The Cell.A Story by Brett Pritchard The man sits within the lonely confines of his cell, this cell is his universe. Many things exist within it. He believes most of them to be real. Some he isn't so sure about. Maybe Dave can help? The screams echoed through the seemingly vast moonlit gloomy hallway; like the remnants of lost souls desperate for their freedom. This was a place of suffering, a place where the very walls seemed to radiate misery itself. Liberty a forgotten memory, happiness a fool hardy dream… The white coated men decided what was best for you here. They were here to help you. That’s what they said. You were after all a danger " not only to yourself, but to others…… They were here to rehabilitate you. Make you into a respectable member of society. Show you the error of your ways. You were lucky. You would thank them one day. Armed with their hypodermic needles and painted on smiles, backed by their tunic clad army. There was a price to pay if you resisted their “help” if you didn’t take your pills, didn’t “work with” your therapist…. The tunic wearing foot soldiers would hurt you. But only for your own good they’d tell you " the men in white coats. This hurt them A LOT MORE than it could ever hurt you. You were after all a danger. Not only to yourself, but to others….. The man was woozy, he wasn’t sure if it was from the clobbering the head orderly had given him when he’d tried to resist his dosage of pills. Or the beginnings of the effects of those same pills would shortly be taking following the forcing of them down his tight throat while he had been held down. Reality was starting to come apart; the walls would be shimmering soon. Then the stupid giggling would begin. The man fought. Determined to remain….. The man was shaken from his rapidly ensuing haze as he heard what was clearly a new arrival being dragged into this hellish place. “Oi!” he heard the new arrival yell “Let me go! You don’t get what’s going on here! You’re all about to be stranded up bad time boulevard without a paddle! Listen to me!! I’m Dave. You’re all in danger!!” The man heard one of the orderly’s snigger “yeah mate, the only thing dangerous around here is your dress sense… That your dad’s t-shirt?” The man heard the sound of flesh smacking into concrete as the new arrival received the customary introduction to his cell. The door slammed shut shortly thereafter. The new boy will have been sedated the man thought to himself. Probably out like a " “Hello?” The man froze; the voice hadn’t seemed to come from anywhere in particular. “Hello what’s your name?” There was a moment of blind panic as the man realised that the voice was coming from inside his own head. Was this his pills beginning to work their magic? “Please don’t freak out. I’m a mate. Honest!” The man concentrated hard, his thoughts becoming much more difficult to form as the pills took their effect. He felt like he was trying to build a house of cards in the middle of a hurricane. He formed his thoughts into words that he could hear in his own mind. “What” he began hesitantly “what do you want. Who are you?” “I’m Dave” came the reply “I want to help you.” The man cursed his own stupidity " Dave. That had been the name of the new arrival bundled in not a minute ago…. It was the pills, playing war games with his reason. Turning him into a fool, he laughed out loud at this. No, not at this he thought, that was the damn pills again, making him giggle at nothing. “Are you there?” the voice came in again “Please you’ve gotta listen up its important.” The man laughed again. The voice was fading out of audibility gradually now. It had an echo to it. It was becoming a whisper. The man grinned stupidly at his bed sheets. The creases forming the most interesting patters, like dunes in some none descript dessert…. The walls really were the most interesting exhibit too. The cracks looked like long and winding roads viewed from far above…. The man could picture in his minds eye untold streets and civilisations in those cracks. Places and faces, names and voices. He could see them, no " he could talk to them. Laugh and sing with them. His own private friends…. “Please!” it was that distant whisper again. No it was different now. It wasn’t coming from inside his head anymore. It had escaped! “Get back in my head!” the man bellowed angrily “You don’t belong to the walls!!!” The convict voice was now accompanied by a smacking sound. Like a palm of a hand hitting into something solid….. Could it be real? Was the man in the next cell trying to get his attention……? No. That was just the pills, distorting his sense of reality. The real answer was obvious, the voice. It had escaped from his head and now it was trying to escape from the walls too! The room had gotten larger. Room? No this wasn’t a room; this was an entire world, an entire universe. If he looked closely he could see the activity in the cracks of the wall, the thieves had stolen his special voice. Living in the walls…. He fell backwards onto the plane of sand dunes that sat in the corner of the universe. Staring at the roof of the world, It was as if that which presented itself before him were a blank canvas. A playground on which he could create anything…. He reached out with his hand as if to touch the canvas. Abstract images of half formed whims swam on the blank surface ahead of him, it made him feel dizzy. He heard the wall people laughing around him, a high pitched din. “Shut up!” he growled “This is my universe.” The colours and liquid images before him began to coagulate into something solid. A man. A younger man. He had a shock of untidy hair and wore circular sunglasses. He also appeared to be sporting an ill fitting choose life t-shirt. The man recalled them from the wham music videos of the 1980s. “Hello again.” Said the face on the roof of the universe “As I said. Don’t freak out yeah? This is just a simple phycic projection lash up... I tried an old fashioned thought communication but err…. Think the phone lines a bit faulty.” The man let out an almost violent chorus of laughter. The voice had escaped! And now it had a face too, it was on the roof of his universe, his canvas. “Get…. Off…. my canvas.” The man’s voice had slowed to a deliberate crawl. “Oh dear” The face of the escaped voice appeared grave. “Seems your perceptions are a little bit messed up friend…” The man giggled again, he pictured the face of the voice with a clowns nose and rabbits ears. As quickly as the thought had occurred the results of it came to pass on the canvas before him. The face of the voice sprouted fluffy long ears. His nose swelled to a large shiny spherical state " all in an instant. “Oi!” The wham t-shirt wearing renegade protested indignantly “That’s not fair, messing about with my physic avatar! This is nothing to laugh about all this y’know….” The man wasn’t really understanding the escaped clown bunny’s words any longer. They were distant. Like the half formed early morning sounds of a working day beginning that he remembered hearting from his bedroom window on cold winter days as a child. Unwelcome. “There’s a very dangerous alien parasite on the loose.” Still the voice relentlessly persisted. “And I hate to be the bearer of bad news and all that " but you’re infected. Everyone in this place is. Even the staff…. There’s nothing mentally wrong with any of you. But the parasite is in your brain, warping your perceptions.” The man felt unusual for a moment. Something odd occurring in his mind, like the tide leaving the shore momentarily leaving the sand clear " but all too soon crashing once again into the land, disturbing all of the patterns previously formed. Making it have to start over. For a moment he thought he’d realised something vital. In the next he’d forgotten what he was meant to be thinking….. The man turned his attentions once again to the walls " no, there were no walls here. The edges of his universe, further away all the time " ever expanding. He looked at the cracks. No. The pathways and cities, maybe he could lose himself there among those many winding roads. Occupying himself with all sorts of quests and adventures. He pictured himself in a crystal chariot being led by beautiful winged unicorns….. And in the next instant there he was. Floating majestically above his concrete metropolis surveying his vast creation and its people, the pathways stretched out in all directions seemingly limitless in their majesty. Vast grey canyons with a none descript sky. All around him he saw the people, the wall people. They were immaculate each of them. The people of his universe….. Yes. These people were his, created in his image. And now he had chosen to come among them, exist among the products of his own toil…. The streets of the concrete pathways were eclectic in their architectural population; shops, houses, flats and apartments. They seemingly just popped into view…. No, they had been there all along in the canyons. He just hadn’t noticed. His world was busy too. Activity everywhere and a million different faces passing by with every instant " not one the same as the next. They had no idea of course, no idea that he was their creator. That he had made them live and given them all that they had to enjoy. He could tell them of course, but doubtless they’d brand him insane. Call him a lunatic. Lock him in a ……. Cell? The man shook his thoughts from his head, continued to journey deeper into the varied and beautiful cityscape. This was his kingdom, and he was its messiah. When these people closed their eyes and gave thanks for all the splendour they enjoyed it was to he their gratitude was offered. He was god…… As the man journeyed onward in his unicorn led chariot of destiny through the winding roads of his concrete universe, there was he was beginning to realise now something he was still latently aware of. Tugging, gnawing at the edge of his subconscious……. “Listen to me! The parasite is reproducing. Eventually you’re brain will be overcome when it self replicates, you have to concentrate and let me help you! You’re the carrier! The spawn from which all the other cases in the hospital have emanated from " the queen if you will!” The man had an odd feeling starting to brew in his heart and mind. He looked about him at his universe and somehow it all appeared to be that little bit less…. Vivid. The expressions on the faces of his people seemed that little bit more predictable. As if he had known them prior to them being conveyed somehow. Everything looked that little bit out of scale. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. But something had changed. The tugging at the edges of his unconscious mind persisted. “If we can defeat your parasite then every body else is automatically cured… But if yours self replicates then so does everyone else’s and well….. bad times.” Something happened. The unicorns began to melt in a grotesque display before the mans eyes. His chariot began to liquefy beneath him, yet he floated…. Seemingly free of gravity’s hold. The citizens of the concrete canyons appeared angry and horrified in equal measure; yelling, crying, begging screaming…. The very world around them was seemingly unravelling. The ground spontaneously exploding and cracking and distorting, becoming a cartoonish parody of itself; warping bizarrely. The man began to grow…. Suddenly towering above his kingdom and its people, he could hear their pleas for mercy and salvation. “Save us” “help us” forgive us” The man was so high up now, his people appeared as little more than specs. No he thought to himself….. Ants " on which he could tread. Nourish or destroy as he deemed to be fit. If this was an illusion he reasoned, a product of this…. Parasite? Then these people were nothing but bacteria. Symptoms to be purged. The man grew angry, vengeful. Callously he stomped on his people and their cities, all of which he now astronomically dwarfed. Destroying all that he had created with such ease…. The blood curdling screams echoed hauntingly throughout his universe. And then his people were silent, his cities decimated, his world destroyed. With a single tear adorning his cheek. The man closed his eyes. The man was flying away " beneath him he now saw the sand dunes, the pristine dessert from which he’d come in the corner of his universe. And in but a moment he was back lying on the sand. On the " On the - ……. On his …. Bed? He looked up at the ceiling and Dave was still there, this time without bunny ears or a clown’s nose. “You’re real” the man stated simply. His voice calm and flat. “That’s right” Dave replied with an honest smile “Like I said, I’m Dave. I came to help.” “What do I have to do?” The man asked simply. “Concentrate.” Said Dave “Let our minds seep into each other, this is going to be a bit unpleasant, but you don’t have to be afraid, I’m with you. All the way…..” The man closed his eyes gently. When his eyes opened again the man found himself to be in the most desolate place that he’d ever seen. The ground was harsh jagged rock, the sky grey and without magnificence of any measure, the landscape stretched endlessly into the distance…. “Where am I?” the man asked aloud “I’m imagining again….” “Yeah and no.” The man turned around with a start, the mysterious Dave was beside him, “This is your mind. Or at least an adequate portrayal of its current state.” “But it’s " The man was tearful “It’s the most horrendous place I’ve ever seen…..” Dave’s face was cold " impassive. “None of us are who we believe ourselves to be. And very few are who they’d like themselves to be.” At that instant the most horrific sound the man had ever heard punctured the very fabric of the air. An ear splitting wail, a furious banshees scream…. “What the devil is that?!” the terrified man enquired. “The sound of inevitability” replied Dave all too calmly. The very ground before the man and his guide began to stir as if it were a viscous slime. An enormous structure began to rise from the mire constructing into solidity before the two men’s very eyes. In a moment of sheer panic the man recognised the appalling sight before him as a giant head, the most grotesque face that he had ever seen. If fear had a face then this was surely it, the man felt sick…. The enormous face sprouted eight long spindly legs from either side of its slimy viscous head. Another high pitch ear splitting scream accompanied this horrendous action….. The man raised his hand to his mouth in utter terror. Never in all of his life had he ever been so afraid. “It’s coming for me!” He gasped helplessly “It’s going to, going to….” “Going to what?!” Dave cut in angrily “Don’t you see?! This is your mind making manifest the infection that you have to defeat. It’s sustained only by your belief in it. Dispel this and your body will do the rest itself….” The horrific creature began scuttling towards its prey. Opening its mouth wide, the unearthly scream coming once again….. “I " I can’t!!” the man wailed. “You have to!” Dave grabbed the man by the shoulders “If you don’t it’s over!! Do you hear me?! Over!!” The man closed his eyes, trying not to hear the wet scuttling sound of the Spider-heads legs speeding across the landscape. “I … I refuse to acknowledge you!” he shouted “You are but a figment and I am strong. My mind is clear!” He opened his eyes but the monster was still approaching rapidly. “Dave I- he began “Carry on you’re doing great!” Dave enthused. The man raised his arms above his head and stretched out his palms as the horrifying image of doom loomed over him. He gritted his teeth and opened his eyes wide. “GO AWAY!” The face of evil looked confused for a moment, its legs were melting. Then in a final and almost pitiful scream it began to sink back into the ground from whence it came. Bubbling and boiling, steam pouring from its eyes and mouth as it deconstructed before them, becoming a puddle of slime. Then becoming nothing at all. The man turned to Dave who was beaming almost proudly at him. “You did it man!” Dave punched the air vigorously. “This means I’m cured?” The man asked. “Spot on.” replied Dave. “This means that " everyone is cured?” “That’s right” Dave confirmed. “The parasite is no more, gone for you. And gone for all of its other victims.” “I can. I can go home….” The man began to weep. Both men were beginning to fade. The landscape around them starting to dissolve. “Ah” echoed Dave’s voice. “Our work here is done; the curtain is closing on this particular performance…” “Thanks. Dave.” “On no…. Don’t thank me. The achievement was yours my friend " oh!” “What is it?” the man asked with a smile. “I just realised, I don’t even know your name.” Dave said. “Oh.” Replied the man “it’s……….. The man awoke back in the familiar surroundings of his cell. The ceiling was just a ceiling. The cracks in the walls merely cracks, not populated at all. The man sprang from his bed feeling more alive than he had for far too long, to the sound of his door being unlocked. The sound of the gateway to freedom he thought wistfully…… The head orderly entered the room looking dispassionate. “I cured you.” Said the man. “I cured all of us. We don’t have to do this anymore. We are all free now!” The orderly looked perplexed for a moment, and then he smiled. It was a kind smile the man thought. A smile of gratitude. “Really?” the orderly asked. “Yes.” The man replied eagerly “You see; we were all infected by this parasite. I was the host of the queen. Dave helped me and well " I defeated it. I cured everyone….” “Dave?” asked the orderly. “The guy in the next cell.” explained the man. “You see he mentally projected himself into my mind to help me focus and well…. I did it. I beat the infection…” “That’s amazing.” The orderly added, still beaming “That explains everything!” he took the man in an embrace “Thank you for saving us, that was so thoughtful of you!” “Think you’re pretty funny don’t you freak?!” the orderly spat, all sentiment drained from his face “You really are gone with the fairies aren’t you?! The man was shocked “I don’t understand I….. The orderly kicked the man violently in the ribs. “I think that it’s time you had your medicine you sick, sick little man.” “What? No I’m telling the truth I " Look if you don’t believe me ask Dave. He’ll back me up!” “Dave?” “The man in the next cell you deaf idiot! Don’t you ever listen?!” The orderly let out a long harsh laugh, genuinely amused. “Stop that!” the man shouted. “Don’t laugh at me! Why are you…? The orderly stopped and fixed the man with a clear eyed serious face. “There is nobody in the next cell. That cell has been empty all night you freak!!” Tears were streaming down the man’s face, his mouth open, his eyes wide “No!” he screamed “No! That’s not true!!” “Pill time!” shouted the orderly with a cruel smile, he grabbed the man by the throat and forced his dosage violently. The man was utterly broken…. He stared at the canvas and began to create……. © 2013 Brett PritchardAuthor's Note
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2 Reviews Added on June 7, 2013 Last Updated on August 2, 2013 Author
Brett PritchardWolverhampton, West Midlans, United KingdomAboutI'm an experienced writer of varied interests. Was published in Starburst Magazine and Doctor Who Magazine. Something of a man out of time. I enjoy Science Fiction, fantasy, and horror stories. I'm a .. more..Writing
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