A Voice in the Dark

     Blind. I couldn’t be blind… but I couldn’t see.
     I heard the soft yet horribly annoying sound of water dripping in the room. I was so cold too, and now that I had thought about my surroundings I realized I felt suspended upright. Slowly, I opened one eye – then the other. My breath caught in my throat as I looked around myself. Shaking, I glanced from the rickety wooden table filled with various sharp and rusty instruments in front of me to the disgusting moldy bucket dripping with murky water. Looking down, I saw myself in chains. Well, my ankles, since my arms were what I was hanging from. I struggled with the chains to no avail, trembling still. Oh God, please help me. Oh God. Where am I?!
     “Perhaps it’s just the stress from work getting to you,” a dark, quiet voice spoke to me. I couldn’t tell where it had come from.
     Suddenly I felt a huge whomp! at the back of my head. Black. Nothing.

     The birds were chirping. I could hear them. I felt so groggy, but still I opened my eyes. I had the worst headache, but the sun was shining. I got up slowly and made my way to my pants, made my coffee. Just going through the morning routine, though I felt so strange. What happened last night? I wondered. I had a strange dream. More like nightmare, I thought to myself. It was so real; I still felt like it was real, but it… it couldn’t have been. I rubbed the back of my head and continued on with my day. Perhaps it’s just the stress from work getting to me.

     I drove back from work that night feeling a little down. Oh well, everything will be fine, I thought as I ignored my anxious feelings. I always hated driving while it was dark outside, it made me nervous. Sighing, I adjusted my rearview mirror. A figure! A shadow out of the corner of my eye in my mirror! No, it was my eyes tricking me. I blinked away the thought. No! There was a figure behind me and it was reaching out! No! Oh my God!

     Cold, I was freezing again. This time, I was against rough pavement; bonded at the wrists and ankles. Who-what-when-where-why-how? I spewed questions to myself like a volcano erupting in my head. Oh God, Oh God! Hesitantly, I opened one eye – then the other. I was in a dirty shack of an abandoned warehouse-like building. Ropes were hanging from the ceilings, and I could only imagine what those and the various probe-like utensils scattered around the paved floor were meant to be used for. I heard a dark, quiet voice mumble indistinguishable jumbled syllables. I couldn’t tell where it had come from. As I scanned the area, a hard whomp! hit the back of my head from nowhere and I was out again.

     I woke that morning in quite a panic. That was no dream, nor nightmare! I screamed in my head.
     “Doctor, she’s awake.” I heard in the distance.
     I opened my eyes carefully. I was in an annoyingly white room; the walls were soft as was the floor. Official looking people dressed in white were hovering over me, observing my reaction. One had a clipboard; she was holding a pen rose slightly over her paper and was watching me in anticipation it seemed. I mumbled some indistinct thoughts jumbled together and the woman with the clipboard wrote furiously on the poor paper. A man sat in a large chair in the corner. He looked almost bored, but when I mumbled he rose in an interested manner.
     “Honey, you’re at a mental hospital. We’re monitoring you because you’ve been displaying some odd behavior. Now, I’m going to play you some security tapes and you tell me what you remember and how you feel about any of this.” The man spoke clearly.
     “Don’t tell them anything! They’ve got you right where they want you! Don’t you tell them a damn thing!” I heard a dark, quiet, and all-too-familiar voice mutter. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
     I sat there, bewildered. It must’ve been obvious. They had me right where they wanted me! What kind of doctors are they?!

     The first tape began playing. It was me, walking zombie-like into the basement of an old, abandoned house that was monitored for security. I watched me chain myself up after various strange movements and gestures. It looked like I was shouting for quite some time. The rest of these tapes were the same, places I’d had “nightmares” of, places I didn’t even recognize… But there I was, doing horrific and weird things before passing out momentarily and wandering back home. How I had accomplished all of this, I had no idea.

     Days passed by, I had not uttered a single word since waking in the hospital. I heard the doctors talking outside the door though.
     “What do you think it is?” The nurse asked.
     “We won’t know anything until she starts talking.” He replied.

(I leave you to your own imagination.)

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~ by devcoffee on May 16, 2008.