Monica Monica Monica

Jin

When he turned about and blindly groped the bed with his hand, he touched fabric. No Monica.

His heavy eyes popped open instantly and he propped his chest up to squint at the light. Fuck, what time is it?

Judging from the sunlight filtering in, he had overslept. Well, he was so tired last night. He probably slept at 4 A.M. Monica had been so insatiable. And creative. Everytime he thought that she had run out of tricks up her sleeve, she would surprise him. But even just her riding him through the night would be enough to keep him high. He had been getting fewer and fewer hours of sleep since the storm.

Yawning and groaning, he put on his clothes. They littered the floor, having been tossed away mindlessly last night. He was having the best time of his life. Who could ruin it?

Buckling his belt, he walked out of the room. The outside hallway was long, extending as far as he could see. But there was an end to it. Grudgingly, he proppelled his body forward, taking the long straight route, one step at a time. Doors lined the corridor one after another. It appeared like an apartment except that the only people who lived in the building were three. Jin, Monica and Dummy. Jin and Monica shared a room, of course. Dummy lived in the room at the end of the hallway. The rest of the rooms were apparently empty.

It was towards this room that he walked languidly. It was an obligation. A kind of errand Monica put him up to. To walk to the end of the longest hallway there could possibly be and check inside and report to Monica. However, he was not meant to open a single door except that last one.

"It is dangerous to open any other door," Monica had told him.

Every door looked different. And some of them strangely seemed familiar. One door was shaped like an arc, as that of an old English castle. Another was clean white and next to it, a brown and rotten one. There was one door with a small peek window on the side which was thickly foggy for some reason that peeking through was impossible. He immediately recognized it as the door of his high school homeroom. Another door was small and red, much like the door of his dog house . Another was wooden and brown. There was a plaque reading LIBRARY nailed to it. Why would there be a library here? Then he saw the door to his old room and it made him stop. Now, his hands itched to turn that dirty knob and look inside. He had never paid so much attention to it before, with Monica watching him. But now she was nowhere to stop him.

Forgetting completely her warnings, his feet brought him to it. He took hold of the knob and turned it.

The room looked exactly his old room, with every accessory in the right wrong place. The creaky bed, the rotten furnishings, the grayish shade of red on the floor due to dust. Everything was exactly as he remembered it. What caught his attention though was the man in black jacket stooping over the desk. He was sniffing drugs through a thin roll of paper. When the drug addict faced him, Jin almost collapsed out of fear.

"You gotta be kidding me!" He burst. It was him, Jin, only much younger and ugly. He had dark circles beneath his eyes, his face sunken and his beard untrimmed. He was filthy and he smelled like it too. The first thought in his head was, Did I really look this miserable? Dammit.

This younger version of him tried to stand up upon seeing Jin but only ended up falling to the dusty floor. Jin backed up a step, just as his dopelganger lunged for him. "Fuck! Fuck!" Not in a humanly way but like a frog. A crazed frog! He landed onto the floor just some feet away from Jin. Instinctively, he slammed the door shut and sprinted along the hallway.

He dashed forward without looking back. He heard the door flung open and his dopelganger's loud plops as it made chase. It growled like a rabid dog.

In his panic, he kicked open every nearest door in search of anywhere to hide. One door revealed an empty wardrobe. Another opened to a stinky toilet. He almost threw up at the smell assaulting him.

Every room contained a moment from his memory. There was a motel room numbered 18 and he laid eyes upon himself fucking a brunette girl who shrieked upon seeing another Jin. The utterly naked Jin broke a cheap wine bottle on a nearby desk to turn it into a stabbing weapon and ran after him as well. It felt so weird to see his naked self running around with still a hard-on. He only got to see himself naked in a mirror.

He opened a cage and out came an alligator. It was his turn to scream. "Holy fucking shit!" There was even an aviary where cawing eagles and hawks flew out. The prison cell where he once spent half a boring year. The comfort room where yet another Jin smoked weed. More and more Jins joined in on the chase, all their eyes gleaming with killing intent.

Recognizing that every door harbored no safety, he quitted opening them and hastened his pace, with only one direction to run to: The end of the hallway where he was originally headed.

At least that door, he knew what awaited behind it.

"It's just a dream," he said to himself. "A really really messed up dream!"

It seemed like forever before he reached the end of the hallway. He cursed its mere length. Why did it have to be so fucking long?

He banged on the door, panting and frantic because the frog Jin had almost caught up. When it was just over a few meters away, it madly leapt for him and lucky for him the door came ajar. A small hand yanked him in. The door then swung shut immediately in front of him. He heard the crazy frog Jin meet the door in a loud thud.

Suits him, he thought. Many hands banged on the door at once. He feared it would yield. It was just a wooden door anyway. And the Jins out there were mosters.

"Don't think it'll fall," Dummy said beside him. "Think it'll endure and it will."

Dummy sounded so sure, thus Jin believed him. He willed for the door not to fall and it did not. After a while, the creepy Jins got tired and probably left. He dared not check.

"Didn't she say not to open them?" Dummy said.

"Alright, my fault. I'm sorry. But what are those things anyway?"

"You did not want to know."

Jin's jaw fell off. Sometimes, Jin thought that Dummy was way older than he looked. He was barely four feet, with a chubby baby face. But his tone was more mature than Jin's was. Dummy may appear like an eight-year old boy but he spoke with so much calmness and confidence that it was too intimidating. He did this everytime. "Well, I bet you would not even know? You're just a baby."

"Indeed, I'm just a baby," Dummy replied, listlessly. He went over to his little work desk. Above it was a small bulletin board that had been overkilled by paper drawings pinned on top of each other. Some of them looked weird, some were abstract and some made enough sense. A few of them actually looked beautiful. It was almost unbelievable that Dummy could draw like that.

One drawing caught Jin's eyes. He might not be an art guru but he could tell that it could sell for a thousand dollars or more. It was a crayon sketch of a purple woman which was drawn with such graceful curves that it was possible Dummy was getting horny over her. It could not have been drawn by an innocent child, less an eight-year old who had not even gone out of his room to interact with people and lay eyes upon real sexy women. What was most striking about the drawing was its realism that had an impact on Jin's soul. The way the purple woman stared back at him, it sent chills up his back.

"Oh, so I'm being a disturbance, pardon me, Ser," Jin said with sarcasm as he followed behind. "Where do you even get all these crayons? You don't ever come out of your room."

Dummy just shook his head, not paying him any attention.

"What are you drawing now? Ooh, it has six limbs. Blue, red, brown, black, green, wait, are you not coloring that arm?"

"It's meant to be white, Jin."

"So is that a spider or something? It has a - what's that? A woman's face on a spider's body? You're kind of creepy, you know."

"Spiders have eight legs. Didn't they teach you that?"

"Oh, the only thing I learned in school was that people treat you like trash if you don't meet their standards."

"Well, you're being a trash Jin."

"That's very insensitive."

"And you're being stupid."

"What? Say that again."

"You're being stupid. Like you always are. You think you've changed for the better but your eyes are blinded. That is the problem with your kind. You only ever see a part of the bigger picture. And then you settle for it."

"Now, it's sounding like this isn't about me at all."

"It is about you. This room, this whole building. It is about you. The doors. Aren't they your memories?"

"Who are you really Dummy? And why does Monica want to monitor you so badly?"

"Will you understand if I tell you?"

"I-I may." He was not exactly the intelligent type. This dummy sure knew how to bat insults close to the bone.

Dummy had finished his drawing and stood up to pin it on the board.

"Where are you getting all these pins?"

"From you."

"I don't remember giving you any pins. Or paper."

"You see, Jin, you are a prisoner in your own head. That is her power."

"What? You don't make sense at all."

"That was literal, no idioms embedded and you still don't get it."

Jin glared at him. He might be dumb but he had his pride. A man's pride. And it could not be stomped on.

"The only thing you ever did right since you met her was open that door. There was a reason she warned you against it. Now your mind is coming apart. If your soul could not handle it, you would not make it."

"Nah, you don't make sense at all."

"I'm telling you to wake up, Jin. Free yourself."

Suddenly, there was a gunshot. A pealing sound of peril.

Jin looked behind him. It came from the corridor.

Dummy laughed. "You are waking up."

"Is this your doing?" Jin held him by the collar.

"Not mine, yours."

"No more riddles, boy! Stop this right now."

The gunshots were getting closer. Dummy seemed elated, enjoying every beat of the sound.

"You're mad!" Jin threw him to the chair.

"Madness is my nature!" Dummy chuckled. He looked cute breaking into a grin but Jin so hated him right now.

With no warning, the door was kicked open and another Jin stepped in. This Jin looked nothing like Jin had been before. He had long dark hair, donned in a long black cloak and most importantly, he was holding a huge shotgun. Behind him, bodies of birds and crocs and strangers and other Jins littered the floor, bathing in their own blood.

The black Jin aimed the gun at him, without remorse.

"Oh holy fuck..."

The last thing Jin heard was Dummy chuckling and the piercing sound of the shotgun and then everything turned black.

Black.

It was everywhere.

He had a clue of where his hands were and that was all there was to it. He could not see them or feel them. He could not even move them.

He felt suffocated.

"Heeelp..." He meant to shout but it came out hoarse and faint. His throat felt so dry and hot.

He needed air.

It took him a minute to get his bearings. At last, he could move his muscles. His senses came back slowly but it was enough to know that something slimy was wrapped around him.

He wriggled, eager to break free. He cursed but in a whisper.

His fingers grabbed at whatever was wrapped around him. The material came off easily, thank goodness. It was soft as silk and it smelled like some insect's innards. He immediately had his hands free. He clawed at the area at his face and he gasped as air poured back into his lungs.

He squinted at the light. And after his vision had adjusted, he laid eyes upon ruins. Felled trees, flattened homes, twisted signboards, shattered roads. Ruins upon ruins upon ruins.

Now, he could also sense the filaments glued onto his skull. When he moved, he would tug on them and they would tug back. He looked up to see where it was connected to. He gaped.

It was unlike any other creature on earth. It was gigantic. It had three pairs of huge yellow wings, not one pair the same size as the other too. It looked like a butterfly. But butterflies were supposed to look adorable and harmless. This giant butterfly was frightening beyond description. As it flapped its wings to hover above the ground, it sent clouds of dust up in the air.

The filaments attached to Jin's skull originated from its atennae.

Jin yanked off all the tubes and wriggled out of the cocoon, falling onto the ground about two meters below. His body felt pain and it had never been more wonderful. The mere experience of feeling again helped him recover much faster. He got up to his feet, stretching his muscles and bending his back. His joints grated noisily as he moved about.

Having sensed that its prisoner had broken free, the huge butterfly beast awoke and screeched. It began beating its wings angrily.

Gusts of wind assaulted Jin but it could not muffle the sound of the gun that had just fired again.

There it was, flickering a nagging thought at the back of his head that he ought to remember something. Or was it someone?

He felt like he had just woken up from a long tiring dream.

Dummy. He recalled. Dummy was his dog and he had not seen him since like... was it yesterday? Yes, it was yesterday when Dirk shoved a generous dose of meth into his mouth and tied him up to die. Then gladly, Monica came. He still could not wrap his head around it because he clearly knew that Monica had died. Her body was buried.

The moment he glanced at the direction of the sound, the butterfly swooped down and almost got him if he did not dock down in time. It had such huge wings yet moved so slowly.

He picked up a jagged stone and flung it, aiming for the wings. His arm almost got thrown off too. His body was still frail that every effort was great toil.

It was not hard to aim. His target was cumbersome and broad-winged and stupid. It was not made for defense or offense. Turned out it was just meant to imprison him. The stone hit it squarely on its largest wing, tearing a hole in it.

Jin laughed in triumph and picked up another stone to throw at it. Just then it started to squirt a smoking fluid through its snouth.

It had a bad aim though. But everything the liquid touched burned on the spot, stones melting intantly. It was a strong acid. He could not afford to get hit.

He threw the stone as the giant insect charged, and alas its head met the stone head on, earning Jin an angered cry from it.

Through its wound, it began oozing blood, a bright golden blood.

Then guns fired again. He could ask them for help, whoever they are.

When the butterfly stopped attacking as it recovered, Jin forced himself to run to the direction of the sounds, jumping past debris and winding through fallen walls. What met him was a familiar sight. Hordes of yellow butterflies assaulting their target. Only that their target were two small human beings: a girl pointing a gun and a boy holding purple flowers as if he was dead already.

Monica was also there, dressed in the same shade of yellow as the small butterflies circled around her. Her face strained in focus, not even noticing him. She was wounded though, and she used the butterflies to block the shots that the lass fired.

The butterflies flew around the young pair but they could not seem to get any nearer, as if they were afraid, or better yet disgusted.

Now the cloud around Jin's head had cleared, the bite of the meth long gone. And he could not be confused. Something changed about him, albeit it was hard to point out.

He did all that he could do, picked up a large enough stone and threw.