The man was sick. He felt it coming. The last week was terrible and from Sunday on, it only got worse. He was weak and dizzy. He made himself a cup of hot blue lotus tea because it helped his bones to stay intact. Otherwise, they would fall apart. Piece by piece. They would shatter into a million pieces and it hurt so bad to walk and collect the pieces to puzzle his bones back together. He already did it three times and it never got better. Each time it got worse. So he drank out his tea and with each sip, his bones felt stronger already. He was glad about that and went into the bathroom with a content smile on his lips. As he looked into the mirror, a horrifying face glanced above his shoulder. It opened his mouth. Wide.

Sharp teeth, a yellow tongue, and a maw, black like the night outside his bathroom, got revealed. It breathed loud and heavy as if it just ran a mile. The man froze. Wide-eyed, he stared into the yellow eyes of the face. He stopped breathing when the sharp teeth joyfully sank into the soft, warm flesh of his neck. He blinked and he was alone again. His neck was spotless and didn´t hurt. He glanced around his tiny bathroom but he was alone. In a rush, he brushed his teeth and quickly jumped into his bedroom bed. 

After that, the man tried to sleep, but his mind fought his body over being awake or sleeping. He was so tired from holding his bones together all day but his mind was too active. Finally, after two hours of laying in bed and doing nothing, his body won the 

war against his mind and he fell asleep. 

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. A very silent and soft knock. The man continued sleeping. It knocked again, this time more vigorously. He was still asleep. The third knock was harsh, loud, and demanding. It echoed through the man´s dark and tiny bedroom and awoke him. He murmured: "Hm? Come in!" and he immediately regretted it. The bedroom door swung open and a tall and thin creature entered his bedroom. The head looked like an ox´s head but his tail once belonged to a horse. His eyes were gleaming with fire from hell. His horns weren´t attached to his head. It was a terrible thing to look at. It opened its mouth widely and its words burnt their way through his head. "Hello there! I will be your worst nightmare!  

You probably won´t remember me but this is not my first appearance in your room. But it still stinks of looser and disappointment. You are such a wimp! You are a waste. Of. Space!". His eyes burned with such hate that the man lost all control over his body. He started to shake violently and was forced to listen to his bones rubbing sharp against each other, trapped in his own body. The pain was excruciating, soul-sucking, and neverending. The demon´s eyes glared with excitement as the man tried to scream out of pure pain but no sound left his dry mouth. The monster narrowed his eyes and suddenly the man´s body stopped shaking. His bones fell back into place as if nothing ever happened. Relief rushed through his body and healed every wound and replaced every missing bone. 

Grateful that the pain now had an end, the man closed his eyes. Every inch of his body felt great and he was so thankful for that. He wanted to open his eyes to look at the creature and thank him for healing his body but it was almost like they were glued shut. He lifted his hands to his eyes to open them forcefully but his lids moved not an inch. Panic started to rush through his body as he felt something warm swirling around his toes. The warmth started to burn as his toes started to dip into this swirling mass. It slowly crept over his arch and later his heels. As it reached his ankles, his whole feet burned. It was so hot and stingy, it started to peel off his skin. When it lapped around his knee, his feet consisted only of bones. He screamed at the top of his lunges but no sound in this world could drown out the 

demon´s laughter. It echoed off the walls. Jumped from item to item. From ear to ear and off his skull. It drained. The man screamed again, trying to rip off his eyelids to see what was hurting him so bad. What could be so strong to strip his skin off his bones but the monster just laughed louder with each failed attempt. Meanwhile, the substance has crept up to his waist. It burned like hell. When he breathed in to scream for help, the smell hit him. The burning smell of ammonia filled his lungs. The smell of flesh dissolving in acid. Panic, cruel panic rushed through his body as he realized that the burning substance is acid and now his whole body dissolves in acid. "Stop! Please stop. What did I do?", the man screamed. The monster just laughed. "Please stop it! I will do whatever you want! I will bring 

you whoever you want! Just stop it, please!", the man cried out in panic. The monster narrowed his eyes and purred "Oh, so now you want to bargain? My life for someone else´s? Come on, that´s so demeaning and despicable! You are disgusting!". And when the last words were spoken, the acid crept faster. "Please! I will do whatever you want! Just please stop the acid!", the man wailed. "Then let my family stay with you", the demon said while his eyes burned. The man nodded his head. This stopped the burning acid and his whole body felt normal again. But he couldn´t enjoy his healing body because someone or something banged against his door. Violently. The demon´s eyes lit up. "Oh that must be my family. Why don´t you let them in so I´m not so lonely anymore and must do the whole work?".   

The man was concerned by the monster´s last words but he wanted this nightmare to end. So he let out a quiet and weak "Come in". The demon demanded, "Louder! They must hear you clearly to enter this room!". The man screamed, blind out of panic "Come in! Come in and finish it!" and as his words had died away, hell broke loose. The door got swung open by a big gust of wind and flew against the bedroom wall. The hinges groaned in protest and dust came drizzling from the wall. A demonic horse galloped into the room on thundering hooves, whinnying so shrilly, it rang in the man´s ears. He tried to open his eyes and when he succeeded, he wished he had never tried. In his room stood a horse-figured demon with the head of a wolf and ears like a horse. His tail floated in the air. The horse´s rear was 

transparent. It opened its mouth to neigh again. The sound of that moth was out of this world and to the men´s shock, more and more creatures appeared in his doorway. Some came running, others flew in and one perished out of thin air. They crept in through every crack and fissure. It was horrible. Horrible to look at, listen to, and experience. The man´s remorse grew bottomless as he watched a creature coming out of his chimney. They all began to scream. It echoed off the wall and burst the man's eardrums. As they went through his body, he felt different emotions. Rage, jealousy, sadness, panic, cruelness, rudeness, suffering, repulse. It hurt to feel everything at once. The demons rushed through his body and howled into his ears until he went deaf. The demons took each time a bit more soul, a 

bit more life with them. They screamed awful things. "You´re pathetic!", "You are so stupid!", "You´re such a freak!", "Is there anything you are good for?". The man writhed under all these terrible things. But the longer they went through him, the less he could feel. No emotions, not his body, not his surroundings. He got numb. His eyes rolled backward and his body weakened. Where once has been tension was now lifeless relaxation. When the demons saw that, they went back to where they came from. Laughing hysterically and loudly. The ox turned around one last time to admire his work and perished in the dark. 

The hallway smelled like death, fresh lotus tea, and ammonia as the neighbor walked past the men´s flat. Nobody had seen him 

him in the last three days. He couldn´t be dead because of the tea´s smell but nobody cared.