Forgive Me

Waking up in an unknown and eerie world, not every smile is as bright as it seems.

My eyes flew open in a start, white fluorescent light flooding them. Attempting to shield myself from the onslaught, I found myself bound tightly to a bed. I panicked, struggling against my restraints and using every ounce of my strength to break free. Quickly exhausted, I slumped back into the bed and tried to calm my jumpy nerves. I looked around, trying to make sense of where I was. It didn’t help. I had woken up in a strange bed in the middle of what appeared to be a huge hospital room, filled with hundreds of thousands of beds full of people like me. The layout, however, seemed much more akin to that of a warehouse. The cots were all arranged in extremely orderly rows going up and down the length of the room and stacked on top of each other hundreds of feet into the air. What appeared to be nurses in white robes were zipping around the columns and rows on platforms, attending their patients. All around me I could only see white, from the lowest bed where I rested, to the highest. The only color variation that could be seen was the skin color of the patients.

Out of nowhere, one of the platforms with two nurses appeared. Their hoods hid all of their faces save for the two perfect white smiles that stuck out against the darkness of the hood.

“You’re awake!”, they both cried happily. I stared back at the two with a blank expression. Never breaking their smiles, they strode over to my bedside. “How was your rest?” they asked in perfect unison. “We trust that it was most restorative.”

“Uhh”

“Fantastic!” they said smiling. “Now that you’re awake, we can begin to get you processed.”

The two undid my clasps, and in turn each took one of my arms, standing me up and leading me away from my cot. We headed towards a small door that could just be seen at the end of the room. As we walked by thousands of bunks, I noticed that although all the heart monitors pinged with life, not a single patient seemed to be breathing. The blood had gone from their faces, pooling at the lower half of their bodies. Moreover, the heart monitors were bouncing unlike any others I had seen, spiking downwards at the beat of each heart. The nurses did not seem at all concerned. We reached the door and stopped. Looking back, several others like me were also being led this way.

“This is where we leave you!” one of the nurses said.

“We do hope you enjoy your stay,” the other smiled.

The two turned in unison, striding off to attend to their next patient. Stepping through the door, I walked out into a bright, shiny world. The sky above me was an ocean, and not a single white cap could be seen; only serene, peaceful waters. The ground felt soft to walk on, like a newly laid carpet. To my left and right, doors exactly alike to the one I had just stepped from stretched out beyond eyesight. People were continuously trickling out of them, staring in awe much as I was. Cutting through the painting of a scene was a massive wall a ways off, slightly worn and a bit greyer than the building I had just exited. A line more massive than any I had ever seen stood at its gate, patiently awaiting entry.

“Wonder what they’re trying to keep out,” I thought to myself.

I entered the line quickly, knowing it was going to be a long wait. To pass the time, I made conversation with the others, attempting to figure out exactly where I was or why I was here. Every time the answer was the same. “I just woke up here. I have no idea what’s going on.” The wait was grueling, but somehow I eventually made it to the front. I couldn’t tell if it had been hours or days, time seemed to pass differently here somehow. And yet the entire wait the sky was bright and cheery. Nearing the front of the line, another figure in white robes was visible directing the oncoming mass of peoples. The guard seemed to be assessing whoever stood before him, either directing them to his left, or on through the gate to his right with the wave of his hand and a smile. Before I knew it he was looking me over. I felt as if he could see right into me, grilling me with the cutting gaze of an elementary school teacher, ruler in hand. He waved me through to his right.

I entered a massive city unseen from outside the wall. I walked tentatively into a large square, huge buildings surrounding me on all sides. The lights of the building’s signs flickered eerily. The architecture could only be put as neoclassic, giving the feeling of the entire city being one big anachronism. I felt as if an early great American city had been blasted into the future and I was stuck right in the middle of it. In the distance a structure that loomed over even the tallest of buildings could be seen, its huge golden rotunda jutting out in contrast to the grey-white city. More white-robed people could be seen flying around the rotunda and the rest of the city, occasionally swooping down out of sight. Somewhere in the distance, singing could be heard.

A group of figures in white robes appeared out of nowhere, armed to the teeth with musical instruments. They approached the group of people who had recently walked in, and immediately started distributing the instruments.

“Who can play the trumpet?” one asked.

No one answered.

“Great!” he said.

The white robe handed me and two others trumpets, urging us to play. The noise that we made should have been criminal. The white robe only smiled.

The rest of the instruments were handed out, and the remaining were told they would be singing. Only one in the group had the slightest musical inclination, and that still wasn’t much. The white robes began to lead us through the streets of the city. To where, no one knew. As we continued walking the square split off into two streets; one left and one right. The white robes glanced at us curiously and we continued on to the right. Somewhere, a choir could be heard singing �" poorly. As we turned the next corner, the small choir directed by another white robe came into sight. The group wasn’t much different than ours was; a rag-tag bunch with little to no musical ability. The entire group was out of sync and out of tune. Only a few seemed to know the words, the rest struggled to keep up. They appeared to have been singing for quite some time, and all seemed quite fearful of stopping. One of the women passed out mid-line, and yet everyone continued as if nothing had happened as a white robe dragged the woman off. The choir seemed to have dwindled in this manner, with people playing or singing until they could no longer stand and passed out from exhaustion. I heard a clatter of brass on pavement, and turned to see one of our group sprint off in the direction we had come. Immediately catching the eyes of the winged white robes that controlled the skies, he was swooped up and taken back towards the golden rotunda.

That destroyed any other lingering hopes of escape, and to be honest the thought of running had never crossed my mind. We joined the choir, immediately trying to pick up the tune of the song.

Under the drone of instruments clashing in the air, I whispered to the man next to me,

“Why are we playing this music?”

“To please It,” he said.

 “Where are they taking those people?”

“There’s been whispers of them being tried for forgiveness,” he only replied.

That phrase struck more fear into me than it should have. Time went by as it had waiting in line. I could not tell how long we had been playing, but slowly we lost more and more of our group, each being dragged off with the possibility of being “forgiven.” This was the only indication of time I could see. They fed us only once, splitting a single loaf of bread for the thirty something of us. And yet it somehow filled me. Time went by, and my instrument became heavier and heavier. The weight of myself became too much and eventually my inevitable collapse came as well. Dragged off to the side, a winged white robe eventually picked me up, flying me to the rotunda.

I was left in a long curving hallway, doors entering to a room on my right. To my left were windows in the rotunda, giving me an overlook at the sprawling city below. From here, I could more easily see the cities progression from clean and white on the outer edges, to grey and dark the closer it got to the rotunda. Hands grabbed me by the shoulders as I was looking out the window, whipping me around to see the pulled up hood of yet another white robe.

“Are you prepared to be tried for forgiveness?” it smiled.

The white robe shoved me along towards a nearby door. Entering, we came into the heart of the rotunda. Blazing light attacked from all sides. At the center of the room, a large sphere of light or some sort of energy floated above a half circle indentation in the grey stone floor. A small man knelt before the orb, shaking from the sheer force of his sobbing. He held his hands folded above his head in repentance. I started towards them but was pulled back roughly by the white robe behind me.

“I know you’re anxious, but please do wait your turn,” he said.

Confused, I looked on to the scene unfolding in front of me.

A voice indecipherable of age or sex boomed from all sides of the room, “You dare to defy me!? Heretic! You speak words of treason and filth, it is pure poison to the ears of our beautiful city’s inhabitants.”

The man sat in silence for some time, seemingly thinking his position through, “What I said was wrong!” the man finally yelled shakily. “You alone are the one true creator!  Please! I beg for your forgiveness.”

“Sweet child, of course you may be forgiven.”

The man’s sobs stopped immediately as he looked up in pure disbelief.

“Dear children,” the orb continued. “Please take this man to be forgiven properly.

“Of course Father,” three white robes replied, taking the man through a side door in the room.

It really wasn’t a decision. Instinct is the only way I could describe it. Deciding against common sense and staying behind to be potentially “forgiven,” I made a run for it. In a rush of adrenaline and with surprise on my side, I flew past the white robes and the sphere, bursting through the door that the forgiven man had just walked through, my step not slowing in the slightest. Taking a quick look back, I could see the white robes in pursuit, but luckily their long, flowing robes were by no means made for running.

The long hallway I had entered went on for several hundred feet before abruptly breaking off into two separate hallways. I went left. Hearing cries of pain ahead of me, I felt that I must be on the right track for some reason. I almost missed the door, I was so intent on finding the source of the cries. Coming upon what seemed to be the source of the sounds, I found an office door just as you would see at any hospital in the world, a large wooden door with narrow translucent textured glass panel in the upper right corner. I turned the knob slowly, opening the door to a sight that truly sealed my fate. Just as the door was swinging open, an unrecognizable mass of flesh rose from a medical examination table. Its back was to me, showing off the white robe’s handiwork. Lining his back from the base of his neck down to his hips were patchwork stitches oozing with deep red blood. The stitches held a massive pair of white-grey wings to his body, much too heavy for the stitches to hold them comfortably. Since I had entered the room, the cries had stopped for the most part, but muffled groans of agony could still be heard. The winged thing, stripped of its humanity now, turned around to face me. His pain was muffled still by another series of stitches, this time closing its’ mouth shut.

“You need not speak dear child,” the white robes sang to him sweetly. “Only listen, for our Father’s word is all you need.”

Realizing someone’s appearance now, the white robes turned to face me. They were stunned to silence, not entirely sure what to do at first.

“Are you lost, my child?” one chimed in finally.

“Come, lay down your weary bones and rest,” another said, patting an adjacent medical examination table.

I bolted from the room as quickly as possible and the white robes were quickly in tow. The hallway I had entered was different than the one I came out of somehow, this time lined with doors on either side as I ran, all of them left open. I caught only glimpses as I flew by, yet I was able to make out a few of them. One such scene showed a massive wooden ship being tossed about by the sea, bodies floating all around it in the water. Another showed all of Earth in turmoil, flames and death littering its’ barren grey ground. Men, women, and children alike burned alive, holding their hands up to the sky in anguish. Scenes of thousands of mothers holding the lifeless body of their firstborn son. Countless scenes of horror, death, and destruction flew by me in a torrent of inhumanity.

The continuous pound of feet to tile became my rhythm, every stride the beat of my heart. Both drummed in a perfect cadence that kept me moving. At this point I’d lost track of how long I’d been going and was having trouble remembering exactly what I was running from, and yet one thing was for certain, I could never stop. My breath came in shortened gasps, lungs screeching for air with every slap of the cold ground. No longer could I hear the sweeping progress of my pursuers. The beat of my restless heart and heaves of breath had drowned out their muffled movement. I couldn’t hear them, but I could feel their presence. Suddenly their sweet whispers pierced my mind like so many arrows.

            “Sssweet child,” they sang. “Return. Return and be forgiven.” Every word slowed my movement, the sweet harmonious high notes entrancing my mind.

With the last shred of sanity I had I thought, “Should’ve gone left at the gate.”

Suddenly, I slowed to a stop. Turning around, I cracked a smile at my pursuers, who had now formed a tight circle around me.

            “Why? Why would I run!?” I broke into hysterics, dropping to my knees laughing and sobbing simultaneously. My pursuers joined arms, their blinding white robes forming a halo of light around me.

            “Be forgiven child,” they sang. And I was.

 

Reviews

[Haley Wilson]

Wow. This was so creepy and so excellent. I love the atmosphere that this story creates! One of my favorite pieces I've seen on this site so far. c:

[Talbot]

Thank you so much! ^^