a snippet from something i've been working on.
First light came earlier than I had expected.
I awoke with my back to the wall - dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, the usual suspects. I stood up slowly and suddenly felt a pain inside of my chest and a powerful numbness creeping over my fingertips.
Pins and needles, biting, burning, splitting, cutting, stabbing, stinging, crushing, throbbing - these are all ways that a doctor will tell you to describe pain. This pain was different, new even. This pain had no description.
I was in my room, although something was wrong, the smell of dark, unwelcome, and familiar greeted my nostrils. The room was empty, save for one thing - one beautiful, terrifying thing.
Her figure was unmistakeable, and her voice was clear as a bell. She stood no more than ten feet from me, the hardwood floor rippling under her boots like ocean waves - it cracked and curled towards me as she pointed the gun and said "I have to do this."
Somewhat bewildered, I swallowed hard and just stared at her, trying to wrap my head around what was happening. Light coming through the windows seemed to twist and distort around her as it hit the ground in shattered specks of what looked like broken glass.
We exchanged eye contact for a few moments, and the room seemed to grow more frigid with every second. Her facial expression was blank, cold, and she stared right through me. I was tempted to ask her how she had gotten into the house, but at this point it didn't matter. I was going to die, and if she had something else to say, I'm sure she would have said it by now.
I closed my eyes, perhaps this would be the strange, unexplainable ending I had always expected for my strange, unexplainable life. I felt a smile creep across my face as time slowed to a grinding halt - the tension in the air between us as thick as concrete - the silence was shattered by the sound of a click, then... nothing.
I opened my eyes, and she was gone. The room had returned to normal, well... almost. The wall behind where she stood revealed a message, in blood, "Not Yet." I looked down at my hands to the horrific sight of slashed wrists - it was my own blood. At that moment, the realization hit me. I was killing myself - the dream had become reality, in a way more dangerous than I had ever anticipated.
I scrambled for my phone to call an ambulence, the room suddenly repopulated with my furniture and belongings. I was bleeding everywhere, to the point that I couldn't imagine how all of it had been inside me at one point. Suddenly there was a voice on the other end of the line, which began to echo as I spurted out my address as quickly as I could. All at once, my feet gave out from under me, then darkness. They must have arrived pretty quickly, because I managed to survive.
I awoke in a gray room with no windows and a large metal door which only opened from the outside. All I could think of was that I didn't sign on for this. My research stopped here for quite some time.
I awoke with my back to the wall - dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, the usual suspects. I stood up slowly and suddenly felt a pain inside of my chest and a powerful numbness creeping over my fingertips.
Pins and needles, biting, burning, splitting, cutting, stabbing, stinging, crushing, throbbing - these are all ways that a doctor will tell you to describe pain. This pain was different, new even. This pain had no description.
I was in my room, although something was wrong, the smell of dark, unwelcome, and familiar greeted my nostrils. The room was empty, save for one thing - one beautiful, terrifying thing.
Her figure was unmistakeable, and her voice was clear as a bell. She stood no more than ten feet from me, the hardwood floor rippling under her boots like ocean waves - it cracked and curled towards me as she pointed the gun and said "I have to do this."
Somewhat bewildered, I swallowed hard and just stared at her, trying to wrap my head around what was happening. Light coming through the windows seemed to twist and distort around her as it hit the ground in shattered specks of what looked like broken glass.
We exchanged eye contact for a few moments, and the room seemed to grow more frigid with every second. Her facial expression was blank, cold, and she stared right through me. I was tempted to ask her how she had gotten into the house, but at this point it didn't matter. I was going to die, and if she had something else to say, I'm sure she would have said it by now.
I closed my eyes, perhaps this would be the strange, unexplainable ending I had always expected for my strange, unexplainable life. I felt a smile creep across my face as time slowed to a grinding halt - the tension in the air between us as thick as concrete - the silence was shattered by the sound of a click, then... nothing.
I opened my eyes, and she was gone. The room had returned to normal, well... almost. The wall behind where she stood revealed a message, in blood, "Not Yet." I looked down at my hands to the horrific sight of slashed wrists - it was my own blood. At that moment, the realization hit me. I was killing myself - the dream had become reality, in a way more dangerous than I had ever anticipated.
I scrambled for my phone to call an ambulence, the room suddenly repopulated with my furniture and belongings. I was bleeding everywhere, to the point that I couldn't imagine how all of it had been inside me at one point. Suddenly there was a voice on the other end of the line, which began to echo as I spurted out my address as quickly as I could. All at once, my feet gave out from under me, then darkness. They must have arrived pretty quickly, because I managed to survive.
I awoke in a gray room with no windows and a large metal door which only opened from the outside. All I could think of was that I didn't sign on for this. My research stopped here for quite some time.