In the Body of Christ

She awakes, and cannot remember where she is. It is a hallway, a lit hallway, no doubt in a building somewhere, but she cannot remember a thing, not even her name. The hallway is lit by florescent lights above, though there are no windows, and she begins to panic. Where is she? What is she doing here? Who is she? How old is she? She doesn't even know.

She wanders down the hallway to a door, and opens it. There is another hallway, with a few doors on either side, then a door at the end. She wanders to one of the doors and finds a stairwell. This must be the way out, she thinks; certainly she's high up in some office building. She walks down the concrete stairs, which end at a door a few floors lower. She opens the door and sees a single stairway leading down, lit by a bulb at the ceiling. The stairway is cramped on either side by close walls. There is a door at the bottom. She goes down the stairs and opens the door. Behind it is a hallway going both to the left and the right. There are a number of doors leading to where she is becoming afraid to go. She goes through one of the doors, finds only more doors and hallways. In one hallway there are some doors that lead to rooms, simple offices, carpeted but otherwise empty and clean.

She finds herself quite lost, and doesn't know how to get back to the stairwell. Is she in a highrise or in some basement? Should she look for stairs going up or down? The answer doesn't matter, for all the stairs she finds lead down. After going through a number of hallways, down fights of stairs; after opening doors and finding only empty offices or more hallways with doors; after reflecting that she may be in the bowels of some vast, exitless building, she starts to scream.

And someone hears her scream. He opens the door to a room, coming out and meeting her in the hallway. He is naked, a naked man with little tufts of light hair gripping to his body, almost inhuman in appearance. She looks down: he has no genitals or pubic hair, just skin covering his crotch like the skin of a calf or palm: blank, without wrinkles and pulled tight. When she sees him, she screams more.

"Don't be afraid," he says. "I am the Lamb of God." He comes toward her and she runs, opens a door and finds a stairwell. She runs down several floors, thinking that any second now she will reach the ground floor. But none of the doors in the stairwell are numbered. She hears the inhuman man coming after her. He is repeating over and over, "I am the Lamb of God."

She comes to the bottom of a stairwell, and opens the door. There are only more hallways and doors. She runs through the hallway, opens the door at its end, and continues on through the maze. She can hear the strange man's footsteps coming after her. Finally, she goes into an office room and stays silent, hoping he will not find her. Her breath is going like a steam engine.

She can hear him knocking. He is knocking at every door, though she doesn't hear him open any of them. He knocks at the door nearest hers, and she holds her breath. There is a pause that seems an hour. Then she hears two gentle knocks on her own door. She sits in there, holding her breath, wondering how she found herself in this nightmare, wondering if she has any salvation from the strange beast at that door, wondering if she should just let him in, try to get some answers out of him. Finally, she hears him declare, "If I had an asshole, I'd just shit you out." She has no idea what this means.

End