Regaining his footing, Ben took the dangling towel from the fist. With a voice far manlier and more imposing than any that Ben could muster, the disembodied voice reiterated his own thoughts to him, “All ruined, you stupid! Now need go buy. Gah!” And with that, the fist again shot back through the hole in the closet door. Instead of re-emerging this time, it patched the hole that it had originally made in the door with a piece of wood of perfect size, color and shape – pounding it into place with the same wood-splitting slam as when the hole had been made. Benjamin stumbled momentarily, rubbed his jaw and…

He didn’t bother looking in the mirror. There’d be plenty of time to deal with that later. He simply brushed his teeth, picked up his shorts and t-shirt, and tightened the towel around his waist. Before opening the bathroom door, with his hand on the door knob, he inhaled deeply through his mouth, and exhaled. Time to begin. No sooner than he opened the door did his grandfather’s grandfather clock let out its first strike of the day, 7 am. “Shit. SHIT!” He must have fallen asleep in the shower after all. How hadn’t the water gotten cold? What time did he get in the shower to begin with? There…

He looked down at the spot where the door knob had struck the wall. Fortunately, the wall had already been dented in that very same place. In fact, sitting atop the dresser that stood next to it was a small tub of drywall spackle, a putty knife, and a small can of paint. And on the other side of the dresser, in the empty space that spanned between it and the closet wall, was a chest-high patch of roughly layered plaster, covered by a coat of poorly-matching paint. Ben tucked his left hand under his right arm, and with his right hand pinched the bridge of his nose. He closed…

All four closet doors flew open at once, to the sound of another shriek – this one of repulsion and terror. Benjamin covered himself with his hands, spun around, and crouched below the window sill. Down from the dark space of the closet ceiling, a giant, reddish-pink tentacle unfurled in haste. Benjamin hobbled towards the closet, stepping over the motionless corpse of the stomping thing, and reached down for the towel that had fallen onto the floor beside it. But before he could get to it, the tentacle darted down and snatched it up. It whipped the damp towel back and hurled it at Ben’s unmentionables. He let out an…

Proudly and deliberately, it placed the shirt – a pink button-down – folded nicely on top of the dresser. Now, it only had but to compile the rest of the outfit. It was completely oblivious to the ongoings across the room. Not even when Ben passed by to stand in front of the mirror to the right of the closet did the creature stop to pay attention to him. It wasn’t until he neared the mirror and caught a glimpse of his reflection did all work stop in the closet. Actually, a more accurate way to describe the moment was that all five tentacles twitched grotesquely and then froze. Khaki…