The Stranger Within

A Story by Taylor Joel

Who is he, why is he, and who the hell is she...

I woke up around 11 P.M. that night feeling like I had slept for months. Clearing the fog from my eyes was no easy task as I had forgotten to take out my contacts the night before. I hate when I do that. As I began to come to all I could feel was anger and rage building inside me. But why? I had obviously overslept so I was well rested, why were these awful feelings all I could manage?

I got out of bed and headed downstairs to the kitchen for a midnight snack. A PB&J with no crust cut into two triangles with a bowl full of nacho cheese chips. The perfect blend for my particular taste buds. I sat in the silence of my crunching jaws eating as if I had been starved. As I ate I felt the rage began to ease off, thankfully. But once I finished I began to worry myself for the reasons of my rage. To worry proved useless. It was more then likely a bad dream that I sub-consciously hadn’t shaken.

None of this was strange to me until I tried to remember what happened the night before. There was nothing. I sat trying my best conjure up a memory but there was blank sheets. I began to look around my apartment for evidence of the night before. The place was much bigger than I remember for some reason as I walked around finding nothing but perfectly placed furniture and home decor. There wasn’t a thing out of place. I couldn’t remember for the life of me when I had ever been so neat and tidy. And then I saw the picture frames on the wall coming back down the stairs. I was in such a frenzy before that I hadn’t noticed them. But low and behold, there I was hugged up with a beautiful red headed bombshell with crystal blue eyes, on my couch, in my living room.

Was I having amnesia? As I looked closer I saw that she had a shiny engagement ring upon her left hand. How could it be that I’m that involved with a woman and have no memory of her. The panic began to settle in. I had no idea what was going on and who this woman was but we both had rings that said we were tied to each other for reasons of love in all these photo’s. I began to wonder where I could have misplaced my own ring from the picture as I continued my search. I was hardly any closer within the next hour to figuring anything out. I was doing my best to keep my cool but things were turning out to be very trying. I had to find out how this could have happened?

I finally made my way back upstairs and found a monthly planner on the nightstand. I looked down at my vintage gold Casio Illuminator, a favorite watch of mine, and checked the date. April 23 was the day so I quickly flipped to it on the planner. Paid vacation it read in red ink across the next two weeks. I remember thinking to my self who must I be messing around with a work to be afforded such a luxury but then I moved to more pressing matters. I needed to know what was going on and why I couldn’t remember anything. I came to the conclusion from the pictures that the woman in the photo’s with me must live here, and she must have answers. If I waited for her to come home she would definitely have answers for me.

Hours went by as I waited. Tick. Tock. I watched out the window of my room. Every car that went by I hoped it to be her but no one ever came to my door. By 4 A.M. I had lost all patience. I had gone through my drawers and closets in the rooms upstairs but there were very few things of hers. It was as if she was in the process of moving out. I found only a few shreds of clothing, a fair share of purple household items that I hated with the utmost sincerity, but nothing of substance to tell me anything about the red headed woman.

Things all changed when I went back downstairs and found the door. It was in the kitchen to the left of the pantry. It was an ordinary door that stuck out in no specific way. But every other door was accounted for in my mind except for this door. It was another one of the strange mysteries of my amnesia. It wasn’t to long until my curiosity got the best of me and I opened the unknown door. There was nothing but creepy black and terrifying silence to tickle my fancy. Suddenly a soft moan let out from the darkness that sent chills up my arms and stood the hairs on the back of my neck at full attention. I immediately closed the door and jump back in freight. Another dimension had been added to my mystery, only this time it was a much more frightening one.

I ran back to my room and sat on the edge of my bed. I had calmed myself and talked myself into believing the noise downstairs was just my imagination playing tricks on me. There was no need to panic. I just needed to figure out why I couldn’t remember anything. I laid there for the next few hours staring at my buzzing ceiling fan until the sun came up still unable to come up with anything. I did my best to keep my mind from pondering some unfathomable story of danger and dread but as the hours went by I started believe there was indeed something unsavory going on.

I put some jeans and a tee shirt on before heading back downstairs around 8 A.M. Now that the sun was up the entire downstairs was completely illuminated. This would allow me to be more calm and unafraid, and I could look around and think more clearly. I hit the jackpot early when I found the land line and answering machine. Luckily there was a saved message.

MESSAGED SAVED APRIL 23, 2010

“Hey darling! I’m on my way from work. I can’t wait for you to see what I have for you tonight. It’s going to be a great one this year so don’t worry, OK. Love you see you in about a half an hour,”

Why would she say not to worry when it sounded like she had a great evening planned out. I wondered what the occasion was? But at that point I also knew she was supposed to have come home and didn’t. But why did it look as if she had packed up her things? We both had a rings on in those pictures why don’t I have my ring on now? Could we have gotten into fight and left? What could we have fought about that was so bad? That’s when the headache started front left side of my forehead. All the swirling questions circling like Dorthy’s tornado was driving me mad. And then the ringing in my ears was so obnoxious I began to lose my vision. I rushed to close all the curtains and turn off the lights but the pain only increased. I hurried upstairs back to my room and took a bottle of prescription migraine medicine from my nightstand and covered up in bed. I moaned in pain thankful that no one was around to hear me squeal so loudly. I rocked myself back and forth like a mother would her child until I indeed fell fast asleep.

I awoke that night standing in front of the kitchen sink still in my jeans and shirt from earlier. My headache was gone but I had no idea how or when I had gotten downstairs. Suddenly something shiny caught my eye down in the garbage disposal. Without hesitation I reached down inside and began to fish it out. After a brief struggled I grabbed what felt like a man’s ring. The lights flickered as I began to pull it up the ring got caught on something. I tugged on it with all my might but with enough delicacy as not to damage it. When I finally un-wedged the ring I looked around at the strangeness of what was happening. How ironic is was that I would have my hand stuck down in a garbage disposal and the lights be flickering. It was the perfect setting for a horror scene.

Then reality set in as I went to pull my arm free and couldn’t move. It was like I was suffering from temporary paralysis from the wrist up. Then the lights began to flicker again and my breath increased as fear set in. I was almost in tears as I struggled to pull my arm out especially since there was nothing stopping me. Finally I began to regain some feeling in my wrist and felt my strength slowly climbing back up my arm. And just as I pulled my arm free the garbage disposal flipped on, roaring in all its might, its blades barely missing the ends of my finger tips. I fell to the floor in shock of what had happened. I had the missing ring but what was going on?

It was just after 12:30 A.M. when I reached my bedroom and sat on the edge of my bed. I had slept for almost fourteen hours, over sleeping again was beginning fill that ominous rage fill my veins and thoughts. I sat there for a couple hours wondering why kept getting so angry? Then for some reason I felt the puzzling urge to go downstairs to the unknown door. I knew it had to be just a basement but why didn’t I know what was down there. Next thing I knew I was standing in front of the unknown door carrying a bat from which I don’t remember stopping to pick up. Nor do I remember walking downstairs at all, only thinking about going downstairs to the unknown door and then suddenly standing in front of it.

I opened it and began to make my way inside. After a few steps there were steps that led downstairs into the darkness. The lights flickered as I made my way down the steps in the empty abyss. There wasn’t a sound to be heard. Not even a spider slivered down it’s web to feast as I made my way down into the mystery room. The silence was indeed tremendously terrifying, but my rage kept me steadfast in my endeavor to find out was down stairs. HEEEEEEEEEEEH! A muffled tone softly moaned out from the darkness sending me quickly back up three stairs. But then the rage. It was something I hadn’t felt before. I had never been driven by any of my emotions with such passion and ill direct. I pushed forward until I was downstairs and found a light switch to flip on.

As I studied the room I noticed something off about the far right wall. It seemed to be shining differently in the light as if it had been freshly painted. As I crept closer I heard that soft screeching moan again most clearly coming from behind that wall. Without knowledge of taking another step I was thrashing my bat into the wall tearing it down into shreds, letting the rage be my guide.

Once I stepped through the wall there was a strange white square room standing around seven feet high and three foot by three foot in diameter. For some reason none of this seemed so out of the ordinary to me, all I wanted to know what why. There was a door with a window for the small room but there didn’t seem to be any light inside of it. My nerves were rattled, my rage was severe, and I was still clueless as to what was going, but I knew I had found a ring that could belong to me and I was determined to figure things out.

I slowly approached the door with much caution. My knees were shaking like a infant left out in the cold. I noticed a small switch the right wall of the small room and put my attentions there for a moment. As I contemplated the use of the switch I began to feel my rage fade away as a sense of default anxiety took its place. “You’ve got your bat. There’s no need to panic. Just flip the switch,” I said aloud talking my self up. I knew by its mere placement that the switch most likely just turned the light on inside the room but sub-consciously I was too scared to find out what might be inside, hence the procrastination.

I stood in front of the window with my bat in my left hand and flipped finally flipped the switch with my right. I jumped back in distress when I saw the red headed woman standing face to face with me on the other side of the window. Only she wasn’t the stunning work of art she was in the photo’s on the wall. A quarter of her head was shaved and her makeup was only done on the left side in a very dark shade. Her eyes weren’t blue at all, they were green and she had dermal piercing in both cheeks. But then her smile. It was her smile that calmed me down. A smile that was brighter a thousand suns when she saw me. But that same smile quickly wore off as she studied my confused face. “Pason? Pason is that you?” she asked through the window. “No I’m sorry I don’t know any Pason’s. I’m Jonah. If you don’t mind, could you please do me the kindness of explaining all this for me. I, I found this ring and there’s pictures of me and a girl that looks so much like you upstairs. Please tell me I didn’t kidnap you and trap you down here?” I said babbling on like a nervous school boy in front of an elder crush. I couldn’t wait for her to set everything straight for me. I could feel a huge relief being lifted.

“You didn’t but Preston did. Just left me out and I’ll explain,” she expressed full of innocence. I reached down for the handle and started to twist the lock but what she said stopped me. “Who’s Preston? And Pason? I think it’s safer for both of us if you do the explaining before I let you out. You could start with your name,” I said feeling overwhelmingly confused. She let out a huge sigh of frustration. “My name is Chelsey. And believe it or not I am the girl in the photo’s,” she remarked as if I had offended her. “Pason is my man. The love of my life for whom without I would be just dust in the air, nothing. I need him right this very moment but he’s trapped somewhere deep down inside of you,” she exclaimed sending me handful of mixed emotions I wasn’t prepared for. “Excuse me, you said he’s inside of what?” I asked needing and immediate explanation. “You heard me correctly. He’s inside of you. Lost somewhere in that extraordinarily punishing mind of yours,” she paused with a slight smirk on her face. “You my darling suffer from multiple personality disorder and just so happen to be Pason’s alter ego. Now please my precious, let me out of here so I can bring him back,” she said softly to lighten me up and put some feminine whiles into the atmosphere.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Multiple personality disorder. In other words I was finding out I was psychotic and should probably locked in a mental asylum. “Don’t do it,” said a voice that I didn’t recognize to be in the room. “What did you say,” I asked Chelsey thinking I had just misheard. I was a bit thrown off at what I had just learned. “I didn’t say anything,” she replied looking at me strangely. “Unlock the door sweetie, that’s all you have to do,” she continued in her sensual voice trying to persuade me. “Don’t do it,” I heard again but couldn’t place where the odd voice was coming from. “Tell me about Preston and why he put you in here,” I demanded changing my tone to a darker one to make her understand I was serious. I could see in her eyes that she got the message. “Preston, did this to me. He cut my hair and pierced my cheeks, even did this botched makeup job to my face. He’s an evil, manipulative liar. And if he’s not stopped he’s going to kill Pason. And sweetheart, you and Pason are one. You can’t live with out him and he can’t live without you. You don’t want that fate do you?” she said putting her hand to the glass, making eyes at me with the deepest of compassion.

Suddenly the light inside the small room switched back off and she disappeared in the black. “You can’t let her out,” said a displaced voiced to my right. I was more then startled when I looked over and saw a man with my exact features staring right back at me. “Who are you,” I stuttered out in shock. “I’m Preston. And I need your help,” he replied with such a seriousness I stiffened up and prepared for a fight. “Chelsey told me who you were. And she had not a single good word to confess,” I replied to him with a stiff chin and a stern voice. “That was not Chelsey. You must not believe a word she says,” he cried out desperately. “I can’t express to you the importance of what I’m about to tell you. No matter what Pason is not…” before he had the chance to finished the lights downstairs flickered and he was gone.

When I turned back to the window there Chelsey stood looking at me with her enticing eyes. Something far beyond my control was happening and I wasn’t the slightest bit interested in giving up the upper hand by letting her free. I didn’t know who to believe, or who was who for that matter. I gazed into her eyes and weighed my options, which were either to keep her locked up or let her free. Then I noticed the most bizzare thing I had come across in this entire mystery. The color in her left eye began to twist and fade in and out. I stared at this astonishing spectacle with more intensity then a surgeon delivering a premature baby tuning out everything around me including the sound of Chelsey’s voice. Then all at once I began to feel the rage in me rise again as if it had been triggered by the dynamics of her eye. I broke eye contact and fell a few steps back from the room. The ringing in my ears came back but with much more force. The lights again began to flicker causing me to lose sight of my footing. I lost my breath as I fell backwards into the unknown fearing what I might hit on the way down after making such a mess of the place earlier. And just as I suspected I crashed the back of my scull right into a giant pile of cement rocks turning my lights off completely for longer then I care to know.

When I came too what conspired was like something out of a play. There I sat watching two men with features just like mine. The only subtle difference was that the one on the right wore my outfit a bit neater then I, and the one on the left wore it just a bit more un-kept. I couldn’t hear what was being said but the way they flapped their arms around the more it seemed like they were brothers rather then enemies having a boyish feud over who got to sleep on the top bunk. I sat forward trying to see what was going on but the flickering lights were two much with the ringing in my ears.

And then all there was was her. Her true blue eyes gleaming from behind the window of her small cell. The look on her face was a saddening cry as I could make out the word “No” as she screamed banging her hand on the glass in desperation.

I saw the blood before I heard the shot. The gun was the elephant in the room that disappeared leaving everyone guessing. I can feel the pain but I’m not sure if it’s my own. I guess it wasn’t in the cards for me to find out who Pason was or to find out who I was. Hopefully things worked out right.