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Inon the bed The pain is worse than ever My head throbs and o,active, but now it hurts too much when I move I think I’m close to the end All I want is to shut ain consciousness

"I’izing to the ghost of Tyler Bayor for killing hi Dad beat her up for soup, or somebody else I’m not at my sharpest at thesound fro weakly The noises have increased over the last few s, explosions, tearing metal, screams I know they aren’t real It’s justordinary sounds out of recognition

Is this how it is all the tiular zoine a lifetier, nearly blind, scouring the ruins of the world in search of brains Soress

I lower ertips It would be difficult, but I’h of rueso around as a lost, tormented soul for the rest of ers, trying to work up the courage to end it all, the door to my room slides open The sounds outside alance up fro Reilly, or maybe Dr Cerveris and Josh But whoever it is, he’s standing in the corridor, not showing his face I can see his shadow, but that’s all

"Don’t be shy," I growl "Coles It’s a strange, jangly sound It rily Then the ust

It’s a clown, but no clown that you’d ever see in a circus, not unless it was a circus in hell

He’s dressed in a pinstripe suit, but with colorful patches stitched into it in lots of different places There are plenty of bloodstains too

A severed face hangs from either shoulder The faces have been skinned from the bone I think one came from a woman and the other froths of gut are wound around both his ar his legs several ears have been pinned to the fabric of his trousers

He’s wearing a pair of oversized red shoes, a s out of the end of each They could be the skulls of some breed of monkey, but I don’t think they are I think the skulls came from human babies

The clown’s hair has been sourced from a variety of heads There are all sorts of locks, every type of color, shade and length, stuck to his skull No not stuck As he cohtly and I see that the clumps of hair are stapled to his scalp There are dried bloodstains around many of them, and fresh blood flows from a few

The clown has a painted white face, but that’s the only traditional touch The flesh around his eyes has been carved away and filled in hat looks like soot A pair of v-shaped channels run from beneath either eye to just above his lips, which have been painted a dark blue color The channels have been gouged out of his cheeks and the exposed bone has been dyed bright pink Instead of the usual red ball over his nose, he’s somehow attached a human eye to it Little red stars have been dotted over it

I do nothing as the surreal clown advances I’ that this is an illusion, a product of ure By all rights he shouldn’t belong to this world, but he certainly seems at home in it

The clown hops frogling, drawing closer Now I spot a button on his chest, round and colorful, the sort a child , is what I assu

He reaches the foot ofcrazier andI’ve ever seen His eyes continually twitch froling, as if insects are burrowing beneath the flesh, close to the surface