Dr. NoSleep

Her insides, darkly glistening and somehow otherworldly, were visible through the gash.

I stared at them in something like awe, feeling like I had when first seeing Nico's smashed-in skull and Benito's beaten body.

But this time, it was stronger, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

It was like looking through a tear in reality and glimpsing what lay just beneath the surface.

But instead of glimpsing the divine and taking solace in something beyond this life, something greater than these sacks of flesh, I saw the opposite.

Instead of seeing God, all I saw was a horrid collection of scuttling creatures struggling to break through, to rip our reality apart.

I was suddenly convinced that these four men were emissaries, sent by those reality-destroying creatures.

Their only aim was violence, and enough of it to fracture the world.

Delia flailed in terror and scrambled away from the violence, rolling over Benito and landing on the floor on the other side of the bed, covered in blood.

She curled into a ball on the floor between the bed and the closed ensuite bathroom door.

I could feel Tony twitch behind me as he started toward Delia.

The appalling savagery I'd just witnessed and the sudden, wave-breaking certainty that came with glimpsing Irma's insides filled me with purpose.

In a flash of clarity that banished my panicky, childish voice, I knew exactly what I would do when Tony moved over to deal with Delia.

I would lurch to my feet, hit him as hard as I could, and take his baseball bat.

Then I would deal with the other three, at least giving Delia enough time to run.

My muscles tensed as Tony entered my peripheral vision.

All doubt fled from me.

Just three more steps, and I would make my move.

I willed him to keep going, but he stopped, his attention drawn by movement on the other side of the room.

I looked that way, seeing the two other hostages, Quinton and Emery, making a move.