Halifax wrapped his pillow round his ears; it muffled the grumbling, but the sound was worse when thus indistinct, and also amplified, perhaps because the bed touched the wall. Glimmering grey lines snaked and seethed through the details of the light fixture when Halifax rolled again onto his back. The doleful rubbery sound of the clustered noses against the window punctuated the grumble he had tried to escape. With a grumble of his own, he got up, and waded through the floor, the stalks of shivering dry heads (ambiguously animal or vegetable), till he reached his distant nightstand. He took out the gun, fired some shots, smelled the smoke with some relief, and turned again to his bed.

An errant swog had taken up residence on his sheets. He stowed the gun and waded back. The beast bristled and thrummed in harmony with the grumble. Halifax knew the only way was to seize it in just the way – and it turned into an empty, heavy, and long-haired skin, and all its horns knocked together. This aside, Halifax curled again in his reclaimed nest, and held his scissors tightly in case of sudden hirsutism. In the end the grumble failed to keep him from his sleep.

#DailyCreatedOOM #WrittenOOM 2023/08/13