Tear Waster

You wake up, terrified and sweating bullets. Your eyes sting as though you felt everything you had seen in your nightmare.

“What was that?” you ask yourself, rubbing your head in a tired motion. You lay your head back down on your pillow, but you cannot seem to sleep, as a creeping feeling of paranoia begins to walk up your spine.

Suddenly, a noise. It is sharp and high pitched, like a ringing in your ears. But for some reason, you can’t shake the feeling that it is somewhere inside of your house. You live alone and have no pets, so a noise without you being present, especially one so unnatural, seems off to you. You sit up, your paranoia growing further. You open up your nightstand and pull out a switchblade, with a red handle and silver cross-piece. You press the button in your open hand, causing the blade to pop up as you lift yourself off your bed. With knife at the ready, you step out of your bedroom in just your sleepwear.

The lights are still off and the rest of the house seems empty. You carefully look all around you nonetheless, turning the lights on around the house and being wary not to let anything sneak up on you. You check every possible spot in your house where something could be hiding, but you find nothing. Your paranoia calms itself as you cop it up to your imagination playing tricks from your recent nightmare.

You step out onto your porch, turning your light on, and look into your backyard and the forested region behind it. You ponder whether the darkness is something to be truly feared, or simply just a lack of light. You decide on the latter, and finally relaxed enough, head back into the comfort of your bed. You fall asleep, but you don’t dream.

Suddenly, another noise awakes you. You want to move, but you are paralyzed by a fear beyond any other. The moonlight shines just enough into your bedroom to see somewhat clearly as your bedroom door opens, revealing the nightmarish terror that you thought you had made up.

The being stands there, a butcher’s knife stained with blood as red as crimson in his hand. He… she… it is featureless, being as black as a solar eclipse. It has no face, just a void where not even matter exists. The being is tall, and floats toward you, shadows dancing across the floor.

Your eyes begin to sting. You feel tears streaming down them, as you begin to cry uncontrollably. It is not out of any emotion, but the beast’s pure sheer will. You hear a deep, monstrous laughing as your eyes sting more. You wipe your face and… Is that blood? No… the tear is as black as the void in front of you. Your eyes feel like stones, burning to a crisp as the tears keep coming.

If the demon in front of you had a face, it would smile. By some weird magic, some psychotic aura, it forces you to cry. Not even knowing nor thinking of the words coming from your mouth you begin to scream.

“TEAR WASTER, TEAR WASTER, TEAR WASTER! TEAR WASTER!”

It seems like a silly name, but you can’t help but scream it. You want to die, you want it to stop, but it refuses to allow it. You feel something come down your face as your eyes continue their pain.

It’s part of your eye, blacker than the tears it was producing. Your vision begins to fade, but not all the way. The torturous sting surges through you agonizingly.

The being doesn’t move, but suddenly, a sharp pain occurs in your neck. It snaps and turns all the way around, and you can see the wall behind you. You can no longer speak or even think about anything but the pain that traverses through you. The pain is unbearable, as this beast is keeping you alive. Your eyes see nothing but white, as though they were shining with a pure and unnatural light. You open your bloodied mouth and scream a shrill, ear-piercing scream as loud as you can before everything goes black…

You wake up, terrified and sweating bullets…

Written by Steam Phoenix