

  My eyes try to decipher shapes in the shadows.

  There is more light on the other side of the street.

  As I turn my head, there is a pedestrian crossing.

  The light is red.

  There are no cars.

  I evaluate the risks of crossing.

  If there is no car, I can cross.

  I notice a small sphere on top of the crossing lights.

  Another video camera.

  I can’t cross while it’s red.

  I feel as if I was being watched and silently judged.

  A soft crackling behind me.

  I turn my head.

  A shadow that was moving suddenly stopped in its track.

  I wait.

  The shadow waits.

  I glance back at the light.

  Still red.

  I keep watch over the shadow.

  Nothing is moving.

  The light is still red.

  Slowly, a shadow moves.

  Then another one.

  And one more.

  My heart starts racing.

  All the shadows start to move and twist.

  They form silhouettes.

  Human silhouettes.

  They are moving in my direction.

  I am afraid.

  I launch myself in the direction of the other side of the street.

  As I quickly cross, the sphere starts to vibrate with a buzzing sound.

  Once I reach the still red lamp post, the buzzing intensifies.

  I need to leave this place.

  I need to run.

  The buzzing sound is deafening.

  The shadows are still after me.

  I am running without a sense of where I am heading to.

  Other spheres are placed on street lights.

  Each one that I pass starts to vibrate and buzz.

  The whole street behind me is moving and screaming as I pass by.

  In front of me the road starts to… move?

  Up.

  Down.

  To the left.

  As a ribbon in the wind.

  Up.

  To the left.

  Down.

  I try to keep up with the changes.

  I feel tossed in every direction.

  Yet I manage to run on this uneven ground.

  Sometimes my feet don’t yet touch the ground and I fall a bit with a sense of vertigo.

  But quickly after the ground goes back up and I can propel myself forward again.

  I notice a pattern in the movements of the road.

  It follows the buzzing sounds of the spheres.

  Suddenly, as the buzzing unifies in a piercing long-lasting note, the ground falls too deep, for too long.

  I don’t feel the ground under my feet…

  And I fall until I finally hit the ground and fall over, rolling on the road.

  The screeching noise is driving me mad.

  I try to cover my ears.

  I want to stand up, but I can’t find the balance.

  Powerful lights appear.

  Converging in my direction.

  I managed to get up on my knees.

  The impact is so strong that it forces me off the ground and sends me flying for a few meters.

  Pain.

  I hit the ground.

  Other lights in the distance.

  My legs don’t respond.

  I can’t stand at all.

  Pain.

  I try to crawl away from the road.

  But there is nothing but the road around me.

  Another pair of lights hits me at full impact.

  I feel my left arm being broken and painfully torn off.

  Pain.

  I scream.

  There are tears in my eyes.

  I am lying on a bed.

  In a white room.

  My left arm is missing.

  I look around myself.

  Other beds.

  On each bed, a bunny.

  Each bunny has its head burst open.

  I see chunks of their tiny brains.

  There is no blood. The wounds are clean.

  They are not moving.

  Are they dead?

  I don’t see their little snouts moving.

  Their eyes are closed.

  I lose interest in their sight.

  I need to assess my own condition.

  There is nothing where my left arm was.

  Not even a wound.

  I get up.

  My legs work fine.

  Yet they feel…. Weird.

  Numb.

  Movements on the corners of my eyes?

  I turn my head toward the other beds and…

  All the bunnies are now moving.

  Their heads are fine, no trace of a wound.

  I am surprised.

  They are now starting to run up and down their beds.

  They are more and more agitated.

  After a short moment they all bounce off their beds.

  They cluster to the back of the room.

  An area seems cleared from bunny presence.

  A wall.

  Where I can distinguish the outlines of a door.

  The door starts to bang.

  Multiple times.

  Someone or something seems set up to make it open, even though there is no handle.

  I look around.

  There is no other exit.

  The bunnies are becoming more and more agitated.

  The banging intensifies. Great force is applied against the door.

  The bunnies are now all gathered against the wall opposite the door.

  The door is slammed out of its hinges and heavily falls on the ground.

  Dust fills the entrance.

  And yet I can distinguish a familiar silhouette.

  The rabbit costume.

  Her foot still fiercely raised where the door was.

  A bag on its shoulder.

  Her leg gets back on the ground.

  And the head, or mask, slowly turns toward me.

  A strong sentiment of apprehension invades me.

  The rabbit seems to notice my fear, as she suddenly charges in my direction.

  I move backwards and I stumble upon the bed.

  My heart starts to race.

  The rabbit, while running, grabs something inside her bag.

  An arm.

  A moving arm.

  She raises the arm.

  I want that arm.

  I want it to replace my lost arm.

  I have mixed feelings between running away or grabbing my arm.

  As I hesitate, she hits me on the head with the arm.

  I fall on the ground.

  She does not lose any time, opens up her bag, and starts grabbing bunnies.

  Stuffing them up in her bag as quickly as possible.

  I try to get back up.

  My legs are too numb.

  She has caught all the bunnies.

  She kicks me in the back.

  Then she runs away towards the door.

  I crawl in her direction.

  It takes ages.

  To reach the door.

  I pass my head through it.

  I am lying down in the grass.

  Under a tree.

  Its leaves block the rays of the sun.
<
br />   They are fresh green.

  The tree is blooming, there are a lot of tiny white flowers.

  I look around.

  Next to me, in the grass are flowers.

  Other trees are around.

  All of them are blooming.

  I want to stay here.

  I feel like I need to rest.

  The place is quiet.

  I want to stay here.

  An island of serenity.

  So calm.

  I want time here to last for an eternity.

  But it won’t.

  Buildings are getting constructed all around my island of trees and grass.

  I see the towers growing and growing.

  Eventually becoming skyscrapers.

  I can still lie on the grass and enjoy my time.

  The skyscrapers do not concern me at this moment.

  They are not even a bad sight.

  I change position to couch on the side.

  I close my eyes.

  Quiet.

  Peaceful.

  Except for that sudden rustling.

  I open my eyes.

  A big black shape… lots of legs!

  I swiftly get back on a my buttocks and crawl backwards.

  I look at where the insect was.

  I can’t see it anymore in the grass

  I am not relieved.

  It could be anywhere.

  This is really annoying.

  I try to look everywhere.

  I don’t see it.

  But something else is moving.

  The shadows on the grass are moving and twisting.

  I look up.

  The skyscrapers are stretching again.

  And contorting in different directions as if they were flexible.

  Sometimes twisting around each other.

  They look like a gigantic nest of snakes.

  Suddenly my eyes catch a glimpse of movement on ground level.

  There is an eye in the middle of a flower.

  It looks directly at me.

  Another eye pops out of a nearby flower.

  Looks up for a moment, then around, then at me.

  Other flowers are blooming eyes.

  The grass under me is covered in eyes.

  Several eyes appear in the flowers in the tree on top of me.

  In a few seconds, all the flowers now have an eye in their center.

  And after a short moment, hundreds of eyes…

  …all looking right at me.

  I am intimidated.

  I walk back a step.

  Something is solid under my feet.

  My heart races.

  I lift my foot.

  I squished an eye.

  Some viscous fluid is sticking between my shoe and the eye.

  All the eyes blink at the same time.

  They now seem to have an angry look.

  The last sun rays are about to disappear.

  The skyscrapers have filled the sky.

  They are tied together in a lot of knots.

  It is pitch black.

  I am lying on a bed.

  My surroundings are dark.

  A light was just turned on in the bathroom.

  I see the shadow of my wife on the wall.

  I greet her.

  She greets me back with a tired voice.

  She just came home from work.

  Did she forget to lock the entrance door?

  She often does.

  I ask her if she did.

  She doesn’t answer immediately.

  Then says she doesn’t remember.

  I get upset.

  Is it so hard to pay attention for a few seconds?

  I tell her to go and check.

  My voice was sounding a bit too harsh.

  I am ashamed.

  She noticed my tone, as she replies that she is busy removing her make-up and if I want I can go fucking check myself.

  I shout that if one day someone enters while I’m not here and rapes her, she will deserve it.

  She storms in the bedroom and yells at me.

  She seems outraged and asks me if I would be happy if it happened.

  I realize how stupid what I said was.

  I apologize and tell her that I don’t want this to happen or a burglary, that is why I want her to pay more attention.

  She is still bitter and says that I am a fucking paranoiac all the time.

  I keep apologizing.

  She smiles.

  She moves in the direction of the bed.

  She bends over me.

  The bathroom light from the back give her a dark and impenetrable silhouette.

  She kisses me on the front.

  Then kisses each time a little lower.

  Until she reaches my mouth.

  She licks my lips.

  Enters her tongue in my mouth.

  I am in a classroom.

  Sitting on a chair with a table in front of me.

  I am in the last row.

  In front of me, rows of small figures.

  Kids.

  They all have their back turned on me.

  I notice that my chair is sized for kids.

  Too tiny for me.

  I stand up.

  The chair and the table both topple down on the floor.

  All heads slowly turn in my direction.

  They are grinning.

  Their smiles cover their faces almost up to their ears.

  Their teeth are pointy and sharp.

  Their eyes are glowing with malice.

  I feel threatened even though they are a quarter of my size.

  One of them stands up.

  He positions himself in front of me.

  He raises his arm above his head.

  They all stand up.

  A few of them move laterally and position themselves behind my back.

  I am now in the middle of a circle of menacing kids.

  Having some out of my sight is making me feel exposed and vulnerable.

  They start chattering their teeth.

  I hate this noise.

  I want them to stop.

  I get closer to the one in front of me.

  I slap his face with strength.

  He has a look of surprise.

  Soon joined by a look of surprise on all their faces.

  Then fear.

  They all run away through the door, screaming.

  There are too many for the small doorway, some of them get knocked over.

  One of them gets hysterical as he can’t reach the door.

  He bites a little girl next to him.

  The sharp teeth leave a trail of blood and a deep wound.

  She bites back.

  In a split second others join the fight and they are all biting and punching each other.

  They spit back chunks of flesh.

  They can’t seem to clear the doorway.

  Little bodies start to pile.

  One of them leaves the pack and gets closer to me.

  She is growling.

  Her eyes are murderous.

  I pick a chair and slam it in her face.

  The leg of the chair enters her skull.

  I try to get it off but it remains stuck.

  I shake off the chair and her lifeless body is moving accordingly.

  “What have you done to him?”

  The sound seems distant and muffled, but I recognize the voice of my wife.

  “Hello, please get out. I don’t think you should be here. ”

  “Why did you do this? How is he? Let me come closer! ”

  “Look, things didn’t go well. I am sorry. ”

  “That was not supposed to happen, you lied to me!”

  “You knew perfectly well the risks. Look, I am sorry, but it’s still on. Please don’t make a scene. ”

  “YOU COMPLETELY DESTROYED HIM!”

  “Keep her quiet!”

  “WAIT DON’T YOU DARE…”

  I am walking in a corridor.


  The floor and walls are covered with tiles.

  The corridor seems to stretch for quite a long distance.

  I look behind me.

  There is a wall.

  The tiles seem cracked, but there is no way I can go in that direction.

  I must keep walking forward.

  There must be an exit at some point.

  But I seem to be walking for an eternity.

  I feel stressed.

  This whole situation cannot mean anything good to me.

  I have the impression that I should get away from this trap.

  I begin to accelerate my pace.

  Walking fast is not enough.

  I am now running.

  Some of the tiles moved.

  They seemed dislocated a bit then went back to normal.

  This phenomenon seems more and more frequent.

  Tiles are getting dislocated gradually in a line.

  The lines seem to be drawn more quickly.

  In a more aggressive manner.

  A lot of them appear around me as I run.

  Suddenly a few chunk of tiles are dislodged from the wall.

  They fall in clouds of dust.

  And where they were, I can see…

  Nails.

  Huge pointy nails.

  They disappear.

  I have stopped running.

  Huge cracks develop on the tiles above me.

  The nails are out again.

  Closing on me.

  I duck.

  I get back on my feet and run.

  I am running faster and faster.

  The nails are after me.

  Cutting through the tiles in their wake.

  My feet stop touching the floor as I keep running.

  I don’t feel gravity anymore.

  Suddenly the corridor seems to shift around me…

  No, I have started to fall.

  I am falling toward a bottomless pit, that was previously the corridor in front of me.

  As I fall, nails violently break through the tiles under in attempts to catch me.

  I am starting to panic.

  I am feeling dizzy from the fall.

  I want to grab at the nails.

  They are not here anymore.

  I scream.

  I am in my bed.

  I barely see anything, probably night time.

  I hear rustling on the bed sheets on my left.

  My wife turns toward me.

  She asks me if I am alright.

  I am panting.

  I am sweating.

  I answer that I am alright.

  She asks if I had a bad dream.

  I can’t seem to remember.

  All I know is that I felt as if I was dying without managing to.

  Which I tell her.

  She laughs.

  She says that maybe I was in purgatory.

  I also laugh.

  She then says with a serious tone that I should be judged for my sins.

  We are silent.

  I ask her if she believes in religion.

  She answers that she prefers what she chooses to believe in.

  I ask her what she chose to believe in.