The Great Funnel Excerpt

Okay, so yesterday was more like a dud. Nothing happened. Well, to me, anyway. So school starts tomorrow, which also means I get to start going to the gym again (our gym, the MAC, is free if you're currently enrolled in classes). But that also means tons of Latin homework! Eesh. It's not hard, but man does it take some serious concentration.

I really should have worked all day on editing Beautiful Disruption, but I didn't. I did for a few hours, but then I felt like writing, so I did ... duh. The Great Funnel is coming along slowly but surely. I'm actually going to post an excerpt I've written recently. I'm pretty sure I haven't posted it before. If I have, I apologize. This is one of my favorite scenes so far. It's quite comical, I think.

This is the beginning of Chapter 2, the day after Hannah, the dead girl, appears in Matt's room.

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I woke to my alarm clock buzzing too loudly and I hastily reached over the head of my bed to disable it. I sat up in bed and looked around my room, not remembering that I had fallen asleep.

Hannah wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but the thought that maybe it had all been a dream didn’t even tempt me. I knew Hannah hadn’t been a dream, just as I knew my connection with the Underworld wasn’t just a feeling. It was very prominent and real, and not just in my mind.

Further back in my mind I could see it, the river Hannah described yesterday, and the boatman she had spoken to. I could see it all clear as day, but I could also hear the screams and laments from the Vestibule as well, the ones from where she entered into the Underworld. They were terrible and not something easily forgotten, but they were only the beginning of The Great Funnel … of Hell.

But how did I remember these things? How did I even know these things existed? Technically I didn’t, according to reality, but for some reason I didn’t think I belonged in this reality anyway. On the contrary, I knew I belonged in the Underworld, but why was I here instead of there?

I abandoned the stirring, melting feeling inside of me and got up to take a shower as I remembered that today was Monday and I had school. The white tiled floor was cold on my bare feet, so I hastily stepped onto the dark green rug just outside the shower. I turned on the shower water, threw all of my clothes into the dirty hamper, and then brushed my teeth over the pearl counter and sink as I waited for the water to warm up.

“Hey,” said a voice to my left.

I immediately jumped in shock and I swallowed some toothpaste in the process. Then my eyes went wide as I realized Hannah was standing next to me, leaning on the sink’s counter, and I was completely naked.

Toothbrush still in my mouth and toothpaste running down my chin, my hands immediately went between my legs to cover everything from Hannah’s eyes.

She laughed. “Don’t be such a prude. Trust me, you’re not the only guy I’ve seen naked.”

“What are you doing in here?” I asked, but my question was garbled by the toothbrush and white foam in my mouth.

“I knew you would be up by now and thought I would say good morning. After all, you are my only friend now,” She said.

“Can you, like, disappear for a minute or two while I get in the shower?” I asked hastily as even more toothpaste ran down my chin.

She rolled her eyes. “Sure thing.” And then she was gone.

I looked around the bathroom nervously, but she really was gone. Instead of completing the teeth brushing process, I automatically spit into the sink and rinsed my mouth. Then I got into the shower that was now steaming – I turned the Hot knob a little to the left.

“So what are we doing today?” Hannah asked from outside the shower.

I peaked around the white shower curtain and saw her sitting on the bathroom counter with her feet dangling over the front. “You said you knew I would be up. How did you know that? Do you have psychic abilities now too?”

“Yes, I know your every move because I can read your mind. Does that freak you out?” She said darkly.

I retracted my head back under the water and gulped quietly. “Um, no.”

She laughed. “I saw you set your alarm last night.”

I laughed a little nervous laugh. “Oh, well that makes more sense.” I shampooed my hair.

“You didn’t answer my question,” She said.

I racked my brain for the question I was supposed to be answering and eventually remembered. “Oh, uh, I have school.”

“Can I go with you?” She asked.

I heard her finger rubbing on the foggy mirror behind her.

“I don’t think my teachers would really appreciate you sitting in on all of my classes,” I said as I washed my body, including my face, as I let the shampoo soak into my scalp.

“They can’t see me, remember?” She said and then started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I stuck my head around the shower curtain again. On the mirror behind her I saw a terrified face drawn out of the perspiration.

“It’s you,” she laughed again, “when I surprised you earlier.” The face had huge eyes and a gaping mouth.

Suddenly I became very embarrassed for some reason and hid back in the shower, but I had to rinse off anyway. At least, that’s what I told myself.

“Well, I think it’s funny,” She said.

I turned off the water and stood there for a second, freezing. “Uh, can you-“ A towel landed on my head. “Okay, that works too. Thanks.” I dried myself off and wrapped the towel around my waist before I stepped out of the tub-shower.