Plague

It's Wednesday and I've got a pocket full of cash and I want to go buy new comics. But I've slept too long and the sun is going to set and the store will be closed if I don't leave now now now. I wobble into my shoes and hustle downstairs, realizing I've left my glasses on the bathroom sink. But that's fine, I can see well enough without them, and there's no time to go back.

I head out the front door of my building and the Deaf Guy is on the sidewalk. Well, I don't know if he's deaf, but his is mute, and he sees me and he rubs his fingers together to indicate "change." I've got change, sure, jingling and jangling in my pocket, but I can't dig it out without also pulling out my wad of cash. I shake my head NO and say SORRY really loud and my voice roars like a blowhorn, like a lion, like Jesus, and it tears at his skin, blows the Deaf Guy's clothes off, and shatters his bones. There's a box in my throat, a tiny metal box, but it's getting bigger. It's a square and it's growing, it's pushing against my skin and you can see it. I can't breathe around it. I open my mouth and another ROAR is loosed, knocking cars into the street, destroying old women and atomizing children. I want to close my mouth, to stop the destruction, but I'm afraid that if I do my teeth will break away and die. The sound keeps growing and the metal box keeps growing, pushing itself up into my throat and into my mouth. My jaw opens wide, too wide, and flips backwards on hinges. The box breaks free and skin and skull fall away, and it's my new head.

It's steely and shiny and I keep walking. Buildings are leveled and the Deaf Guy is dust, but the train station is fine. I wait for the train, and when it arrives the car is full. I open my robot mouth and my voice box of death incinerates the passengers. The train rocks on the tracks and I step inside, dust off a seat, and sit down. The comic shop is open when I arrive, and the comics, they are good.