The next day, I traveled down to one of the parties which my business partners were throwing. It seemed that elegant places could usually calm me down. However, when the waiter brought me my plate, what rest on its face was the most disgusting, outrageous slab of meat I had ever seen. Undercooked and under-embellished, it looked like something from a McDonalds, yet I was in a five-star ballroom and eatery hall. Enraged at the waiter, I questioned his intelligence. Everyone knows me. Everyone knows what my standards are. I receive only the best. How could he dare to give me such a poor quality meal? I asked him this, and he stuttered. My head filled with rage and I saw red. I took the glass full of mediocre champagne which he had dared to serve me and I smashed it over his head. I heard a soft tsk-tsk resounding from the back of the room. I roared, spun, and tried to put a fist through the skull of the man who made such degrading sounds to me… How dare he… Suddenly my fist stopped in mid-air. I whimpered; something was touching my hand. Something was devouring my hand…My hand was slowly being crushed between the freezing grip of death itself. I looked up and instantly wished I hadn't…I was trapped once again in his eyes. Reflected in those dark pools I could see every wrong thing I had ever done…Whining, pleading, and begging, I dropped to my knees as I felt his shadow suck the consciousness out of me. Into his eyes I unwillingly peered, waiting for it to all be over, wishing for something, anything, yes, even death, to get me out of the cage which his eyes had put into me…
***
I woke up the next day back in bed, home safe. I got up, made myself breakfast, and decided to walk to work. The city wasn’t far from my enormous, extravagant house. On the way there, I passed a dark alleyway. I could just make out a young woman who was being mugged by a dark-haired, thuggish man. The woman saw me, and she cried out for my help.
“Please,” she begged. “Please, mister. I need to go home to my family! My babies need me!”
I just laughed in her direction cruelly, and shouted mockingly, “Everyone gets what they deserve. Everything happens for a reason! What have you done wrong lately, sweetcheeks?”
I continued on my way to work, letting the moment pass quickly from my mind. I’m sure she lost some money and most certainly some dignity, but man, was it funny! Some people just are so ridiculously stupid, allowing themselves to be robbed. I would never let myself get into a situation like that.
As I was snickering to myself, I felt a sinister cloud fall down upon me. I stopped laughing abruptly. There it was again, the feeling that I was being watched. I could feel his eyes looming into my back. I could feel his cold aura penetrate my personal space. Out of nowhere, a voice whispered into my ear.
“You shouldn’t have done that..”
A cruel tentacle wrapped around my neck and squeezed, but when I looked down there was nothing there. A thousand voices screamed into my ears, repeating the same phrase over and over again. You shouldn’t have done that, you shouldn’t have done that, you shouldn’t have done that..
I whirled around and faced him. From behind his lips lay dozens of rows of blood-stained, sharp teeth. He reminded me of a shark. He took my face in his hands and would not allow me to look away--away from those eyes, as deep as a well and as knowing as God himself.
“What are you…?” I whimpered.
“I am Judgment.”
My face twisted into the most horrified expression. My mouth widened into a circle. My eyes bulged out of their sockets. Without a second thought I began to run. Where I was running, I had no idea. I just knew that I needed to get away from The Man. I had to escape judgment.
For the first twelve blocks I never lost my pace. I was literally running for my life. No matter what I did, I could still feel him behind me. I never saw him--no, I knew that if I dared to turn behind that his large and luminous orbs would entrance me. I scampered as quickly as I could, but I began to feel his biting, frigid ambience maneuver closer to mine. He had that way about him--anytime I was near him, I could feel it. There was a bubble surrounding him, and if you were inside, your heartbeat slowed as the icebox embraced you. Yes, surrounding him was a zone full of cruel ice which bit every inch of your skin. Even though I was simply on the border of it, I could feel it permeating me, and that alone was slowing me down. What’s worse, I could hear him. He padded along behind me. He did not breathe heavily. He was at a walking pace. His footsteps did not thunder into the sidewalks as mine did--no, his feet kissed and whispered to the sidewalk as he stepped gently, with cat-like harmony. Everything about him told me that he could go on doing this for days…so…I stopped…
I reversed calmly. What I saw surprised me. He was just the doctor--the doctor I saw that first day. Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.
“Oh hey, man,” I said, “I’m sorry, I thought you were something else.”
He just smiled at me. That’s how I realized that something still wasn’t right. His smile was…it was, well, unhuman. At first he was just smiling, but then it grew. It spread to take up the entirety of his face. His lips were a deep crimson color that reminded me of blood. His lips came apart to show perfectly straight, pearly white teeth. His eyes blinked at me. Behind round spectacles, his eyes were cerulean, and he had the longest, blackest lashes that I had ever seen. His eyes were almost feminine. They were…well… pretty. I found myself awestruck, staring into them. As I stood watching him, things began to change. His teeth grew jagged and pointy. His eyes swelled and protruded. Within a minute, they had grown so large it appeared they had swallowed his spectacles. The pupils dilated so much that they engulfed his entire eyeball. His eyes were pure black. I could see a wave of frigid air grow from out of him. The tanned skin began to melt from his face and left a broken, sunken-in complexion of the palest ivory. The canvas was complete. The eyes began to inhale my soul. I could feel myself growing weaker and weaker.
Suddenly, both his and my body began to shoot up through the air. Life was a blur as air whipped my face. It was difficult to inhale, and I felt I was choking. The two of us landed on top of the tallest skyscraper in the city. Gazing out, I felt for the first time that the December sky was looking down on me. It did not make me feel giddy. My heart fluttered in my chest. My hands were sweating, and I felt perpetually anxious. I told myself to remain calm, but I couldn’t. There was something in the air that wouldn’t let me.
“Purgatory isn’t so nice, is it?” The Man asked me. He didn’t move his lips as all when he spoke. It was so entirely disturbing…
“This is purgatory? The top of this building?” I inquired. As long as I kept him talking, I wouldn’t be dying.
“Yes, but you won’t be here for long,” he giggled maniacally.
“Wait, if this is purgatory…Am I already dead?” I asked.
“Oh no, not technically,” the words leaked out of his grin. “But since you’re here with me…You’ll be dying soon enough.”
I know I haven’t been the best person. I know I’m not a saint. But I never thought it would come to this.
“I’ve been watching you…” His lips spread into the most hideous smile I had ever seen as something sharp and shiny glinted in his hands…
"Welcome to Judgment Day," he said.