meeting lady

I woke up in my room today and I saw him. At least, I think it was a him. He was dressed in frilly pink shirt with a dark brown coat over it. White makeup was applied liberally to his face. When he saw that I was awake, he gave me a huge grin.

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey," he said. "So nice to meet you face to face."

Once I realized that this wasn't a dream, I quickly grabbed the covers of the bed and backed away.

"Now, now," Lady said, "I'm not here to hurt you. But you haven't found the next clue. I'm so disappointed."

I didn't say anything, but Lady was obviously expecting a response. I managed to softly say, "I don't know what you want me to look for. I found 'Hamlet.' It wasn't there."

"Ah," Lady lifted a finger and pointed it at the ceiling, "there's your mistake. The first clue was a quote from 'Julius Caesar' but the clue wasn't found there, was it? Try looking someplace else." Lady looked around the room, with its drab white walls, as if contemplating redecorating it. Then he smiled again. "I knew a patient here once. He was a tennis player. A champion tennis player actually. But then one day, whenever he opened his mouth, he would start to scream. Just pure, animalistic screams. But in his head, why, he was speaking as eloquently as ever. He would speak and he couldn't understand why nobody understood him."

Lady jumped up then and I backed away as far as I could on the bed. "Well, I hope you have more luck now."

There was a line on the wall I hadn't noticed before. It moved like it was a string. It twisted and turned and split into many strings and suddenly the wall had a hole in it. A corridor. And beyond the corridor...beyond the wall...there was a tower. A wooden tower. And I could see...things...terrible things...

I shut my eyes and tried not to look.

"Bye bye, deary!" Lady said.

I didn't open my eyes for a while.