Body Shopper

It all started when I was walking in slow motion through an industrial, modern, lobby to a multi level office building. It reminded me of a building I had toured while searching for a temp agency in the heart of Koreatown. Everyone around me was moving at a normal pace except I had seemed to be frozen in slow motion. It was as if I was in a movie and the editor slowed down my film footage.

It was an isolating and nerve wracking high because while everything around me seemed normal I could tell that there was something dark and sinister happening.

Suddenly I was transported outside this world to a party where old friends and new were gathered for a drunken slumber party. Everyone was falling over one another and making a mess while eating. Everyone around me was drunk and it felt like a cliche from a sex comedy pulled from the 1980's. They were gathered around a small television watching the footage of me walking through the lobby. No one pointed it out, but I knew what they were watching was a horror movie and that I was both here and there in time. It was if two parts of my consciousness were experiencing something and that the end result would end up the same for both.

So I stormed out of the room in my footy pajamas hoping to get away from the dreading feeling scraping the inside of my stomach. I lied on the carpet in the next room, with a blanket and closed my eyes but I could here the screams and action from the horror film playing out. It was impossible to ignore it, because even though I wasn't watching it I could see and feel what was happening.

Back at the office building the slow motion me noticed a tall figure dressed in a white rabbit costume and a bow wrapped around its neck waiting for the elevator. The figure removed the costume revealing a bruised and beaten Sarah Michelle Gellar. Without saying a word I could tell she was the victim from a previous encounter and this "interaction" I was experiencing was in fact a sequel to a horrific, sadistic, film.

Even though I could distinguish that I was in a film I had no real control over the situation and everything that was playing out was how it was written.

Back at the sleep over I started to sweat and twitch trying to fight the events with every muscle in my body but it was no use. It was all happening. Everyone around me completely ignored this fact and ate the footage up.

Sarah quickly disposed of her bunny costume and made the slip out of the office building finally freeing herself from any ties that she might have to both the killer and this film. It was all left to me, who I knew was the only living protagonist.

I looked over her bunny costume and realized it was what allowed her escape from whatever was coming, because it hid her true identity. The elevator doors opened up and inside were the remnants of business men and woman. They were standing still and the walls of the elevator were coated in a thick yellowish substance that had stripped them of their skin. What stood before me was a sticky, goo-ey, mess of dead bodies. I could instantly tell that whatever had caused this had eaten their souls and taken their skin.

I turned around and noticed people panicking at the sight. People started scattering and I found safety in a nearby closet. When I closed the door I saw a man hanging from a coat rack that protruded from the top of his head. His arms had been ripped off his chiseled body and he was shirtless. He looked like a pro-wrestler, with six pack abs and a shaved head. Body parts lied around him on the floor and all that was left was his upper torso, and a head. He was having a conversation while occasionally screaming in pain with a man whose identity was hard to place. While I outright saw the man he was talking to, I also couldn't see him. It was if he was an entity but not a person. He was tall, thin and had scraggly hair. He wore glasses and was removing the coat hanger mans abs by slicing him from neck to belly button.

He proceeded to cover himself with the skin and take on the pro-wrestlers form. Sickened, I ran out of the room, almost unnoticed but the ripper man saw me at the last moment and smiled.

In the lobby people were still screaming. Now three separate elevator doors continuously opened and closed, revealing more plasma splattered bodies that only panicked people more. The world was suddenly under attack by the mad man who appeared behind me. At first he tried to take on the personality of the pro-wrestler but I knew it was a trick. With abnormal strength he grabbed my arm so I couldn't get away. I kicked and screamed and found only one more thing to do. I grabbed his face and ripped it away like putty. Underneath was the true identity. He threw me across the lobby smiling and removed the pro-wrestler shell. Instantly he started expelling the yellow substance across the walls, and people. He grabbed them in an un-naturally fast motion, ripping their skin away, eating some, and putting it together to form a new personality.

I managed to get outside but it was the sight of a bad b-movie. People running everywhere screaming. The sky turned a dark color and the evil presence closed in.

Suddenly a blow to my side caused me to shake myself awake and I was lying peacefully in bed with my husband and the dog under the covers.

It's official

I'm going back to the place that made me happiest.

Hell.

Mamma Mia!

I'm back, but it doesn't feel like home. In fact the moment I realized I was departing the chunks started rising in my throat and the tiny shrimps and little bit of champagne from the night before stirred in my stomach as if it were a modern day fantasia.

I'm sick at the thought of being here four more months but also have a lot riding on my success and failure. Both sides of the argument sound profound, but only one will be carried out. Why is it all of the sudden I feel aggravated by the world and less optimistic when it comes to my future plans.

I ran away from the perfect valued life and now it's haunting me like that dancing baby from Allie Mcbeal.

One day it will all fuse together and make sense, until that time I can only be thankful for my health, my youth, and my love.