"Their faces are streaked with gashes dug deep into their bones. Their hands will grab at your feet, begging for your holy forgiveness, beseeching your human kindness to look upon its face and watch it weep.”

  "Do not falter. Light your lantern and watch its grotesqueness grow with each layer revealed. Apprentice, they are the epitome of the residue on our shoes."

  Blue?

  Through my eye lids, I recall brief flashes of blue that would pass through its thin skin. The light would repeatedly flicker on and off with no sort of pattern.

  Blearily blinking my eyes open, the sight of a large hollow hallway appeared before me. The colors were bright and the pavement below me was neon green. Tall and wide windows lined the hallway in spaced intervals. The blue lights were nowhere to be seen.

  Daylight poured into the hallway through these windows, small dust particles visible through the rays hitting the ground in rectangular shapes. I sat upon a bed with my back against the wall, staring into this hallway with a door at the far end. Looking down, I was sitting in my clothes, the same ones I tend to wear when going to my office. A collared striped shirt tucked under a grey vest and pants that cut at my ankles.

  Where are my shoes?

  They weren’t completely bare given that both feet were wounded tightly in medical tape.

  I don’t recall hurting my feet. In fact I don’t recall how I got here either.

  Furrowing my eyebrows, there was a blaring suspicion that something wasn’t right.

  My hands reached up to pat the pockets of my uniform, the cuffs of my sleeve brushing past the bed’s thin blanket. Inside the inner right pocket was a thick piece of paper. Confused, I reached inside and pulled out the paper, unfolding it to unveil a singular word.

  Written in black ink, the handwriting was my own, the blockiness and uniformity unmistakable.

  ‘Progeny’

  This information was jargon at best, not a memory in my head could trace back to writing this. What a waste of paper, couldn't this be on a smaller slip?

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I folded and dropped the paper back inside my pocket and proceeded to check my left pant pocket. The search ended rather futile, producing two candy wrappers (one green, the other orange), a paper clip, and a coat button.

  SHUDDER. SHUDDER. SHUDDER.

  With a jerk, the hallway began shaking, the ground rumbling and lurching as if the building was throwing up. Quickly my hands found some stability by pressing into the bed. The items I found in my pocket were long thrown on the floor. Pushing myself upwards, I was able to find my footing on the ground.

  Am I several stories up? Staring outside, the whole building seemed to be tilting and waving as if a flag in the wind.

  Before the thought could even finish, what filled my ears were the sharp discordant sounds of a xylophone. What could be heard frighteningly loud against my ears was seemingly every note being played simultaneously.

  Ding, ding, ding, ding.

  The melody was a constant pressure on the ears and head. As the shuddering grew, the grating noises began to crescendo down the oddly colored hallway.

  Ding, dING, DING, DING! CRASH!

  The glass in the windows all broke, thick and sharp pieces flew onto the ground, allowing an even more intense light to pour in. The floor harshly sparkled as the intense light refracted off the copious amount of glass laid on the ground.

  That’s not daylight!

  My feet had already hit the ground at this point, trying to reach the door at the far end of the hallway. The pavement was scorching hot, the bottoms of my feet spiked in fury white pain.

  DING, DING, DING, DING, DING.

  The noise is coming from every single direction.

  Louder, each note became, to the point where my ears were dripping blood. My eyes were watering from the pain as I scrambled to cover my ears, the heat caused sweltering anguish unlike ever before. My feet continued to move, desperately striking the pavement in a dead sprint to reach the door. With every step, the glass shards sliced and dug deep into the heels, toes and ankles.

  I'm burning.

  Waves of heat scorched my skin as I could feel my flesh become doughy and wax-like. My body hit the door, the heat past the point of unbearable.

  DING, DING, DING, DING.

  The notes could be barely told apart at this point. The sound, heat, shattered glass, and shuddering bore into every sense of mine. Tears streaked down my face, snot ran into my mouth and my hair clung onto my forehead. Through sheer will, I unclasped my hand from my bloody ear to grab the doorknob.

  Incapable of producing thoughts, I shakingly push the door open using the weight of my body. Through my squinted eyes, the combination of torment and confusion blurred my sense even more. I stumbled into the next room, or rather another hallway of the exact name nature.

  All hope left my heart, as I felt the heat and noise grow in intensity.

  I don’t understand what’s happening.

  The door fully swung open, however it was not due to me. Gloves caught my shoulders and held me in place. My eyes caught glimpses of vibrant colors and nothing of the person in front of me.

  "Who are you?" My voice barely managed to utter out.

  There was no response except the cold press of metal on my forehead.

  I am going to die here. The thought futilely rang through my head again.

  BANG.

  I was then shot dead