"Where am I?"
I wonder my eyes in an unfamiliar place, curious about the place I am currently in.
"Well, if you care about me, you have to trust me!"
I heard a voice somewhere, but I cannot seem to locate where it is coming from.
"Who are you?"
I asked loudly, but it was dead silence. So I started to roam around the place, studying the place as I walked around when I heard a terrifying scream. I jerk up from the couch, sweat running through my body as I pants heavily from that weird and strange dream.
I scanned the room and heaved a sigh of relief when I saw my brother on his bed. I didn't realize I fell asleep as soon as I laid down to take a rest. Probably I was just too tired with work, or was it because I'm getting old?
I'm Jack William Vough, 31 years of age, currently single, and a detective for 10 years now. I was assigned to investigate an incident that happened 6 years ago involving a girl and my brother. Days went too fast, it feels like it all happened yesterday and it makes me feel uneasy. I remember the day when my brother talked to me before moving out of our house to pursue my dreams.
I stared at my brother sleeping peacefully and heard his voice in my head as he said
"No matter what happens, never stay in the same spot and always go for it, okay?"
as if he is still the same lively and jolly brother I have before the incident happened.
I reached into my pocket and brought a stick of cigarette and was about to light it up when a nurse came in and she snatched my lighter away from me.
"Excuse me, sir, we strongly prohibit smoking inside the hospital and around the hospital premises. If you still want to smoke, please leave the hospital or I'll report you for not abiding by the rules of this hospital."
The nurse spoke as she kept my lighter in her hands.
"Tsk. Alright. Alright. I'll get going now but give me back my lighter first."
I laid my hand in front of me and waited for her to pass me back my lighter. The nurse watched me as I left my brother's room, I heard her murmur something and seemed to be angry but I wasn't quite sure of the words she spoke... I went down the empty corridor, puffing another set of cigarettes.
I grow tired of these events that have been happening lately, especially with this case. What bothers me the most was the news I received last night from someone in Seint Kvöld Asylum.
The details of the report made my stomach turn upside down, making me vomit just thinking about it. I was deep in my thoughts when I heard faint footsteps coming from behind me. In an instant, I turned around expecting to see someone but I didn't see anyone. I continue walking still deep into my thoughts and heard another set of footsteps, it seems like it was following me.
I felt a sudden cold breeze from the hallway making me have goosebumps.
My heart races from the eerie atmosphere I face. I didn't dare look back,
"What the hell is wrong with me? I'm probably hallucinating because I haven't had a good sleep lately."
I sighed and shrugged it off, although I still feel uneasy about it.
"Hey, old man! I told you the hospital is a non-smoking facility!"
A spank on my rear made me snap back into reality.
I quickly remove my cigar from my mouth and glared at the nurse.
"Argh-! What's wrong with you?" I groan and step back away from her.
"I told you! No smoking! Are you dumb? Do you understand what I said? Did your parents even teach you good morals? You seem to be hard-headed."
The nurse spoke to me as if she knew me too well. "Parents, huh? I believe they are somewhere far away. And it's been long since the last time I saw them."
I turned to her and stared at her blankly. "So what is it now, huh?" I smirk at her jokingly.
She smacks me in the head, a bit hard, her actions make me smile a bit, and she treats me like her own grown-up child. She has been my brother's nurse since the day he was brought here to the hospital.
She is a few years older than me, yet she treated me like a child sometimes.
"What did you say? Are you trying to pick a fight with me, Mr. Vough? You should respect me more or I'll spank your rare more than you can take."
The nurse enunciated and acts as if she will be giving me another slap on my arm
"Alright alright," I stated and waved my hands sighing in defeat. "Wait, here is the partial invoice you were asking for, earlier."
The nurse pass me a piece of paper which I gladly accept and thanked her. I skimmed the paper examining the text on it before I slid it into my bag. I then disposed of my cigarette in the trash bin and left the hospital. I sighed and looked at the sky, it is dark yet so bright. I feel so small just thinking about how many people in this world are looking at the same starry sky that I am looking at. If only I could have acted less stubbornly, my parents would still be alive today.
I unconsciously look at the scar on my palm, it reminded me of how awful I am and why my parents died because of me.
"Karma, isn't it?" I sigh and put my hands inside my pocket as I head to my car. Before I could open my car, I saw a figure standing at the end of the parking lot. His eyes are glistening, but I cannot discern his face nor what he was wearing.
I tried to ignore it and lit another cigarette when I heard a deep spooky voice saying,
"The time is near. I can sense it in their fear."
Upon hearing it, the figure suddenly disappeared. The parking lot suddenly feels cold, goosebumps all over my body. I immediately went inside my car, and revved my car, thinking what the hell was that? Am I imagining things? Hands shaking, sweat coming down from my head, the words kept replaying in my head. "The time is near. I can sense it in their fear."
A yawn escapes from my mouth, and I suddenly felt drowsy, I am exhausted. My eyes felt heavy, I tried to fight the urge to shut my eyes as I fastened my seatbelt. Another yawn escapes from me, I could no longer keep going like this. "HEEEELLLP!"
A scream coming from nowhere reverberated in the parking lot. I squint my eyes trying to adapt to the brightness of my surrounding as I open my eyes. When my eyes are fully open and sober, I look around and found myself standing in a familiar place.
"Could this be Seint Kvold Asylum?"
I look around and start walking through the hallways.
A shadow from inside a room can be seen in the hallway. As I approach the room closer and closer, sobs continue to get louder. Curious about what was happening, I peeked inside the room. Suddenly someone runs out of the room, it was a nurse. She ran as fast as she could while panting,
"No, please! I don't know anything!"
Then an inhuman figure came out of the room crawling through the ceiling, her eyes were bloody red, her head was facing the opposite side, and blood oozes out from her mouth. She is smiling widely as she kept crawling faster. It then suddenly jumps over the nurse. The nurse stumbled down unable to escape from the creature. It was on top of her, nails digging into her skin, blood coming down its nails. The creature smiles, then licks her nails as it gets off of her, the creature watches the nurse struggle to stand up with her broken ankle. I was standing there in the middle of the hallway, frozen. I cannot move my body to help the nurse.
I was unable to do anything, I could only watch the nurse cry for help. The creature slowly stood up, and slowly walked towards the nurse. I suddenly realized that the culprit was none other than one of their patient. Why is the patient trying to hurt the nurse?
I asked myself. "Where do you think you are going?" the patient uttered.
I tried to speak, but not a single voice came out. In a panic, I put my hand on my mouth and feel my face, it was missing, something was missing, I could not feel my lips. "My mouth... It is gone..." I said to myself.
Panicking I looked at the window by the room, It really is gone, a mouth that I use to talk to every day was now an empty skin.
Hands trembling, legs shaking, I was uneasy, I could not feel my lips even if I struggle and feel them again,
"This can't be happening... This is just a dream right... There's no way... Please let me wake up if this is just a dream... Please let me out of this nightmare..."
"Do you think I'll let you go that easily?"
The patient chuckled before continuing by saying, "Have you forgotten what you did? Huh?"
Her grins become wider as blood covers almost half of her face. Blood dripping down the aisle as the patient walks slowly.
"W–what are you talking about?" confusion is written on the nurse's face as she tries to back away from the patient.
"Playing innocent, are we now?" the patient laughs maniacally. "That man..." the nurse blurted out as she remembered the guy who went to her and showed her a picture of the patient.
"So you remember.." the patient smiles widely then it turns to chuckle disturbingly.
"You think I don't know what that man is trying to do?!" The patient yelled, and it pierced through my ears, I feel like my ears burst on how loud it is. The patient leans down on the nurse and asks while smiling as her voice becomes cute all of sudden,
"Have you ever thought about how it feels to be blind?"
"B-blind?" the nurse's eyes grew wide as she looked at the patient. "YESSSS!!" The patient squeals excitedly, then the patient scoops out her own eyes, and a pool of blood fountains out of her eye socket.
She giggles like nothing wrong is happening. The patient plays with the nurse's eyeballs as if it was stress balls. "So how great does it feel to be blind? Does it feel fantastic?"
The nurse's leg trembles in fear and loses its strength as she stumbles down the ground. The lights start to flicker as the white wall on her back becomes turns bloody red and hands from the depths of hell pulled the nurse's body down into a place that reeked of death and unimaginable horror. "Please, AAAAAAHHHHH"
Wailing cries echoes inside the wall, and rotting faces that looked like undead start to appear as well, but one particular face seems to be different, it seems like she is asking for help while looking straightly at the nurse. The person inside the wall tries to go out of it but it seems like it was stuck in the dark but bloody wall.
The nurse looked around looking for some hope she then looked at me as if she knew I was there.
"Sir! Sir!!! Please help me. Please, please! Get me out of here."
She crawls towards me, tears flowing continuously in her eyes. The urge to help the nurse is powerful, but I can't move. I'm paralyzed in my spot. One hand grabs her in the ankle tightly, pulling her but she resisted and tries to kick the hand out of her feet, but it doesn't budge. The grip on her ankle becomes tighter, hearing her bones cracking, and the nurse yelps in pain while the other arms from the walls start to reach out of her.
They are trying to drag her inside of the wall to become one of them. The nurse can reach me and hold onto my leg, she holds me so tight I could feel the pain, but I still can't move. I wanted to help her, but I could only stare at her. The arms were able to pull her off me, she still tried to resist, digging her nails against the floor, but they did not stop. Her nails plucked off her fingers, blood tracing the floor, the bones in her fingers dislocated in many ways as she keeps trying to resist. She's crying for help but I can't do anything.
The nurse slowly disappear from my sight as the wall swallow her whole, "Are you having fun, Mr.Vough?"
The patient suddenly appears beside me. I didn't even notice her walking beside me I was stunned, how does she know my name?
We never met. The patient traces her bloody finger on my jaw while looking straight at me and smiling eerily. I looked at the patient instantly when I heard her. But she was not happy when I looked at her, she held my chin and forced me to watch the nurse on the wall. The hands on the wall ripped her skin from her face, she was skinned to death.
The nurse cries for help, but the ripping of her skin in different places of her body continues, her bones are cracking, she was beyond undistinguishable.
Her body dislocated in many ways, and a rib protrudes from her chest, "H...h..e..l..p... Me..." I heard her whisper before she become limp.
The lifeless body dropped and rolled on the floor. She was beyond unrecognizable. Skinned to death; skull was visible from the skin as she bathed in her own blood. I wanna close my eyes, I don't want to witness all of this. If this is a dream, please wake me up!
"Hey, mister..." I looked at the person beside me.
"If you care about me, you have to trust me, believe in me."
My eyebrow creases as I try to remember where I heard that sentence before.
"Deja Vu?" I asked myself. "My, my, my, what wonderful eyes you got there." The patient closes our distance and her pointy and bloody nails were in front of my eyes. A few inches away from my eyes and her nails will pierce my eyeballs. I suddenly wake up and look around. I sigh with relief when I realize I'm inside my car.
"What was that?" I stared at my steering wheel confused but then I suddenly feel a lump in my throat. I tried coughing it but it didn't come out. I panic and gets out of my car, trying to cough it out for the second time but it seems like something is stuck in my throat. I did my best on the third time, coughing 2 balls out of my mouth.
It rolls down the ground and stops. it turns out they are 2 eyeballs "What the–"
I fell to the ground in shock and leaned against my car. The eyes move and look straightly at me. I panicked and tried to stand up as fast as I could and search for my key.
I went inside my car and struggled to put on the key as my hand trembled in fear. I sighed again and wiped the red liquid flowing out of my mouth.
"No more smoke for yah, Jack." I talked to myself.
I heard a knock. I was sweating so much as I pant heavily. I was trying to collect my consciousness from my dream when a hand suddenly appeared at my window.
"Jack.... Jack... Jack... Find me..." I heard deep eerie whispers, like a voice coming from the underground.
Then suddenly a figure jumped into the car, it was the hand of a beggar begging for money. "That scared the living hell out of me."
I clutch my chest to calm myself.