The Descent of Victor Duxbury

1

He had no idea what time it was. His heart was pounding like a jackhammer in his chest. All that Andrew knew was that it must be the middle of the night because he couldn’t see a damn thing. He wasn’t even sure where he was. Was he sitting up in his own familiar bed, in his own room, in his own house? Or was he sitting in a stranger’s bed? Someone he had never even heard of before. Someone named Victor Duxbury. It seemed very likely to him that he might not be in his own bed anymore. He had just had a nightmare for the first time since his long past high school years. And it had felt so god damn real.

Andrews’s eyes were starting to adjust to the dark and he looked beside him to see his girlfriend, Allison lying next to him, her chest was gently rising and falling. "You’re all right buddy," he whispered aloud to no one in particular. But of course he was all right. This was childish; it had just been a bad dream. Right?

Right. He slowly put his head back down on the pillow, wrapped his wool blanket over him and closed his eyes. He waited for sleep for a long time. After almost and hour it came to him and he slept dreamlessly until the morning.

Andrew sat down at the kitchen table. He sipped his coffee and read the newspaper like he did every morning. Allison came downstairs, gave him a kiss on the forehead "Good morning, blue eyes," she smiled and went over to turned on the radio as she did every morning. But when she did Andrew jumped and almost fell out of his chair. ".shland Public School will be closed today due to the heavy snow fall. And now over to John with the news."

"What’s the matter Andrew? Are you alright?" Allison said to him, looking concerned. "You’re pale as a ghost, what’s wrong?" She went over to the table, sat down next to him and took his hands in hers. He was staring strait ahead and Allison wasn’t even sure if he had heard her.

"In other news, a man was arrested earlier this morning for setting a fire in a garbage dumpster in the back of an apartment building on Goldfinder Rd. The building caught before the fire department could reach the scene but luckily no one was hurt…."

"No.. No I’m okay." He told her. Not sure if he was lying or not. Why had the guy on the radio startled him so bad? He couldn’t remember. It must have had something to do with the dream he had last night. But he could only remember bits and pieces of it. "It was just the announcer sounded

(demonic)

like my uncle Richard who lives up in New York" Andrew said while putting on the fakest smile he had ever had to produce. Allison could usually tell when he was lying but she didn’t seem to notice this time.

"Alright Andrew, if your sure" she said quietly. She got up to get herself a cup of coffee. Meanwhile the radio went on with the news "..was admitted to St. Bernards Hospital yesterday after suffering from a massive heart attack…" All at once Andrew decided he was sick of hearing the news and got up to turn the radio off. "President of Accolade Designs, Victor Duxbury was found dead in his home this morning.