"What… Happened…?"
The sound of blaring noise made my ears hurt. Looking at the source, my eyes saw the light of red and blue. A police-car, there's no mistaking it, but why are they here this late? And why am I still outside? I was just driving from home… Did I stop somewhere?
Curious, I got towards the cop standing beside his car, he was eating a light-snack.
"Officer!" I called out to him, "What happened here?"
The cop didn't respond. Strange, I'm literally beside his back and you're telling me he didn't hear that? Impossible for him to be deaf, he must be ignoring me.
"SIR!" I shouted, grasping the shoulder of the cop.
"!"
What happened next shook me in confusion… my hand goes through the cop's shoulder, like it's thin air. I tried again, and the same happened, but I noticed my arm rippling like a disturbed surface of water.
"What is happening?"
"Just when I was about to get off my shift, something happened!" the cop suddenly uttered. Going into the front, I noticed no reaction from him – he cannot see me, "These drivers need to get their heads straight, accident after accident! Jesus christ!"
Accident? What is he talking about? There was no accident that occurred while I was on the road…
"Damn that car is fucked up beyond repair, what do you think the guy crushed into?" The cop tapped on the car's window. It rolled down, revealing another cop sitting on the passenger seat.
"No clue, it's an open high-eye – and the accident seems to happen before it collided at the side-walks, " The other cop replied, feeding my confusion, "The paramedics has arrived and they manage to get the driver out, poor dude's looked fucked. And, I believe he's pronounced dead before they even got him into the car."
"Damn, is there anything wrong found in his car?" the cop inquired.
The cop looked out from his window, "Aside from the broken rear-mirror, no, nothings fucked."
What are they talking about? A dead person? Crashed car? A dead person? Did an accident occur? Although, a broken rear-view mirror… mine was broken as well, but I couldn't be the driver. I'm alive and well…
Why am I still in my office clothes? I changed just an hour ago… and my shoes, I took them off and washed them…
Before I could question even more, I smelt something, something burning just a few distance away. Turning my head towards it, I noticed the broken car on the side of the road – with people in second-aid attire. Without questioning, I got close to it, and observed the car that was broken. Its front is utterly destroyed, with the mirrors dented into the interior – anybody inside will be killed. Crushed to death.
I could feel my heart slowly turn cold, as I noticed the Car's model. It was a honda, the same as mine. I shook my head, simply not rational at all. But, checking for more proof that it's not mine, I turned towards the back and read the plate-number.
"9386OYG…"
No.
No, No, No, No, No, No, No! That's not making sense at all, I got fucking home alive and pristine. I was just eating dinner on my table intact, my car is fine inside my garage with no damage whatsoever! This must be coincidence, or worse a replica , there's no damn way that its mind and I got into car-crush-
"What was name again," I heard one of the paramedics speaking, holding a paper.
On the ground there was a body covered, and a guy checking the injuries. I got closer to it, and placed my hand on the fabric covering my face. And before the paramedic could reply to his partner, I revealed the face below the cloth.
A black-haired, almost gaunt, face is what greeted me. My heart froze, and my breathing went still. The face is not too destroyed, half of it is missing and the left jaw is hanging. My eyes shook, even with a ruined visage of the face I could still recognize it.
"That's me…"
"His name is…" I turned to the guy, now he's holding an ID, "Lucian-"
My body felt something coil around it, and my abdomen tightened with force. I could barely breathe back when I spit, my throat singing in pain. Looking down with struggle I saw something wrapping me. A metallic string, a chain, with a hook tied to its end.
"!!!"
I tried to struggle. Squirming and squirming my body in the effort to break free, however, the chains are too tight to shatter and break free. The desperation grew, and the air trapped inside my throat clogged any more from entering. My eyes were too wide, shocked beyond belief, as the object got further away feet-by-feet.
I'm being pulled! Turning to my back, the sight of literal cracks in space made my brain go haywire. The cain is coming from inside it, and it is pulling me towards where it came from. I tried to run, I really did. But my effort did nothing but make me fall on the ground, as I got closer towards the portal oozing literal malevolent energy.
As I pushed forward by crawling, as a last ditch effort, my lower body entered the portal. And, like a siphon, the other whole followed suit.
…
…
It's so loud! The noise of screaming merges into an inhuman wail. A combination of countless voices all screaming from agony. My head felt it was about to explode from the sound, like a parasite slowly tearing my cranium and turning my brain into a floating mush.
I don't know why the sound is like this. Why is the noise so painful… All I know is that if I stay here for any amount of time I'll die from insanity, or worse live to experience this deafening hell of agonized soul.
They all cry…
Help me!
Save us!
Why!
It hurts!
My body is tearing apart!
What did we do to deserve this!?!!!!!
Time passed, and the noise didn't die down. They seemed to get louder, as I slowly joined them bit by bit. Time doesn't flow, the passage drowned by immense suffering that is occurring in this cage full of suffering. Enduring is all I can, and to hope I at least retain myself – before I drown and join the collective strife.
There is observing us, neither demon or angel, nor does it conform to any preconceived ideas. It is a fractal rippling infinitely, a body molded by paradoxes and possibilities. How this being came to be, and why it imprisoned us in this mockery of hell, I don't know. The screaming would not let me come to a sound conclusion, however. I do know that it enjoys the screams echoing out of here.
The agony of the souls, their plea of suffering, seems to feed this impossible eldritch thing. Though it may not have any features, I feel it, the sheer sadistic enjoyment it's getting from our suffering. It noticed me, of course, among the many tortured souls one is not partaking in the symphony of torment. But, it is a passing interest, it's merely curious to how long I would last till I lost…
My self.
A second passed, or is it more?
My sanity is slipping away.
And the desperation grew even more.
I contemplate pleading to the entity to cease the noise.
However, I squashed that thought.
It will not listen.
For how many, truly, are the souls spent in this cage?
Centuries? Millennium? Eons?
It's impossible to assume.
For all…
I know. A second merely passed for me.
My vision is not fading… It's becoming more saturated. The sickly color of ethereal green becoming more brighter, more blinding.
The souls that surround me become more solid, yet all this does is cement their suffering to me.
Amorphous faces coming to be, just to be replaced in a painful process.
What did I do?
….
….
I had enough.
The noise is too much.
Too painful.
Too loud.
The soul needs to be quiet.
Need to be silence.
Need to shut the hell up.
Their pain is real, but I have become numb to their cries. Their voices become nothing but piercing howls, devoid of substance. Just to exist for a purpose meant to shatter me, to feel every crumbling piece of my sanity.
The question of why me, and for what purpose, have long been left behind. All that is left is the desire to bring….
"SILENCE!!!"
For the first time, I joined the crowd.
And at first it became quiet.
The cage for the first, in no time, experienced the quiet. Silence befalls finally, and this quietness begets the attention of an insufferable mass of soul. Their gaze like heavy weight suddenly manifesting in my back, yet my anger demands not be crushed.
This is nothing compared to their unceasing wails.
Not even comparable to the noise that resonates both body and mind. They have
It has scarred me.
Peace.
Silence.
Respite.
Rest.
You offer it.
You offer it.
You offer it.
You offer it.
You offer it.
You offer it.
You offer it.
You offer it.
You offer it.
You offer it.
All said in unison, but I didn't give them anything.
"Enough!" I shouted back at them. The mountain of souls didn't budge, "Are you not sick of screaming all the fucking time!"
"What have you done but scream it hurts, this, help, that. SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
The monolith that they've become is a silent one.
"NO ONE'S GONNA HELP US!! WE'RE STUCK HERE! FOREVER! THAT FUCKER THAT WATCHES AIN'T GONNA HELP, HE'S THE ONE CREATED THIS JAIL."
The fractal is not present, nor the impossibility it begets. It is somewhere else, for its aura is not lingering around. The watchful gaze is null, leaving a yawning void beyond this cage/
"Fucking focus all your anger on him, and maybe you'll put a crack on the pillars of Basalt!"
That won't work.
He's everywhere.
All powerful.
It is futile.
He's all knowing.
"So what? Is screaming all the fucking time the best you could degrade into? Why not destroy each other, eh? Kill each other, obliterate. At least those actions have a goal, and if it fails you're allowed to continue, and if all of you succeeded in killing each other – then you get your peace! DO ANYTHING BESIDES SCREAMING! IT FUCKING IS ANNOYING!!"
I'm just as desperate as they are, to be liberated out of this torment. But, it's clear that there's no escape out of this. We're all stuck, condemned to suffer and scream. Who the fuck decided that!? Even if we are damned, we still have the choice to just shut the fuck up, and try any other thing than just scream all the fucking time.
You're just saying anything to vent out. The mountain spoke, You know as we do, that doing any effort is futile. Screaming gives us bliss, nothingness leaves us with our broken selves.
But, you are right.
We could do something else this time?
"What's that?" The Mountain pulsated in the colors of the soul. It is like a beating heart of the damned.
Silence.
You offer it.
Since the moment you've stepped foot, you have remained shut.
You didn't join us.
We thought you would succumb.
But after you've prove true to your SILENCE.
We offer you ourselves
To inhabit you.
In exchange you will use us.
"But, you are right.
We could do something else this time?
"What's that?" The Mountain pulsated in the colors of the soul. It is like a beating heart of the damned.
Silence.
You offer it.
Since the moment you've stepped foot, you have remained shut.
You didn't join us.
We thought you would succumb.
But after you've prove true to your SILENCE.
We offer you ourselves
To inhabit you.
In exchange you will use us.
"What the fuck are you talking about? Use me? Use you?" The confusion is palpable in the mist.
You know what we are talking about.
Your heart understands us.
Confused as you stand, but answer with a simple Yes or No.
My heart beats, as I grasp my chest. The mountain's summit is sharp and pointy, it reaches the roof of this lantern like a prison. The offer is confusing, but in the back of my mind, the thought that I will regret not taking the opportunity will hunt me alongside my eternal imprisonment.
I got closer to the mountain and touched it.
"Yes."
Silence
Silence
Silence
Silence
Silence
Silence
Silence
Silence
The mountain lost its shape as it melted into a swirling vortex, whose eye is on my arm. I could feel them coming inside me, my body gradually bloating by their mass and volume. My lungs and my stomach feels like it's about to burst out of my chest, as my brain flashes of visions not my own. My head is throbbing, pulsating, and wriggling as If a worm is inside it.
It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!
It hurts.
The feeling ceases, and the cage is grace with SILENCE. It is empty, now devoid of all the souls that previously inhabit it, the only proof that they were here is the scratches on the pillar that support the roof.
My body is oozing an energy, cracks form – fracturing on both my chest and stomach. My left arm, the entry passage the souls use, is riddled with cracks emitting the ominous energy of compacted suffering.
I look at the gaps of the pillars. Bars lined the space, forming like a prison cell. I punched it, the lantern shook. I punched again, and the same happened.
I repeated this action, not stopping for anything. The Watcher is gone, and I don't want this chance of immoderation slip out of my hand.
A second passed by.
And, the bars showed a crack, it was small. But, with my unceasing stress that I inflicted, the crack slowly crumbled into a bigger fracture. Till it became a poke the size of a ball.
My face is stuck with the expression of nothing. I put my hand on the hole, I felt wind being sucked out from inside into the hole.
My body got sucked alongside the air.
And, the cage now truly knew of…
SILENCE.
…
..
.
I awoke seeing the clear blue sky.
.....
.....