Paranoia V2
Paranoia
Silence crept down the crumbling corridor, turning into a quiet whisper as it reached the stairs. A small breeze whispered under the many doors. The girl placed one foot in front of the other, panic in her eyes. Quick, sharp silhouettes raced in front of her vision, almost threatening to engulf her in darkness.
Rain smashed against the windows of the asylum, sending echoes through the abandoned rooms like thunder. Her ears picked out the sound and her eyes darted to the doors, trying to decide which to open. As she was searching, a dark door caught her eye. She cocked her head and squinted. It was big, very dusty and had a red tinge to it. An eerily red tinge.
The girl’s legs suddenly started to move. She had no control over the movement. The door loomed ahead, almost beckoning her to clasp her hand around the handle to enter the room. The feeling was so strong it was almost taking over her every thought and feeling to the point in which she felt she was drowning in the loss of control. Her legs finally reached the door. She could smell iron and copper drifting up from underneath the door as it gently caressed her bare feet.
What she heard next caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up, her stomach to drop and an automatic reflex to squeeze her fingers into her palms, leaving crescent moon shapes on her hands from her nails.
Deep breathing.
The breaths echoed in her ears as they got louder, closer, deeper. A thud came from behind the door. Again. And again.
“W.. who’s there?” the girl stuttered, her breathing faltering.
A small, muffled reply came from behind the door.
“I said; who’s there?” As she said this with more confidence, she moved her head down and gently pressed her ear against the dust covered door.
“I’m… only… mind… not… here…” came the slightly clearer reply.
She removed her ear from the surface, placed both hands on the door and looked up. A small click echoed through her mind, shooting fear from all of her pores as a gasp escaped from her trembling lips. The door started to slowly open. Her hands slipped off the moving object as a small, thin line of light peeked out from behind the open door.
What she saw when the door creaked fully open was unexplainable, undefinable, unimaginable even in her deepest and darkest nightmares where her screams and loneliness haunted her mind.
She stumbled backwards and fell, landing hard on her back, mouth agape, eyes filled with terror. Something glinted in the bottom of her vision. She froze with fear as the silver object was brought higher and higher above the monstrosities head. If you could even call it a head. It was a misshapen lump that was hidden behind a veil of a mask. A murderous, spine-chilling butcher mask. Her eyes quickly darted around the illuminated silhouette. It had odd, loose flaps of skin and protruding bones poking out from underneath a blood stained butcher apron as though they were constantly and repetitively crushed with a huge block or heavy stone and then smashed into a wall to cause the bones to rip through the skin to gave the misshapen look the monstrosity held. But its face… was just indescribable. The facial features just looked wrong, as though they shouldn’t belong there. They looked so out of place, it was hard to distinguish whether it was actually a head at all. The head differed in the way in which it had been deformed as it looked as though he had sat in front of a rocky wall and slammed his head against the rocks. Over and over and over again.
She knew she had come to an end. In her last, final moments she looked directly in its dark red eyes behind the rusty mask. There was a sharp, quick noise sailing through the air. Her scream echoed throughout the corridor, only to then be met with an incredibly loud bang. Without any recollection of what she did, she had rolled to the left and she had avoided the weapon’s deadly strike. She pushed herself up off the floor and scrambled to her feet. Without looking back, she ran. An echoing voice filled her head as she skidded to the floor trying to get around the corner.
“Please stop running, you have nothing to fear, it’s all in your mind, I’m not really here.” she heard the mocking voice eating away at her thoughts. She didn’t understand. What did he mean, “she’s not really here”? Why was she here at all? What was that… that thing? How could he be here? The whispering wind sailed past her ears; stinging her eyes. She shook her head and pushed on, getting faster and faster at each step. She suddenly crashed into a old, decrepit wheelchair that was almost falling apart. As she landed, she heard an almighty crack. Her senses picked up nothing. She felt no pain, or any feeling in her body; only pure fear. She rolled herself onto her back and looked up only to see the abomination staring right back at her.
“What do you want?!” the girl screamed, hoping someone would hear her other than her own ears. The abomination put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a needle full of a dark blue fluid.
“Wake up.” he growled.
“What do you mean? I AM awake!” she pleaded with little hope.
“Please, wake up.”
That was the last thing she heard before he raised his arm above his head, and swiftly it came crashing down and the needle buried itself into her neck; the fluid slowly injected into her. She went rigid as the darkness ate her whole.
“Stop her moving! Come on, stop her thrashing about!” a man yelled.
“Can’t you see we’re trying!” another man shouted back, “But she won’t keep still!”
“What do you want?!” the girl screamed.
“Inject her! Get the parasylable injection to calm her down!” a woman’s voice called.
“The dark blue one?” another voice replied.
“Yes! The dark blue one! Hurry up, we’re losing her.”
The woman grabbed the needle from the silver table on the other side of the room, almost tripping on the way back and she slammed it into the other womans hand.
“Please wake up.”
“I AM AWAKE!” The girl thrashed and screamed.
“Injecting… now.” The woman said as she carefully pressed the needle into the girl’s neck, slowly releasing the dark blue fluid into her blood. As if on cue, the girl stopped thrashing. The restraints that bound her hands and legs to the bed had made her skin red-raw but were now motionless. Her body was limp and lifeless apart from her stomach rising up and down in time with her slow breathing. All the people in the room slowly looked at one another, exchanging knowing glances.
“I’ll put her back in her room.” A man said as he made his way to the front of the bed; taking the handles in his hands.
“Get that arm sorted out too. It looks like it has fractured badly. I keep saying these restraints are far too tight.” One of the male doctors said to the man holding the gurney. He nodded and pushed her out of the room and out of sight. The others in the room sighed.
“It’s always a shame when they get that far gone. When they get there… there’s nothing we can do.” He said while taking off the latex gloves he was wearing.
“What else can we do? Nothing. We just get the patients in, treat them, and try to keep them alive.” The woman who injected the girl said.
“Come on, let’s not dwell on this. We were told by the staff at the other hospital that the girl had a horrific case of Paranoia and she even tried to attack the other patients when she was admitted. She was also complaining about seeing a man with no face… or wearing a mask chasing her down a corridor. It sounds… terrifying. Just… go and check on the other patients. Make sure they’re okay. I never want to experience a freak-out like this for a long time.” The man said, wiping sweat off his forehead.
“You’re not the only one.” Another man said, looking around at the other two people in the room as they nodded as well.
However, they all knew the same thing would happen the next day.