[MNIM] Part 11: Inhibit

I don't know how long I showered before I felt clean again, I scrubbed at myself, as if the soaps and the water could remove the memory or whatever it was that I had seen and not seen.

I found the bed and fell into it, once the towels had removed any water from my skin and hair afterwards.

I slept. I think it was sleep. My eyes closed and I left my aches and the redness of my eyes and the clothing behind.

I floated in a darkness that was the color of graphite, a metallic grey.

I felt sounds all around me.

I felt as if I was adrift.

Strangely, I felt surrounded by water in the dimness, until blue showed overhead.

A splash of orange drew my attention to the horizon and it looked like a dawn over an ocean.

The orange rose, only...

What rose was not merely a familiar yellow-orange globe, it was blocked or marked by some strange fractal pattern that made it look like some impossible alien eye that in a moment seemed to swallow all the sky...

And I woke, my breath coming fast. The vision of that mad repeating pattern swallowing the sky left me shivering a little and I rose, unclothed and mindful of the sweat in the bed and on my skin.

I showered again, going more gently - some of my skin had been rubbed quite raw the last time in here.

My sides and lower back itched and did not like the touch of anything against them aside from the cool water.

I looked in the mirror, still wet.

Red finger-welts, and more than a little abrasion and a rash.

What had gotten into me?

It wouldn't do to hurt myself over things I saw, even if they were madness made manifest.

I shook my head, sighed and gently dried off and eased into my clothes.

They were very smooth against my skin - I had chosen my undergarments wisely.

I was easing myself into the armor that was the outermost layer when a revelation struck like lightning.

Vandenburg.

That word was printed on the envelope, I was sure of it.

I felt suddenly very sure of my footing, strangely lucid and I turned towards the plastic door and tapped on it, or would have, if it had not slid down at my approach.

I got a few feet from the table again, swithing on the light, and I felt the push again.

I decided to close my eyes and reach out.

Oh yes, it was tangible.

A slightly resisting barrier pushed against my hands.

Rubber?

No, it didn't yield enough.

Leather?

No,, much too smooth and regular.

Plastic then.

It felt like a plastic bubble, full of water. It yielded only a little, but it pushed back with strength. I tried pushing with my legs.

It was a wall.

A thought occurred to me, since I could see absolutely nothing.

I went and took a small towel from the bathroom.

I tossed it into the air over the envelope - and it fluttered through the space, landing beyond, not far from the wall.

More interesting.

It was not repulsing space or matter - it was pushing against me.

I relaxed again and stood there, fighting that buzz in hands and eyes.

I turned my head away and left the room, my eyes feeling very irritated.

I looked back at the room once dark and watched the door slide closed again.

That was a significant piece of my personal mystery - and I felt like bees had been trapped under my eyelids just trying to look at it.

I soundly thumped a fist against a nearby wall.