Reply *SPOILERS* Feedback and Post-PPV Shenanigans

shoonk. shoonk.

It's back again.

Three nights in a row it's back, disturbing my sleep.

Disturbing my dreams.

Two nights ago it was far to the right. Last night it was well to the left. Tonight it's directly overhead, that obnoxious, odious noise high in the sodden sky sounding like a pair of voracious rats ripping and tearing their way down through the cool, deep blanket that has kept me safe for so long.

Why would they do that, I wonder? Don't they know my dreams are all I have left? Those visions of conquest and gold, of soldiers and superheroes, of deviants and puppetmasters, of smug aces and hateful, cawing ravens. Of a church laid low. Its members scattered, its ground salted. Of a hateful, unworthy pretender stripped of the most glorious gift I have ever known.

And blood, of course. Always so much blood.

shoonk. shoonk.

In my dreams I am never hungry. Never listless. I am sated and secure down here in the dark, knowing that the gift is mine and mine alone. So why do they disturb my sleep? Why do they traipse and prance just out of reach? Don't they know I'm down here? Don't they know... not to disturb the dead?

shoonk. shoonk.

Louder now. Still far away, but getting closer. No distractions tonight. Whoever they are, they mean to... They? As in, more than one? Surely not. In the whole of the miserable sun-blotted world I could name two individuals who would even know where to look for me and of them only one is foolish enough to wake me when I didn't—

shoonk. shoonk.

But my ears hear a truth my mind rejects. There are two. And they are drawing near.

I close my eyes, listening to these unwelcome visitors deep in the watches of the night.

The first is quicker, but far less efficient. They're too nervous, perhaps too excited by the prospect of finally finding that which they seek. Her then. I'd recognize that eagerness anywhere. She's missed me. Have I missed her? A question for another time. At the moment I'm more intrigued by her companion. A slower pace. One that digs deeper with each of those hateful coughing noises. She's not nervous. Not in the slightest. Who is this? Out here deep in the weeds, a long, loud scream away from anything resembling consecrated ground? Again I think of puppets and again I dismiss the notion. She of all people would respect my desire to rest. But surely she must know. Did she give her blessing? Did she tell my second and this stranger that they were welcome to tear off my blanket and drag me kicking and screaming from the only real peace I've ever known?

She and I may have to have words, should this noise grow any louder.

SHOONK. SHOONK.

Closer than ever now and there's still so much night left to guide them. I sigh. Close my eyes in hopes of returning to the deepest gloom, but the noise is huge, brain-rattling. No getting back to sleep now, not with what sounds like a fucking jackhammer directly overhead.

“Go away.” I whisper the words though they sound like thunder in my ears. “I have to sleep. I have to dream. It's the only thing that keeps—”

“I HEAR HER!” shouted a familiar voice from somewhere off in the dark. She could be anywhere, but I know better. If not for this rapidly thinning blanket I could reach out and touch her. “WE'RE COMING!” the voice of the world's most unlikely redeemer crashes all around me, though the noise of her promised salvation is quickly overtaken by a stereo thud and the resumption of that awful, sleep-destroying sound.

shoonk.shoonk.shoonk.shoonk.shoonk.shoonk.shoonk.shoonk.shoonk.shoonk.

So much for the shovel, I guess. She'd rather use her hands. But what of this mysterious oth—

TINK! TINK! TINK!

I grind my teeth, fully awake now as something taps against the canopy of my bed.

“HOLD ON, WE'RE ALMOST THERE!” then quieter, to whoever had the wherewithal to maintain hold of her shovel. “Are you ready?”

“I am.”

I know that voice. Who ARE you?

“Are you sure? She can be a little grumpy first thing in the morning.”

“I'll be fine... will it hurt?”

“Only for a second. Then she'll be better. And you'll be better too.”

I smile, down there in the last little bit of my shrinking dark. Thank God for small favors and faithful servants, right?

Even after all this time, she didn't forget.

I always wake up hungry.