“Did Bach ever eatpancakes at midnight?”

“All is as if the world did cease to exist. The city's monuments go unseen, its past unheard, and its culture slowly fading in the dismal sea.”

“I can’t help but ask, “Do you know where you are?”She turns to me with a foreboding glare. “Do you?”

“Her eyes sparkle with a rising dampness. “I’ve seemed to overstep myself,Samuel.”

“Another like me? Don’t leave me out here with myself! I’d go mad. Pleasedon’t leave me alone, Samuel! Just take me home!” Tears stream down her face.“Please take me home!”

“Look Samuel!” She points to the couple—I noticing a twig sticking out of her hair. “Mannequins.”

“I steal one glance over my shoulder as soon as we are far from the foreboding luminance of the neon glow, and it is there that my stomach leaps into my throat. Squatting just shy of the light and partially concealed by the shade of an alley is a sinister silhouette beneath a crimson cowl, beaming a demonic smile which spans from cheek to swollen cheek.”