A Glimpse Into Madness

A Glimpse into Madness

Copyright 2014 Sean Walter

Ebook edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

SeanWalter.Author@Gmail.com

ISBN: 978-0-9960947-1-9

Cover image Child’s Play copyright 2014 Elizabeth Maulding

All rights Reserved

This book is also available in paperback

Dedicated to Pink and Leah, my very first fans

And to everyone who ever gave me free coffee.

Table of Contents

About the Author

About the book

1.The Night the Dolls Came

2.Writer's Block

3.The Windup

4.Etiquette

5.Roads Never Traveled

6.The Visitor

7.Drinking with Strangers

8.Every Blank Canvas

9.The Price

10.Dead Men's Faces

11.The Four Letter Illusion

12.The Boring Man

13.An Evening's Ride

14.Morning Coffee

15.And Where it Stops...

16.Tentative

17.A Quiet Drink

18.Night Terrors

19.Sunset

20.A Trip

21.An Unexpected Outing

22.Not My Proudest Moment

23.The High Cost of Living

24.Twist of Fate

25.The Wrath of Thalia

26.An Interview for the Morning Edition

27.A Letter to a Friend

Acknowledgements

Next Title: Moribund

About the author:

I have started this several times without much gain. I mean, honestly, how does one talk about themselves for any length of time without actually knowing who will be reading it? It's mind-boggling. Do you start it off like you would an AA meeting? Hello, my name is Sean Walter, and I'm a writer?  It confuses me.

Which is why I decided to skip the whole intro thing, and move right along to telling you something about myself. I'm twenty-eight years old. I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon – which is not the Portland, Oregon that one can see in television shows or online entertainment. My Portland is a night-city. Its streets are empty, save for the homeless, the drugged, or the stumbling drunk. It's peaceful for the most part, but it can be dangerous. If you are young, attractive, and alone, I would not travel through certain sections of my night-city.  

I've worked many jobs in my life. I've been a bouncer, a butcher, a janitor, protection for a call girl. I've spent time as a clerk, a phone specialist, a crate-maker and packer, as security for orgies, and as an EMT. I've met interesting people, and I've despised some of them, and loved some of them, and even both at once. I've yet to travel more than a thousand miles from home, but it's a start.

People fascinate me. I study them. I'll study you, if you spend much time with me. I'll learn your mind, your reactions, your lies, your hidden secrets, and I'll keep them for myself.

I'm greedy in that way.

You can contact me anytime by email:

SeanWalter.Author@Gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeftToeDjinn

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SeanWalterAuthor

About the book:

The book which you hold is full of stories that I've dwelt upon for more time than I care to admit. They are mostly fictitious. There are some true stories mixed in here and there, but you will have to find those for yourself. It's much more fun that way. I honestly wonder if you can find them all.

Over the last few years I've written, and thought, and rewritten, and grown, and edited, and desired, and complained, and written, and drank copious amounts of coffee, and thought some more, and written, and written, and written, and emerged with a book. It's a fun and scary thing to delve into your own mind and poke things with a stick, to awaken them, to make them real with ink and paper. They stare back at you, then, seeing themselves in your eyes, blinking in the synthetic lights of an all-night diner.

These stories are alive, mind you. They will read you as you read them, and they will be confused, and startled, and they may even fall in love. I hope they will. I hope they find your touch soothing. I hope they think your eyes are akin to endless forests full of wonder and mystery. I hope they find a comfortable place in your mind in which to watch your life unfold.

This is a simple glimpse into my world. I will allow you to play with my friends and to dance with my demons for a time, just remember the old advice from Nietzsche: When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

Welcome to my world.

The Night the Dolls Came

The chill winter wind blew from the east, trying with all its might to blow away the small town full of tiny, twinkling lights that lay in its path. It shook the windows in their frames in Susie's bedroom. Her young mind conjured up a collection of monsters that were trying, desperately, to break in and gobble her up, then they would go for her sisters. Her parents would awaken the next morning and lament not installing better windows. Another violent gust hit the house, sending tremors through her treasured porcelain doll collection on its high perch.

Susie squirmed lower under her blankets and shivered. She watched the shadows dance on the walls and listened to the howls of ghosts long dead coming out of the chimney. Her eldest sister had told her all about them last Halloween – how the house was constructed on an old cemetery, and how, try as they might, they could never locate thirteen of the bodies. Her mother said the sound was just the wind, but she knew better. After all, her sister wouldn't lie, and parents were always making up lies so as not to scare her.

She steeled her nerves and got out of bed. Her bladder would not allow her to remain idle any longer, and she dared not wet the bed again. It had been months since the last time, and she took it as a point of pride when she awoke in the morning to dry sheets.

She got to the bathroom down the hall and used the toilet. The seat was cold, which she hated, but she knew that if she took too long, a vengeful spirit would emerge from one of the mirrors to drag her off, and her family would never see her again. She finished as quickly as she could and avoided looking at any of the mirrors as she washed her hands in the moonlight. She caught a glimpse of one mirror, on accident, as she was leaving, and could have swore that an old crone was glaring out at her through stitched-shut eyes, with her bony arms resting on her decaying hips.

Susie ran down the hallway and dove into her bed. She burrowed her way from the bottom of her blankets to her pillow, then crawled around in a circle three times, just as her dog did, to get comfortable. It never seemed to work for her. She was just beginning to wonder why her dog did it at all when one of her porcelain dolls fell from its high perch and landed with a crack on the wood floor. Susie started, and stared at the fallen doll, watching for any movement. The shadows on the walls continued to dance, and the windows still shook in their frames, but nothing else stirred.

Slowly, she leaned herself towards the foot of her bed, then crawled to the edge. She stared at the doll intently, not even blinking, like a cat unsure if what it saw was predator or prey.

Then the doll slowly lifted its cracked head and looked at her, its dead eyes staring as only dolls can. Susie tried to scream, but fear had stolen her voice. Instead, she turned and threw her blankets over her head, certain that they would protect her. She tried not to breathe as she listened to the doll's tiny footsteps run back and forth in the room.

Su-u-u-sie, a small, sweet voice called out from the darkness, where did you go?

Chills ran down Susie's spine. Go away, she said, trying to keep her voice steady. She felt a tug on her blanket and immediately regretted saying anything. The doll was on the bed with her, walking above the covers, getting closer with every passing second.

Su-u-u-u-sie, the doll called to her. She felt the weight of it on her leg, making small steps up to her stomach. Su-u-u-u-u-sie.

In a flash, Susie flung the doll off of her, throwing her blanket to the foot of her bed with the effort. She reached down and pulled the blanket back over her head as quickly as she could, only then realizing that she never heard the doll land.

She listened for any movement in the room, eyes shut tight, but even after several minutes, she heard nothing. What if it's hanging from the ceiling? She thought of the old brass chandelier that hung in her room, and imagined the doll there – pictured it staring at her bed with its porcelain smile, frozen forever in forced pleasantry. Would it wait for her?

Slowly, carefully, she pulled the blanket from her face. She opened her eyes, and gasped. Before her lay a sea of pale dolls. Every flat surface of her room was covered in them, and all of them were looking at her, sitting, waiting in menacing silence. She wanted to run, but where could she go? The doll with the cracked head sat on her bed, at her feet. It laughed, cheerfully, and said, Susie! There you are! Let's play!

And then the moon went out.

There was a rustling in the darkness. The air moved around Susie as she sat, unable to budge. Even in the midst of absolute terror, she felt a solemn guilt when she noticed that she had wet the bed, despite her earlier journey. Tears fell hotly down her face, more out of shame than out of fear.

And then the moon lit up, and the dolls were gone. Along with her shelf, and her toy chest, and her bed.

At first she was elated that she had not, in fact, wet the bed but had wet the floor, instead. Then she began to wonder where exactly all of her belongings had gone. She looked around her bare room until her eyes fell upon a standing shadow. It was smiling at her through darker lips and a single smokey grey eye. She wished she still had covers to hide under.

Don't be scared, said the shadow in the voice of a small boy, no older than she was, I chased them away. I couldn't stop them from taking your things, though. His voice was full of sympathy and remorse.

Thank you, Susie replied, quietly, and meant it. What's your name? she asked.

Jacob, replied the shadow. The windows rustled and shuddered in their frames. A horrible night, isn't it?

Susie nodded. What happened to the moon just now?

Jacob shuffled his shadowed feet and looked at, presumably, the floor. That was me. I had to distract them. I'm sorry if it scared you.

As far as Susie was concerned, if he was sorry, everything was alright. What are you? she asked, unable to resist the question any longer.

Just a shadow, Jacob said, and chuckled, What else could I be?

You could be a demon, Susie replied, sure of herself.

You've met the closest thing to a demon in these parts. Besides, demons are...pointier.

Susie conceded with a nod. But where did you come from?

Oh, I've always been here. I have to be, there's nowhere else to go.

Susie looked at him, curiously. Are you real? she