(no subject)
New York City, September 16th, 2006:
It was another apartment and another whole start on life for one Henry Townshend. In a vacant studio near Times Square, Henry had decided to restart his life in a place that he knew was safe, or at least, he thought it was safe. The occasional mugs and thugs he could handle; he had dealt with much worse during his time in apartment 302. It was the fear of what would happen when he fell asleep that scared him the most and for the most part, he tried to avoid it.
But during the night, as he stared at a batch of his recent photos in the dark room he had installed, Henry could feel his eyes drooping and he didn't have the energy to develop any more of his photographs. But, as it did every evening, fear took hold of him at the prospect of falling asleep and his body shook with slight waves of adrenaline. He shivered and pulled himself away from his hanging photographs.
It had been a good four days since he last slept, and for a while, it had been easy. In New York City, there were plenty of places to find a caffeine-filled beverage at three in the morning. Starbucks had been a wonderful fuel station for him for the past week. The human body can only take so much, however, and Henry was feeling the full-blown effects of avoiding the usually comforting slumber.
'TV maybe do my some good,' Henry's thoughts rolled like molasses inside his head as he wandered over to a couch nearby and planted himself upon it. The clicker was far too out of his reach though, so in the most lazy way possible, he plopped his foot up onto the table and pressed his big toe against the power button, thus turning on the TV.
"Hello and welcome to the midnight showing of Girls Gone Wild-"
Henry frowned and reached over to snag the clicker.
Click.
"-now with more vitamin C!"
Click.
"And Jesus came-"
Click.
"And now we return to I Love Lucy!"
Click.
"Animal Planets The Most Extreme."
Henry put the clicker down and slowly rested his head on the arm rest of the sofa. Though he wasn't an animal nut, he figured that Animal Planets programming would be a fine choice for the evening; it wasn't violent and there would be nothing that would jump out at him. But as the TV drawled on, Henry could feel his eyes slowly sagging and soon, he was fast asleep.
That was when it started.
Henry's eyes fluttered open and he could see the ceiling fan above him rolling ever so slowly. It looked like the one he had in 302, but he was sure he specifically asked to have the ceiling fan removed in the studio. Odd.
"..Guess they forgot," he murmured as he lifted himself onto his feet and moved into the bedroom area. The TV was still on, but he had chose to ignore it.
'I must have fallen asleep. Christ, Henry, what are you doing to yourself?' Again, his thoughts came to him slowly as he opened the door and wandered into the bedroom. However, he froze in the door frame.
His room wasn't his room. Well, it was, but it was bigger and there were five doors lining the opposite wall to the door.
"What the hell.." Henry slowly moved in and stood in front of the display of doors. All of them looked harmless, save the odd roman numerals that had been carved into each door. I, II, III, IV, V; they went in order, but what was their significance?
"Choose your four things of love and devotion; choose your four things of living and dead. Do not and we shall make you a puppet of our own deeds."
Henry spun around. That voice; it sounded so childish, yet so old and so menacing, yet so innocent.
"What do you want with me?"
"CHOOSE!"
'What's going on? Can this be it again? Repeating itself?' However, as Henry's thoughts raced, so did he. He grabbed an axe near by the back wall, a revolver with a few silver rounds still left inside, a saint medallion, and a flashlight near his dresser. He wasn't going to take any chances, especially if it wasn't a dream.
"I already have faced your trials!" Henry shouted and raised his axe. "Leave me alone!"
"You have chosen; choose the path you will follow."
Henry couldn't move.
"THEN WE CHOSE FOR YOU, HENRY TOWNSHEND!" The voices boomed and soon, Henry found himself being dragged towards the doors by some shadowed figures. Then the door marked with IV snapped open, and Henry found himself tumbling in the dark.