CHOOSE YOUR OWN MINDFUCK: A Night in Eighth Block Tower (B14)
Bedlam Bible fans! Explore the Eighth Block Tower! Choose your fate! New posts every Tuesday and Friday. September '23 through December '23. Don't succumb to the huummmmmmmmm...
You’ve decided to attend the cold water meditation…
You follow Gale up to Sensei’s apartment and knock on the door a total of three times before someone finally answers. A man is now standing before you, about forty or so, tall and skinny, with such pasty skin he almost looks sick. He has fiery red hair and a receding hairline, made all the more noticeable due to being drenched head-to-toe. He’s wearing a bathrobe without a belt, clasping the open edges together at his chest with his fist. He reaches out to shake your hand, but the whole scene is unwelcoming. Neither of you reciprocate.
“I’m Charlie. I believe we spoke on the phone,” he says, lowering his hand, finally realizing neither of you are willing to accept his greeting. “I know this looks really weird, but I assure you it’s only a little weird.” He steps back and waves the two of you in, as if what he just said wasn’t creepy at all. You look over at Gale, hoping she responds to his invitation like any normal human would—by running away as quickly as possible—but to your dismay, she does just the opposite. She steps inside, and you feel you have no choice but to follow her. What else can you do? You can’t abandon her now…
“Did you remember to bring your towels?” he asks, looking down at your empty hands and shaking his head in disappointment.
“Uh… we thought you were joking. At least we were hoping so,” Gale says. “What exactly will we need them for?”
“Oh, I thought I made that clear on our phone call,” he says, turning to face you both. “Sensei’s just starting his cold water meditation session. We’ll all be showering together.”
“What?!” you both shout in unison.
“No, no, no. What? What?!” Gale continues. “This is not happening.”
“I know how this must look,” Charlie says. “But I assure you, there’s a science to this. It’s not some perverted… I don’t know—sex thing! It’s definitely not a perverted sex thing. It actually works.”
“What works?” you ask. Your palms are sweating.
“The sensation of cold water trickling over naked flesh, combined with the white noise static produced by the flow of the showerhead… it allows for a deeper type of meditation than any one of us could ever achieve without them.”
“But why the hell do you have to do it all together?” you ask. “Can't you just shower meditate on your own?”
Charlie laughs. “You have a lot to learn, my friends.” He makes an attempt to grab your hand to pull you farther into the apartment, but you pull away immediately. “Don’t be embarrassed. I felt exactly as you do now when I first came to the group—nervous, skeptical, apprehensive—but now look at me! I am the mind! I am in control!”
You look him over. You’re positive you don’t ever want to be whatever he is now.
“Just come and see for yourselves,” he says, walking forward once again. “If you don't want to join us, no worries. You’re safe here. No one’s going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
The two of you just stand there and watch as he walks down the hall. Once he realizes you aren’t following behind, he turns around again.
“It’s fine,” he says, sounding disappointed. “Go back home and give us a call sometime later in the week. Maybe you can meet Sensei at one of our group meetings. Fair warning though, Sensei can get a bit intense during his sermons. It can be pretty intimidating for someone who doesn’t know how to take him.”
Gale holds up a single finger and Charlie stops dead in his tracks.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
“Can we have a minute alone, please?”
“Of course. Take as long as you need,” he says. “I’m going to hop back in. If you decide to join us, we’ll be just inside the first door on the right. We’d love to have you, though if you decide to leave… well, it was nice meeting you both.” He smiles, then disappears down the hall.
Gale looks up at you and her face instantly swells with excitement. “So?” she asks. “What do you think?”
“You aren’t seriously considering joining in on that madness, are you?” you ask, despite already knowing the answer to the question just by the look on her face.
“Why not?” she asks, and instantly a hundred reasons form inside your head. “It couldn’t be too awkward. I mean, we’ve already seen each other naked. No surprises there.”
“That isn’t what makes this awkward, Gale, and you know it.” You’re starting to get annoyed now. “You seem to have a good head on your shoulders. Surely you can see this whole thing is fucking insane."
“Yeah, well… it’s Eighth Block. And I need a positive change. This is about as good as it gets around here. So, please… just this once. It may alter the course of our entire lives!”
“Gale, come on. You aren’t thinking clearly. Let me ask you something… how many people do you think are standing in that bathtub right now? We already know of at least two. Then there’s the two of us, so that makes four. That’s already pretty fucking cramped… but what if there’s more, huh? What if there’s like six of those motherfuckers already in there?”
“Do you always curse this much?” she asks, laughing at your hostility.
“Only when I’m gettin’ fucking upset!”
She laughs so hard she snorts. “You’re being ridiculous! Whatever. I have to make a change. Maybe this is it? I’m getting in. You can stay or go, it doesn’t matter.”
She unzips the back of her dress and allows it fall to the floor.
“I’m outta here,” you say. “I hope you get whatever it is you’re looking for, Gale. Truly. Good luck.”
“No, no, no! You can’t leave me here alone!” she shouts, cupping her hands over her breasts.
“But you just said—”
She cuts you off before you can finish. “I didn’t think you’d actually leave! What kind of an asshole leaves a young woman alone in a situation like this?”
“A smart asshole,” you say.
She laughs, but there’s sadness in her eyes now. A tear forms and leaks down her left cheek.
“Ah, shit… here we go,” you say, pulling your shirt up over your head. She jumps up and down with excitement.
“So, you’re staying?”
“I have to! You manipulated me!”
“Oh, whatever… not on purpose. These tears are genuine!”
Perhaps they are, but it’s no matter. You’re stuck. You accept your fate and remove the rest of the clothing from your body.
You lead Gale into the bathroom and notice right away that it's eerily quiet. Other than the sound of the water flowing from the showerhead, you can’t hear anything at all. To your horror, the bathtub is exactly the size you thought it would be—just the standard size tub you’d expect to see in any janky apartment.
Gale takes a deep breath and slowly peels back the edge of the shower curtain, revealing a man’s giant head, right at waist level. It’s T-Dakk. He’s sitting in the bathtub. His eyes light up when he sees her.
“Gale! Holy shit, child! You came!” he shouts, then he looks over at you and the smile slides right off his face. “And you brought your little friend along, I see.”
Gale leans in to poke her head behind the curtain.
“Oh, wow. Okay. There’s quite a lot of you,” she says. You can’t see the things she’s seeing, but the visuals inside your head are hopefully much worse than reality. You can only hope. “Got room for two more?”
“There’s plenty of room over here by me,” T-Dakk says, taking Gale by the hand and helping her into the tub. She steps over him and disappears somewhere behind the curtain. You try to follow close behind so you don’t lose her, but T-Dakk throws his hand up before you even get to the tub.
“Hold up, partner,” he says, knowing damn well he doesn’t consider you to be his partner in anything. “We’re crammed in like sardines over here, but it looks like there’s a spot down on the other end, by my man Karl.”
“But you said… Gale!” you shout, but it only seems to piss T-Dakk off.
“Listen to me, ya damn fool! I said there’s room down on the other end by my man Karl,” he repeats.
You clench your fist and it takes everything in you to force it open again, but you do just that. You know this isn’t the proper time or place for a fist fight. You have no interest in wrestling around on the dirty bathroom floor with twelve other naked dudes, or however many swinging dongs are waiting for you on the other side of that curtain.
You steady your breath to calm your nerves, then take your place next to Karl. He has a perfectly round, bald head and smells exactly like tuna fish. He’s also wearing eyeglasses that are so beaded with condensation there’s no way he can actually see through them. You wonder why he insists on wearing them, especially if they serve no functional purpose. There doesn’t seem to be much of a point. You put it out of your head.
You wedge your body between his and some elderly woman’s, choosing to face Karl just so you don’t inadvertently offend the woman by touching her with your junk. Somehow you get the feeling that Karl won’t mind.
Once you’re in position, you all just stand there in silence, staring at each other.
Every few seconds or so, Karl’s right nostril swells with blood until it grows so heavy it drips down onto his chest, almost immediately disappearing into the stream of cold water raining down from above. You’re disgusted, but there’s not much you can do about it. You try to turn away slightly, so it’s at least out of your direct line of sight, but moving is impossible now. For a moment, you’re concerned the group may have gone one body too far. What if none of you can move and you’re all fused together forever? The thought makes your blood run hot. Thankfully you have the cold water to cool you down.
Though you try not to, you find yourself staring at the inside of Karl’s nostril for minutes at a time. Swell and drip, swell and drip, swell and drip. You feel hypnotized by it.
“Impressive, innit?” he says, proud of his wound. “I’d tell ya how I got it, but then I’d be breaking the first rule, now wouldn’t I?”
He lets out a hearty laugh, but it doesn’t sound genuine. The laugh of a true sociopath. You have no idea what the fuck he’s talking about.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” you ask, finally at wit’s end. You already regret asking.
He leans in and whispers into your ear. “Well, I may not be able to talk about it… but I could show you.”
— To agree to let Karl ‘show you,’ click here.
— To get the fuck out of there, click here. [B18] (coming soon)