A gothic short story
I was running… running… running… running as fast as I could to get out of the rapidly closing grille to escape from him. I just got to the tiny gap that remained, just about a split second too late and couldn’t fit through. I then traversed around quickly to be confronted with a spiky wall that was rapidly closing in on me. And with that I sat bolt upright in panic. My eyes remaining tightly closed. To be pulled down rapidly onto my side as I was originally. I kept my eyes closed as a fear of what may meet my sight. The horrors of my situation and surroundings. Possibly my worst fear and dread. The fear of being chained up. The fear of being somewhere where I wouldn’t like to have imagined ever being. The fear of being somewhere I was trying not to imagine. One thing for sure it wasn’t dark because I could make out shadows with my closed eyes.
Whilst lying down on my side and with restricted movement I bravely and gradually started to open my eyes. What I saw was worse than I imagined. There were three things I feared. One; water - drowning. Two; heights - vertigo, falling and just overall unpleasantness. Three; enclosed places and being chained up - claustrophobia, not being able to escape, over crowdedness. What met me were all three fears. I was chained up, lying on the bottom of a small rusty old metal cage, like a giant cage possibly about 41/2 foot in length, 21/2-3 foot in width and about 3-31/2 foot in height. The cage was hanging by a chain from the middle of the top of the cage right above a river of deep murky water inside a type of very damp, musty smelling rock cavern.
I started looking around slowly, taking in and trying to make sense of my surroundings, what was going on and how I’d got myself into my current sticky situation. Last thing I remember vaguely was running through a dark forest, trying to escape some evil people with various weapons. Or was that a dream too?
So how was I going to escape then? It was time to ponder how to try and get out of the cage. The cage which every small move I made swung side to side. Unfortunately the swinging of the cage and with the water, which by now was quite rough and beating against the rocks, were both making me a bit queasy and giddy. I had to try and stop letting my eyes catch the sight of the view from below and at least for the time being lie still. It was then that I finally looked at the chains which had my wrists bound up. Those chains were what had caused me to fall back down so rapidly after my nightmare awakening.
I noticed that the chains were quite rusty and wondered how they were still holding. That gave me an idea. I tried pulling a bit with my arms. At first the chains just kept pulling my arms back. But then one by one the chains came away from their attachments. Great. I was partly free. But I then came to the realisation of being chained still to the cage, by the ankles. Luckily those didn’t take much work and so I tried to my ability, even of still being shackled a bit, I tried to stand up slowly and cautiously.
It was a sudden noise and a sudden strong distinctive smell which attracted my attention. It was a noise which caused me to look up quickly. A noise that confirmed another fear of mine. Rats! If there was one thing I just hated more than anything on earth was certain types of rodents. It was those rodents which petrified me. All of a sudden from seeing one of the creatures there was a group of the things. And the smell of ammonia was dreadful and slightly sickening, even possibly to those with strong stomachs. And those things weren’t the little things which scuttle around your nearby alley and go through your rubbish, whilst you’re tucked up at night asleep. These creatures were black, ugly and massive with big beady eyes like two full moons full of evil. I’d say they were about 4 or 5 times as big as normal rats. One thing which stood out about them was their ghastly sharp teeth. The teeth which meant business, like archery arrows to a target and daggers to the skin of a murder victim. The teeth after blood because there was blood on their fangs possibly from their recent meal. Their cold blooded killing, because that’s what they are. Cold blooded killers.
The rats started to make their way down the chain towards the cage. As they made their way down the chain suspending the cage, I could feel the cage swinging ever more rapidly and all over the place. With the fear of the rats, the swaying of the cage and the movement of the water, I could see the cavern starting to spin and just whirl around in front of me. It got so bad that I felt even queasier. As the cavern started whirling even more I fell backwards, which caused the suspending chain to come very loose from where it was being held up. As I hit the bottom I banged my head quite hard and with that the rats came down towards me even more rapidly. Cowardly, in fear I closed my eyes tightly as I felt the rats on the skin of my hands and feet. I was fearing the worst. However even though I could feel them on my hands and feet I didn’t feel any pain.
So had the fear taken complete hold of my mind? Had the fear outweighed my feeling of pain? I slowly opened my eyes again to an unbelievable sight. The sight of small groups of large critters gnawing at the rusty shackles which had been holding my wrists and ankles. I couldn’t believe it. Those creatures that I was scared of. Those creatures that I had an extreme hatred of were trying to help me free. Eventually they freed me from the shackles and so I stood up and made for the door. I tried to give it force and with the rats rushing towards it the loosened chain that was holding the cage, snapped and we all went down towards the water. All of a sudden me and everything hit the water and I started to try and keep up as everything was going down.
Deeper and deeper I went as I saw my life flash before me and all sense of everything stated leaving me. It was that point that the cage became open and I felt a hand grab mine. I was pulled out of the cage and helped up to surface. It was then I saw a familiar face. The person with the familiar face managed to help me along against the roughness of the water through the cavern walls. We eventually made it out of the cavern and onto an embankment. It was then I sensed freedom and escape.
.
Whilst lying down on my side and with restricted movement I bravely and gradually started to open my eyes. What I saw was worse than I imagined. There were three things I feared. One; water - drowning. Two; heights - vertigo, falling and just overall unpleasantness. Three; enclosed places and being chained up - claustrophobia, not being able to escape, over crowdedness. What met me were all three fears. I was chained up, lying on the bottom of a small rusty old metal cage, like a giant cage possibly about 41/2 foot in length, 21/2-3 foot in width and about 3-31/2 foot in height. The cage was hanging by a chain from the middle of the top of the cage right above a river of deep murky water inside a type of very damp, musty smelling rock cavern.
I started looking around slowly, taking in and trying to make sense of my surroundings, what was going on and how I’d got myself into my current sticky situation. Last thing I remember vaguely was running through a dark forest, trying to escape some evil people with various weapons. Or was that a dream too?
So how was I going to escape then? It was time to ponder how to try and get out of the cage. The cage which every small move I made swung side to side. Unfortunately the swinging of the cage and with the water, which by now was quite rough and beating against the rocks, were both making me a bit queasy and giddy. I had to try and stop letting my eyes catch the sight of the view from below and at least for the time being lie still. It was then that I finally looked at the chains which had my wrists bound up. Those chains were what had caused me to fall back down so rapidly after my nightmare awakening.
I noticed that the chains were quite rusty and wondered how they were still holding. That gave me an idea. I tried pulling a bit with my arms. At first the chains just kept pulling my arms back. But then one by one the chains came away from their attachments. Great. I was partly free. But I then came to the realisation of being chained still to the cage, by the ankles. Luckily those didn’t take much work and so I tried to my ability, even of still being shackled a bit, I tried to stand up slowly and cautiously.
It was a sudden noise and a sudden strong distinctive smell which attracted my attention. It was a noise which caused me to look up quickly. A noise that confirmed another fear of mine. Rats! If there was one thing I just hated more than anything on earth was certain types of rodents. It was those rodents which petrified me. All of a sudden from seeing one of the creatures there was a group of the things. And the smell of ammonia was dreadful and slightly sickening, even possibly to those with strong stomachs. And those things weren’t the little things which scuttle around your nearby alley and go through your rubbish, whilst you’re tucked up at night asleep. These creatures were black, ugly and massive with big beady eyes like two full moons full of evil. I’d say they were about 4 or 5 times as big as normal rats. One thing which stood out about them was their ghastly sharp teeth. The teeth which meant business, like archery arrows to a target and daggers to the skin of a murder victim. The teeth after blood because there was blood on their fangs possibly from their recent meal. Their cold blooded killing, because that’s what they are. Cold blooded killers.
The rats started to make their way down the chain towards the cage. As they made their way down the chain suspending the cage, I could feel the cage swinging ever more rapidly and all over the place. With the fear of the rats, the swaying of the cage and the movement of the water, I could see the cavern starting to spin and just whirl around in front of me. It got so bad that I felt even queasier. As the cavern started whirling even more I fell backwards, which caused the suspending chain to come very loose from where it was being held up. As I hit the bottom I banged my head quite hard and with that the rats came down towards me even more rapidly. Cowardly, in fear I closed my eyes tightly as I felt the rats on the skin of my hands and feet. I was fearing the worst. However even though I could feel them on my hands and feet I didn’t feel any pain.
So had the fear taken complete hold of my mind? Had the fear outweighed my feeling of pain? I slowly opened my eyes again to an unbelievable sight. The sight of small groups of large critters gnawing at the rusty shackles which had been holding my wrists and ankles. I couldn’t believe it. Those creatures that I was scared of. Those creatures that I had an extreme hatred of were trying to help me free. Eventually they freed me from the shackles and so I stood up and made for the door. I tried to give it force and with the rats rushing towards it the loosened chain that was holding the cage, snapped and we all went down towards the water. All of a sudden me and everything hit the water and I started to try and keep up as everything was going down.
Deeper and deeper I went as I saw my life flash before me and all sense of everything stated leaving me. It was that point that the cage became open and I felt a hand grab mine. I was pulled out of the cage and helped up to surface. It was then I saw a familiar face. The person with the familiar face managed to help me along against the roughness of the water through the cavern walls. We eventually made it out of the cavern and onto an embankment. It was then I sensed freedom and escape.
.