The morning light rays stung my eyes as they entered through the half open curtains which I was too lazy to close properly last night I regretted and cursed my past self as I was wrenched away from the sweet embrace of sleep. I turned to the other side of the bed not wanting to get out of bed I closed my eyes to go back to sleep.

  but the thing I was dreading came the strange whistling sound that induced nausea and a bad headache I covered my ears to not let the painful sound fully wake me up but it was futile whatever sleepiness I had was gone whisked away by the strange sound to whatever lair the strange sound came from.

  I opened my eyes sitting up the candle that sat on the table was almost gone there was only a puddle of wax left. I need another one I thought and got up from the bed

  slowly I wandered to the bathroom the small travel sized toothpaste was almost empty I picked it up and started squeezing the tube as hard as possible to get something out, a truly pity full amount came out I gave up and started brushing my teeth, maintaining even a basic level of hygiene was pretty hard here.

  As I brushed my teeth a sad feeling crept over me as I remembered my life before and regretted that I had not enjoyed it to the fullest ,Then I said to myself don’t think about it and repeated it until I wandered out of the bathroom and went down to the lobby mildly unsatisfied by the lack of proper freshness in my mouth .I looked around trying to find Tim or Raya, not finding them in the lobby I walked towards the kitchen then I took a left, the entry to the dining hall was almost hidden behind a wall .

  the dining hall had a mix of tables from wooden tables glass tables, cheap mess hall tables, the chairs had a wider range of varieties.

  I looked around for a chair, the dining hall was pretty full, people were sitting talking or enjoying a cup of tea.

  I spotted a chair and started making my way slithering in between tables and chairs but I was unlucky my price was stolen by someone.

  disappointed I made my way towards the large kitchen counter to get a plate of breakfast I collected a metal plate and a cup of tea and walked to where my friends were sitting the person looked at me and said “you can sit here I am already done” and walked away.

  I sat down, Tim was in a mellow mood just drinking his cup of tea almost in a trans Raya was sitting happily, Raya looked at me and said did you draw from the bowl?

  I asked her today is Wednesday? she nodded and said “you should draw from the bowl quickly or only the bad stuff will be left ", I responded “yea I will, its not like any work in the bowl is good work how worst can it get so I would like to eat my breakfast first.

  Raya said “I am pretty sure there is cattle duty and septic tank cleaning is also in the bowl, it was left on the board too long, so pick fast before Jeffry finishes his morning rounds”.

  I changed the topic and asked “what did you get? you look happy”.

  she smiled and said I got electrical duty with Cam.

  Tim rousing from his trans looked at Raya and said have fun chatting to him about his slight runny shit this morning. Raya replied “oh yea at least I will actually be helping, " Tim replied “you didn’t sell your soul to get a medical degree I did, so shut up”.

  Raya rolled her eyes and said “you are just lazy”.

  I sat silently looking at both of them wondering how they can be so energetic in the morning after arguing back and forth for enough time that I had finished my breakfast and had gotten a second cup of tea it was not exactly tea but it was made of dried leaves and provided me with much needed caffeine so it was all the same, I didn’t care where it came from.

  All three of us sat in silence enjoying the morning then the peace was broken as Jeffry suddenly burst into the dining hall and clapped his hands loudly said “its way past breakfast everyone please start working, if the bowl is not empty by the afternoon no dessert for tonight”

  there was an outcry of from the people sitting in the dining hall at the unfair punishment but it was for nothing as Jeffry had walked out of the dining hall already.

  with Jeffry proclamation and the threat of no ice cream I got up and went to the lobby where a bowl was placed on a metal table borrowed from the dining hall.

  I put my had inside the bowl and drew a paper slip hoping for it to be something

  that didn’t involve feces but I was unlucky on the piece of paper there were two words written on it CATTLE DUTY, I looked around if Jeffry was around to draw another paper slip but I spotted him coming from somewhere.

  I sighed disappointed by the work I had to do I walked outside where Tim was standing, as I approached Tim looked at me and asked “what did you get?”

  I showed him the slip he laughed and said “you really are unlucky you got cattle duty two time this month,”.

  Raya came back from the supply room carrying a bag of tools she saw Tim laughing and asked “what happened” Tim pointed at me and said “he got cattle duty again” , I looked at her showing her the piece of paper and said “I can have a nice chat with cam, want to exchange? ” she shook her head and said “I don’t want to turn the imaginary shit real so no thanks” Before we could continue talking everyone who was standing outside chatting stopped and looked at the person who had come it was Morgan , he clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention then he said in a loud voice “I need someone to help organize the slab”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  no one volunteered everyone just stared at Morgan an uneasy silence enveloping the field .

  taking the chance I said “I will do it!”, everyone just stared at me as if I had committed a grave sin but Morgan paid them no heed as he said in a cheerful voice “Very good meet me outside the slab and don’t take a lot of time” then Morgan walked away .

  The people stared at me with a expression of shock.

  I looked at my friends their face had a look of surprise with a tinge of fea ,

  Tim asked me “why did you volunteer?!” “why what did I do”

  Tim looked at me frozen as if overwhelmed by his options then said “ that building is cursed people that go near that building too often fall sick or something bad happens to them”.

  shook my head and said “I walked around that building once or twice but I never had a bad feeling and whatever I have to do inside is better than shoveling shit all day” .

  Tim shook his head and said don’t go,just trust me their is a reason that people didn’t volunteer . Unconvinced by Tim’s arguments I walked towards the slab .

  I stood outside the entrance debating If I should knock or just enter, after some Time I decided to knock on the metal door, after knocking on the door almost immediately it was opened by a man,he had what looked like burn scars on his neck and his left arm, he just silently looked at me for an uncomfortably long time then said in a hoarse voice as if he had not spoken in a long time “Morgan is waiting inside” I nodded and entered .

  Inside of the slab was made of the same concrete that the exterior was made up of , in front of me was a long corridor that turned left at the end and along the corridor their were rooms most of them had the lights turned off but I could see shelves and boxes kept inside of them.

  It was hard to see because the corridor itself was not properly lit the only light source seemed to be few light bulbs spread out along the corridor that gave a feeble yellow glow.

  The instructions I had received were not exactly concise so I wandered trying to find Morgan or any one that would say more than three words to me .

  I found Morgan sitting on the ground surrounded by hundred of free pages . He saw me approach and said “come sit organize them according to the dates”.

  I sat down in front of him and started picking up random papers and checking the dates and stacking them together , it was tedious and boring I tried to read what was written on the papers but stopped as Morgan looked at me with a questioning expression.

  After picking up the pages for a while Morgan spoke up “how ya settling in”

  I respond “Fine”

  he nodded and said life here is simpler than back home takes getting used to . I tried to comprehend his peculiar statement, I said “I still liked my old life better it was more comfortable”. Morgan laughed and said “we do what we can in terms of comfort its hard to scavenge thing like beds and pillows for so many people is hard ”.

  “I always wanted to ask how did you find things such soap do you find it just lying on the ground or is their a magic ritual you have to do to get a bar of soap”.

  he said with a smile " sorry to disappoint ya but no ritual sacrifices are made to procure your bar of soap, we kind of just find it lying on the ground , well more specifically we find it at what we call Nodes its kind of like a giant heap of things that magically appears at certain locations every day” .

  I waited for him to explain how things appear but he just stayed silent so I decided to ask him “do you know how those things appear?”

  he shook his head and said “Na its like they appear overnight” , I kind of expected the answer since after coming here none of my questions were answered so I nodded like I understood and started sorting papers.

  After a while Morgan broke the silence and said “I know its frustrating that ya are not getting any answers but that’s just how things are most of us also don’t understand how thing work , we have to just accept things as truths rather than trying to find an explanations .

  Life will be a whole lot easier”

  I just looked at Morgan silently than said “I kind of got used to it” then I started sorting papers .

  after a while of sitting on the ground and sorting papers was completed but the joy was shot lived as Morgan took me to another room where the walls were lined with metal shelves and a lot of thing such as soap ,tooth brushes ,combs medicine, bottles of miscellaneous liquid were lying haphazardly piled on top of each other.

  Morgan looked at the pile and sighed looking at the work both of us had to do.

  the silent atmosphere inside the room was disturbed by a loud crash it sounded like one of the shelves had collapsed Morgan looked concerned and said “I will see what that was, you arrange them on the shelves” Morgan exited the room almost sprinting .

  I looked at the mess and started slowly placing things that looked similar together it was a tedious task so I started thinking, my mind wandering from one thought to another

  one thing stuck out the reaction of my friends and the hesitation of people when Morgan asked for help, it was an overreaction for sure because after spending a good while here I had not found any thing wrong no bad feelings or any ominous sightings.

  I still felt a bit uneasy as most strange habits were not superstition but had some genuine reason behind it but coming here I had not found the reason for peoples unease, slowly my mind went to the conversation I had with Morgan the Nodes as he called it were places were things from our world came to this world and people can come here so their was a connection between this place and my home ,their might be way back a way back home I started feeling exited at the thought of a way home I must ask Morgan about it !!.

  I heard hurried footsteps as someone who I thought to be Morgan approached I looked back to see .

  I froze my heart racing fear rising I took a step back tripped on something and fell down I stared in horror at the abomination standing before me.

  Its body shape was that of human but whatever features were there on the body were scrubbed away but most horrifying of all were the strange half formed eyes ears and noses sticking out all over its body hundreds of eyes blinked in unison, its mouths opened and closed strange and malformed organs hanging out of its skin.

  The moment of shock wore off as I tried to do something but my mind wouldn’t work I just stared in silent horror as it lumbered inside the room its each footstep thudding and sending jolts of fear through my body.

  then suddenly the man who greeted me at the door tackled the strange thing with a blanket in his hand

  he struggled against it as he tried to cover its entire body with the blanket then Morgan rushed inside with a thick rope and tied the think with it, then the other man dragged it out.

  Morgan looked at me with a serious expression and grabbed me by my arm and dragged me I somehow managed to get my feet under me but Morgan showed no sighs of slowing down.

  I asked him what was that thing but Morgan gave no reply as he walked with a fast pace until he stopped I asked him again What was that? , he gave me a sad look and said some things are not meant to be seen then he forcefully pushed me inside the room and closed the door .