Darkness

this story is called Darkness for lack of a better name. if you have a suggestion, feel free to let me know :)

He awoke with a shock. Where was he? What had happened? How had he got here? He didn't know the last thing he remembered. He didn't know anything. All he knew was that he had to get out of this room. It was more like a cell. The walls, ceiling, and floor were an off white colour, and the bed where he had been laying had a thin mattress, and a dark brown blanket covering it. It wasn't a prison cell, that's for sure, nothing like a prison cell. He had never been in a place like this before, so neutral, and unthreatening that it scared him, made him want to scream. He could hear it. He was screaming. He ran to the door, and banged on it with his fists. He screamed as loud as he could. His throat burned after a while. He had no idea how long it had been since he had woken up in the cell, but no one had answered his cries, maybe there was no one on the other side of the door. Maybe he was alone. He continued to bang on the door, even though his voice had deteriorated to a mere whisper. His hands were bleeding.

****

The patient had been screaming for hours. Sometimes he wandered why he did this job. It was so depressing to simply watch over those who had no hope. Make sure they didn't kill themselves, or die in their sleep, or escape. Not that any of them could escape, they didn't have the capacity for that. The people that he watched over, their minds were so far gone that they could only do a few things. This new one, apparently all he could do was scream, and bang on the door. He had been told to ignore him, that he did this all day, every day, they said that he didn't know where he was, that every day was new, the day before forgotten. He would have given anything to be able to forget the day before like that, but obviously it had taken its toll on the patient. He wandered what could have happened to someone to make them lose their minds like that.

****

He was walking down a road. It looked familiar, but he couldn't place it. There were tall buildings at either side of him, with dark alleyways in between, he wanted to go to the buildings, go inside, escape, but he kept walking down the road. He felt uneasy, there seemed to be no horizon, just a dark sky that blended in to the road ahead of him. Why was he walking if there was no where to walk to? He wanted to stop but he kept going. he heard sounds behind him, they sounded far away, and muffled like they were on the other side of a wall. What was it? Laughter? Crying? Screaming? He turned to look, and saw nothing. He stopped in the road, and turned his whole body to face the direction he had come from. What was this place? The sound continued, it was getting louder, getting closer. It was getting closer at an alarming rate, like someone was running at him, he turned to look down one of the alleyways between the buildings, and the darkness was broken by figures running towards him. They couldn't have been people, they seemed to be monsters. No face, no hair, nothing, like a person writhing within their own skin. Bones and muscles moved underneath the skin, it was blood stained and running towards him. He wanted nothing more than to escape, he turned, another one from the other side approached, and another, and another. How many of these things were there? They reached out their arms towards him, their fingers seemed to have claws underneath the skin that trapped them, and they were grabbing for him, scratching the air violently to reach him. What would they do to him when the got him? They were desperate for him it seemed, they were pushing past each other, shoving others to the floor, climbing over those who fell. They reached him, and grabbed at his skin. The pulled and ripped at him, his arms, his neck, his face, he felt the pain through his body, and the blood started flowing from his wounds, they were piling on top of him, and he was becoming a bloody mess like the rest of them, he screamed to escape, and pushed them away, he struggled to free himself from their grasp, and climbed away from the mountain of creatures that had engulfed him. He was in so much pain, and the blood was going in his eyes, he looked at his hands and arms, and saw not cuts on his skin, but no skin at all, he saw muscle, and bone, he felt his face, and felt nothing but the warm feeling of blood. He turned, crying with pain and fear, to see the creatures moving towards him once more, arms out stretched, grabbing for him still. Should he run? Or should he stay. Would they kill him? All he wanted now was blackness, oblivion. They piled on top of him once more, and his wish came true. Darkness.

****

He awoke with a shock. Where was he? What had happened? How had he got there? He tried to scream but he had no voice. The only thing he knew was the memory of being skinned alive by the creatures, he looked to check it wasn't reality. He had to get out of that room. He got up and banged on the door, screaming as much as he could. He had to get out of that room.

****

The patient was awake again. He wondered what he must have dreamed of to have awoken with such a blood curdling scream. He counted himself lucky that he just worked in this place, and was not living there. It didn't seem to be a good life. Sure they got food, shelter, safety from the outside world. But it wasn't the outside world that was the problem, it was the world that was within their minds. The things that tormented them were not reality, they could not be stopped by a brick wall, or a vault door, they were trapped within them, and there was no escaping it. He felt bad for the patients, but what could he do apart from make sure they didn't kill themselves, or die in their sleep, or escape?

Author's Note

any feed back on my writing aswell as the story line (or lack of it) and also any suggestions on the name would be appreciated.

Reviews

[cartera]

Very well written. This would make an excellent short film. No names, all anonymity, even the nurse is a prisoner.
Well done.
You will write a well-noticed novel one day.
ATB
Alex.