[ clean ] your muse cleaning a smudge of something off mine’s cheek. blood probably?
LATE MORALITY, however useless it was, was going to be the death of him; a MARTYR to a cause long-past REVERSAL and far beyond a human rights violation.
but the EMAIL had sent, however much he had suffered for it. he PRAYED- for the first time in a long time- that the journalist LISTENED & PUBLISHED. lisa and the boys deserved an explanation. a reason why he wasn’t coming HOME, no matter much of himself he lost to get it to them.
the STENCH was the first thing he noticed as he staggered down the narrow staircase, pungent ROT , PISS & GORE wafting up from beneath the broken floorboards. he was BLIND in the dark without his camera, eyes straining against INKY BLACKNESS in search of a battery.
tables lined the basement’s main hall, stacked with sewing machines illuminated only by pale moonlight from small, high windows. on the far side, one machine CHUGGED AWAY, thread tangling with every dip of the needle and sending a trill of DREAD slithering down to coil at the base of his SPINE.
CAUTIOUSLY, the programmer began to search around the area, finding a small room of cupboards not far from the landing. pushing AMBIVALENCE aside, he gripped the handle and PULLED- finding it stuck shut. he put his weight into it, leaning back against the obstruction and-
waylon found himself flat on his back, the OOZING HEAD in his lap having painting a SCARLET MURAL from his torso to his hair. holding back a RETCH that blurred his vision, the man scrambled away, uncomfortably aware of his sudden DAMPNESS. yet backing away from the GRUESOME SCENE proved short lived as his back collided with an unbudging, WARM wall.
the breath seemed to escape from his lungs, body frozen RIGID, not daring to move as the form directly behind him stooped to peer at him. a LARGE HAND entered his peripheral and waylon screwed his eyes shut, struggled to remember the LORD’S PRAYER from his childhood, blurry words on an old page. all thoughts were wiped clean away when he felt fingers touch his cheek, anticipating awful PAIN. but instead they found their place at the man’s side again, and he was left to tremble, unformed words HOT on his tongue.
he opened his eyes, and the world still existed. the head still lay in it’s PUDDLE, and he still stood on shaky legs. slowly, as if not to startle the MAN / MURDERER ? behind him, waylon turned, gaze fixed first to the exit blocked by the STRANGER, then up at HIM.
the ESCAPED PATIENT from the underground lab beamed down at him, and any relief he could have held dissipated into SMOKE, dropping something solid and heavy into the PIT of his stomach. he was not out of HARM’S WAY yet.