There is a bomb in my house.
It is being planted by
a familiar shadow of a human.
It had chased me in my dreams.
And I had chased it for a long time.
I thought I had killed him.
He had the ability to read minds.
I guess that is easy for him.
He dwells in my head.
"Wake up, Robert.", I tell my brother.
"Leave me alone."
"There is a bomb in the house."
"Leave me be. I am tired."
He does not believe me.
A thousand times I've been a liar in this charade.
I am not sure if I believe myself.
Maybe I've just gone crazy.
But would a crazy person know
when they have gone crazy?
Because it is my brother,
I try. Its a timeless ritual.
"Get the fuck out"
"No, you get the fuck out."
I go to deactivate the bomb.
How? No clue.
It is in the attic.
How do I know?
I've seen the shadow man,
turn 2 dimensional,
and slip through the ceiling cracks.
In my dream. Which was within this dream.
Which is inside another dream.
I stand on stacked chairs and push
against the attic door. It won't budge.
There is something blocking it.
I wake up.
My brother is asleep in his room.
"Wake up!"
"No, you wake up!"
I scramble to disarm the bomb,
but its different this time.
Why the same a thousand times,
but different this time?
I am out of my routine.
My brother looks to see what I am doing.
I stack chairs,
something is blocking the attic door.
I hear footsteps up there.
I push with all of my might.
It moves a enough
so I could insert my fingers.
The chairs fall from beneath me.
As I hang, the shadowy man
stomps on my fingers.
I awake.
My brother is asleep in his room.
I tell him there is a bomb
in the house.
He looks at me. With no response.
I tell him to leave.
He asks me where I am going?
"To deactivate the bomb."
"What bomb?"
"An intruder is in the attic with a bomb?"
We stack chairs.
I tell him the attic is blocked.
"How do you know?"
"I've done this before."
We hear footsteps above us.
I hurry the pace.
My brother doesn't move.
I shake him. I ask.
"Are you okay?"
"What is going on here?"
I awake.
My brother is awake next door.
"What is going on?"
"I don't know. Robert?"
"What."
"I'm not sure if you are you."
"What do you mean?"
"This is my dream."
"Is it?"
"Yeah."
I didn't care about what was real.
I was glad he was there with me.
I was alone for a long time.
Why would I want him
to circle in this endless loop.
To understand my plight.
Footsteps thudded across the attic.
My brother looked at the ceiling and looked
at me.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
I awake.
My brother meets me in the hall.
I say, "we got to stop the bomb!"
"The what?"
"Listen, he has a bomb! And you heard
him walking up there. We got to stop him!"
"Why?"
"I don't know. We can't waste time!"
I really did not know. I did not know
why my brother asked me these questions.
Why don't we just leave?
Why was my brother, who my mind created,
questioning my actions?
Maybe because I've stopped questioning my actions.
I was on auto-pilot.
And hatred.
That shadow man stole my mind.
And that is too much power over me.
To know my thoughts.
My brother spoke.
"I don't know why, but you are right."
"Right about what?"
"That we must destroy that..."
He points towards the ceiling.
"...thing."
Hush hush
don't tell him
that we are falling for the trap.
I stack boxes of nachos
high towards the ceiling.
"Grab the chairs, it would be quicker."
"No, they are too rickety."
"Nachos."
My brother climbs before me.
"We need a crowbar."
He pounds the the attic door
using his shoulders
in a massive squatting motion.
The door budges slightly.
A small crack appears
where the darkness inside attic
stared at us.
I climbed to where he was.
We both hit the door.
With our combined power,
shattering the wood panel.
The growling reverberates our hearts.
I awake.
My brother meets me in the hall.
"We need to approach from another angle."
My brother has great ideas!
"Lets go outside and get the ladder."
"We will take a sledge hammer to the roof."
It is cloudy, a storm is brewing.
I pound the roof with the sledgehammer.
Shingles fly. I keep hitting.
A hole breaks. My brother jumps in.
I hear him scream.
I jump in.
I awake.
My brother meets me in the hall.
I say we must stop the bomb.
"Why don't we just leave?" says my brother.
"I thought you were with me?"
"I am."
I understand. We are stuck in a loop.
We exit our house.
The house no longer had a right angle
or an up and down.
We ran down to the corner before
looking back at the house.
Lightning flashed in the distance.
Standing on the roof is the shadow man.
He is not human.
He looks at me and smiles.
He enjoys my fear.
Asshole knows my mind.
How I think.
The bomb explodes.
Blue fire exploded towards
the stormy sky.
All the neighbors came out and
watched our house burn.
Curiosity?
The distant lightning
descended upon us.
We continued to watch
our shelter, fall apart.
A lightning bolt zapped a neighbor.
The boom shook my heart
and sent the neighbors running.
I took shelter under a covered porch.
Where was my brother?
I saw him in the street
where I left him.
I call out.
But he couldn't hear me.
Lightning is striking all around.
I covered my ears and turned away.
What is going on?
Its seems as if the universe
had been cracked open.
I am looking at my house.
My brother is next to me.
As we watch the shadow man
destroy our house.
Blue fire shot into the stormy sky.
The neighbors come out to have a look.
I tell my brother,
"When the lightning comes, we are running."
He looks at me and nods.
Then the lightning came.
We run.
He asks,
"What is the point? When we are
only going to end up,
where we started."
"What is the point?", I agree.
"Why bother. There is no one
here worth saving." he says.
"I'm not saving the neighbors."
"I'm not talking about them.
I am talking about us."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Its like a game."
He looked at me. He could not hear.
"What?"
"Its like a game!"
