Endless Loops

"For the first time in my life, I absolutely don't mind crawling out of bed and going to work. Funny right?" I joked to my wife as we both got ready for our day. "No joke," she said, "getting you out of bed to do anything was a chore, much less trying to get you motivated to go to that shit job...I sometimes wonder why I even stuck around." "Because you couldn't resist how awesome I am!" I said flexing in the mirror, both of us chuckling. Then we both caught a glimpse of something. Something I tend to hide. Scars. Our moods shifted quickly and we were both quiet for a moment. She ran her finger down my arm tracing the lines. After a solemn moment, I spoke up, "Thank you...for sticking around." "My only regret is that I wish I knew this was going on at the time..." she said quietly. "Hey babe, that was a long time ago, I've...we've changed. Things are much better now," I said smiling. She latched on to me, I held her also. "Ok, enough of this romantic comedy shit," she laughed through her emotion, "we have to go to work."
It was no lie that things sucked back then. Our shithole apartment, our shitty jobs, barely affording to live...Hell sometimes we couldn't afford to eat. It was too much for me, but I bottled it up and powered through it. Then it all came down one night when she was working a night shift and I was alone. That day, something inside me broke. Nothing new had happened, I can't even begin to rationalize what I was thinking, just that this was the end. Needless to say it wasn't. Here I am now, a new place, new job, actually can afford good food, and I'm even driving a 'new to me' car. We aren't rich, but life is good.
Taking slow sips of my coffee, carefully because I don't want to end up a burn victim while I drive, I see traffic start to slow down in front of me. "Shit, this lane has been closed for months, do people still not know how to properly merge?" I turn on the radio to see if there is any traffic reports. "Bbbbzzzzzrrhrhtthhh Pain gggzrth nothing ghhhrth." "What the Hell? I honestly haven't tried the radio in a long time so it probably went out a while back. Whatever." I reached for my phone and something in my rear view caught my eye. "Oh shit. Oh fuck. That truck isn't slowing down. This is going to hurt," was all that was going through my head at that moment and not two seconds later all I could hear was metal crunching.
"AH! SHIT!" I screamed, breathing heavily. Its dark, I'm in a bed, gripping a pillow. It was a nightmare. I turn over to wake my wife to, honestly, just get some assurance when I roll into a wall. "The fuck? When did this wall get here?" I face the other way, nothing there either. Still groggy from being jolted awake, I slide all the way over and off the bed. When my feet hit the floor, I get an odd sensation. The floor is cold and wet. Then it finally hits my thick skull, "Where the fuck am I?" A light bulb without a cover flickers on in the center of the room. This room is completely foreign to me. Trying to figure out what is going on, I finally look down at my feet, some sort of black ooze is all around this area of the room. The I look around to see the same ooze covers the wall, but only on this side of the room. It seems to even be clumped together in a mass in the corner. I want to believe its a trick of the light, but it seems to be pulsating. The longer I stand there trying to decide what the hell I am looking at, I an ever growing pain in my feet. It stings. "Fuck! Why have I been standing in this shit for so long?!" At the moment run to get out of the gunk, the pain increases ten fold, and I hear a very high pitched, warbling...almost like laughing sound.
The light goes out and I trip on something. I hit the ground hard. Solid concrete.
BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP. Fucking alarm clock, I thought I got rid of this thing. I slam my fist on it to stop its infernal racket. Then I open my eyes. "No." I turn over to see a note laying on the cardboard box I used for a night stand, "Hey babe, I didn't want to wake you, but I was just reminding you I have to work the night shift tonight." the note read. I shot out of bed. "NO!" This room is familiar. This was our old place. My arms ached. I looked down to see them bandaged. Tears welled up in my eyes. "No God dammit! Take me back! Take me back to where I was!" I scream as I ball up a fist. Roaring, I punch the wall as hard as I could. My fist sticks to the wall and pain shoots through my body. Barely able to see through my rage and tears I see what's holding my fist. The wall around my fist is black, the tar like ooze spreading outwardly from the point of impact. Almost instantly the room shifts back into the dark prison I was previously in.
The light flickers and I see what I had tripped over. A bottle of whisky. I have to find a way out of this place, I'm already starting to lose it. I see a door on the other side of the room and I bolt towards it.
My feet still hurt, my arms ache, and I have a dull headache from tripping, but nothing is stopping me from getting out. I sprint hard and fast. Still running, I hear the warbling sound again. That noise is the most unnerving thing I have ever heard. If mushrooms could laugh, that would be the sound it made. Fear sets in hearing that "laugh" and all I can do is focus on running for escape. I'm starting to get winded, how big is this room? In a giant pulsating blast, the noise gets louder and an unseen force knocks me down. I roll over and get up, facing towards where I started.
"Son of a bitch..." I mutter. I literally have not moved. I am no close to the door and no further away from the growing black cancerous mass in the corner. I look to my right and see the bottle. I'm nauseated at the thought, but I grab it anyway. Anything to numb the pain. It doesn't seem like I can leave here any time soon, and this ooze also seems to not get this close to the light so I might as well enjoy myself until I figure a way out. Or wake up.