Dreams for the skeleton man

One night his dreams took on a new dimension. Instead of watching his nightmare from a bird’s eye view he was sitting on the futon in Laz’s apartment and watching himself in a dream, on the shitty TV. The TV would cut out from time to time, show meaningless statistics from baseball games that had never been played, and then it would manifest nothing but blue static for what seemed to be hours at a time. The dream had a Disney effect where the small grotesque creatures who inhabited Laz’s apartment became cutesy, big-eyed versions of cockroaches, maggots, rats and crows. They would watch the dream transfixed, throwing out comments like, “Jeee-whizzzz what a pickle that cucumber has gotten himself into. Te-he-he.” Or, “I remember this! I remember this! Glory be to Satan who has blessed me with these vivid echoes.”

Of the depraved shows in which he was both the sole spectator, (if you did not count the critters), and the sole protagonist there was one episode that received more airtime than the others, although it was slightly modified each re-run. This particular episode always started off the same way. He had just been buried in the rundown cemetery outside of East Purgatory. There was no one in attendance except for the gravedigger. No family members, no friends, no lovers, not even any critters. As the first shovel full of dirt was thrown onto the cheap pressboard coffin the skeleton man in the episode was awakened. He banged helplessly on the lid from the inside and yelled, inhaling dirt and dust as he did so. The gravedigger was unaware of his screams and continued piling dirt into the hole until his lunch break, at which point he left the grave half filled. At that moment a deadly pathogen made contact with the earth’s surface and killed anyone who was not underground. The pathogen, being so powerful, did not allow itself to stick around for very long. There were no cases of human to human transmission. 

Hours go by and the skeleton man continues his barrage on the coffin door until it reluctantly bursts open. When he emerges from the coffin he looks around the cemetery and sees no one. Unaware of how the world has changed since his failed entombment he idly moves away from the cemetery and towards East Purgatory. Approaching the city he is confronted with the mess that has been made of his hometown, as well as the realization that there is no one around to clean it up. He opens his mouth to speak but instead of words all that comes out is nonsense, “Dee-da-doo-de-lee. Dee-da-doo-de-lee.” The closer he gets to East Purgatory the more excited his critter viewing partners get, “This is it! This is it! Oh boy our favourite part!”

Walking along the streets of East Purgatory the skeleton man high steps over crumbled bodies and puddles of piss and blood. Consequently, one of the side effects of the pathogen was projectile vomiting blood until the stomach lining itself was spewed up. Covering his nose with his t-shirt, he floated through the streets until he was outside of the public library. When he entered the library the dream shifted and the TV turned to blue static. He was left sitting in the dream with the critters who were disappointed that they did not get to see what they knew was in the library. Regardless of how the dream changed, pathogen, atomic bomb, meteor, the skeleton man was always led to that same library and never permitted to enter.

Needless to say his mind was increasingly flimsy. During the resurgence of these dreams he would only leave his home to purchase cigarettes and balloons of heroin for fear of what may happen if he were struck by an episode while in public.