GUEST

Be our guest. Be our guest.

Be our guest. Be our guest.

Do not fret we simply want you as our guest. Wander not away from the safety of the hospitality. Wander not from the confines of this our greeting. Be our guest.

He ate solemnly. The way a man eats when he has no taste buds. When life has lost its luster and has no meaning. The smile he cracked never touching eyes never filling the corner of his high cheekbones. He ate slowly, deliberately. The chains about his ankles jangling with each passing shift of his feet. The only sign of the nerves beneath.

Guest or prisoner, he remembered not. They told him the locks were to keep him from hurting himself. They told him that the world was dangerous and they could save him. It just meant he’d need to keep this…. He tried to place the spoon down. The bowl empty, smiling big across the room at the maid.

There was nothing more sickening than the steam that rose again from his bowl. The stew renewed again.

Be our guest be our guest do not fret simply be our guest.

The ringing…