The 'Afternoon'
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There just isn't - what occurred on this day. It can only be called what I've called it. Now I know, of course, that over the centuries a lot of people all over the world have had some very interesting so-called 'afternoons'. But in comparison, as you'll now see, in comparison … their afternoons were mere walks in the park! Because there were never ANY afternoons that were as existentially intense and with as much at stake as this one ever before. Nor will there ever be one ever again!
This 'afternoon' was just part of an entire day that consisted of 6 parts.
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Within a week an IT contract offer in downtown SF surfaces, city government office, downtown off Market. Really low level programming stuff. I had worked on this system back in '91 so I figured it would be a breeze.
The city employee who interviewed me (I remembered him from ‘91 - nice guy too) after telling me that I would be hired - and wishing me good luck - just looked at me and just sort of snickered. And a diabolical snicker it was! It was just like one of those characters in those kid’s cartoons. The evil ones, like Snidely Whiplash's dog Muttley.
IT WAS THEN THAT I BEGAN TO SUSPECT …
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And sure enough, on the first day's Cal Rail commute up from the peninsula to the job site my skin just started crawling.
Something 'LEGION' was afoot!
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.
It was even worse while walking from the train station to the office - up 4th and down Mission. And even worse once inside the office!
SOMETIMES EVEN OUR OWN SOULS JUST WANT TO CRAWL OUT OF OUR LIVES!
Skin and all! And for no other reason than to avoid an upcoming experience of horrific proportions. An infernal attack, which only THEY can see coming … because only THEY know what darkness there lurks.
But our simple everyday human minds can't or won't grasp it, because our simple everyday human minds can't even remember simple things like who we were in our last lives.
AND THEY WERE THERE!
That's how dumb our everyday minds are. And so we're left to suffer quietly the residual inner preternatural terror of knowing that ...
OUR OWN SOULS JUST WANT TO 'BAIL'
without the luxury of ever knowing exactly why. Hard to explain … even harder to endure.
I WAS NOW SWIMMING RIGHT IN THE STUFF !!!
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So I just walked off the job - I just quit! I wisely quit the job after just 2 hours. Just got up and left. Just walked off. Without saying a word. Because my soul was literally screaming at me the entire time to just get the heck out of there. Every single keystroke that I typed at my newly assigned workstation was a whole brand new 'spike' of the 'high anxiety' kind! And, strangely enough, when I got up and just left, without even telling anybody why … nobody else in the office was even the least bit surprised! Nobody even bothered to ask me where I was going. Or why!
(there is something wrong with this picture)
SOMETHING EVIL WAS AFOOT -
AND IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE!
Walking back down Mission it was now closing in … for the kill. It was palpable. Palpable beyond belief!
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I had no choice but to duck into that church, the one on the right, St. Patrick's, Mission St., to try to throw it off … this 'DEATH GRIP'. The church was empty. I stood in the back and just stared ahead at the empty pews, wondering what to do next … and wondering what the hell it was that was out there. A lonely feeling to say the least.
AND IN A LONELY CHURCH.
And then after just a few seconds someone - who to my utter surprise was suddenly standing right behind me - said right out loud - “Thank you !" I turned around to see who it was (remember this part).
A FORTY'ISH LOOKING FELLOW … DRESSED IN BLUE JEANS AND WEARING A BLACK LEATHER JACKET!
And he meant what he said. He was obviously thanking me for having made the evasive ducking move into the church that I had just made. Because it had also just made his 'secret agent' job easier. Because he had apparently been shadowing the entire affair!
I just nodded in appreciation. And I didn't even try to hide my apprehension. Why bother? I was wearing it on my sleeve! And everywhere else! And besides, he was obviously fully aware of the situation.
“Wow”, I thought to myself, “Thank God! Other people also know what’s going on! I'm not alone!”
Nothing more was spoken. I still have no idea, to be honest, who the heck this guy was –
BUT HE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT WAS GOING ON !
SO FIND THIS GUY, THIS GUY IN THE BLACK LEATHER JACKET, AND HE'LL BE ABLE TO CONFIRM EVERYTHING.
AND THEN YOU'LL BE ABLE TO FIND THOSE TWO HARD COPY WITNESSES OF THE PREVIOUS SIX HOUR LONG ' SIGNIFICANT EVENT'.
(it's true! - so do it!)
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I waited for another minute or so and then it was back onto the street. Out the door and down the steps and back to going solo. A long walk back down 4th to the train station. But would I get there? It was actually doubtful.
THE INNER TERROR - I WAS STILL SWIMMING IN IT.
But passerby’s were clueless. And this seemed odd. How could they possibly not know? What a bunch of unfeeling bastards!
Awaiting my trains arrival at the 4th Street terminal my heart was pounding! And I was sweating! Because I knew, I KNEW, just like when the previous 'six hour all night long event' first began, that there was no backing out, AND that there was no escape, AND that once again ...
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When my train finally arrived I took a window seat on the upper deck. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. And as the train began to pick up speed, lo and behold, the Infernal Regions themselves . . . showed up again!
AND SHOWED UP AGAIN THEY DID !
AND FOR THE ENTIRE TRAIN RIDE SOUTH TO SUNNYVALE !
AND IN FULL FORCE!
(it's apparently a very populated place) .
But this was not like the 'significant event' a week or so earlier. These 'things that now showed up' were different.
That's right - they were 'half and halfs'. Only half of their aspect was human - which was decidedly for some reason of Asian ancestry - but their other halves were like some sort of a man sized demonically possessed infantry rat or something. And like I said possessed. But this was all mixed together each time into a solitary soldier character.
They would spontaneously appear one at a time and always just walking in the same direction that the train was now speeding. And for the entire ride. And always just one at a time. And after the train had passed another would soon appear just up ahead. And always walking in the same direction as the train. And always dressed in the same drab gray colored fatigues.
Solitary 'soldiers'. Always solitary. And always in motion. Always walking. And just as I described them. Exactly as I described them. Yet always unarmed. Ostensibly too, because they didn't need to be. Because their 'teeth' alone could … because they were 'teeth' that were not human. Or like anything else on earth. They were most definitely infernal!
UTTERLY EVIL -
AND RAVENOUS -
AND IRRECONCILABLE -
IN OTHER WORDS LIKE INFANTRY !!!
HALF AND HALF'S !!!
I WAS HALLUCINATING NOTHING - I COULD SEE THEM, AND THEY COULD DEFINITELY SEE ME.
AND I WAS THEIR QUARRY !!!
My own soul seemed to just want to abandon me now, if that makes any sense. Just 'flee'. Leaving me - or whatever else it is that is left after that happens - to face alone whatever nightmare would follow. I could feel it. And for the entire ride.
AND IT'S A FEELING THAT YOU NEVER EVER EVER EVER WANT TO HAVE.
It's what happened. And for the entire ride. That's how terrifying this netherworld's stuff can be! But then again … of course !!!
I by God's grace survived the harrowing train ride from hell and when I got back to my Sunnyvale motel room I breathed a sigh of relief and another single 'cigarette from heaven' was already waiting for me and it was delicious and then I muttered something to the 'mysterious knap sack' in the corner and I then realized that it was time to get out of the state and so I packed a duffel and headed for the nearest Amtrak.