Insomnianna (Prologue)

Pain. Fear. Heartache, mind suffering.

Lungs and eyelids heavy, fatigued limbs numb, back aching, body stinging. Tapping of rain, crackling of thunder, electrical buzzing. Slowly, I opened my burning eyes.

The room was dark, a pitch black mist clinging to the floor. Lightning flashed through an unseen window. No, a light was flickering rapidly just beyond my peripheral vision. My breathing hastened and my stomach knotted as I took in my familiar surroundings.

The black and white tiled floor, the plaster peeling off the rotting walls, the gloomy feel of the entire room. The medical equipment dangling by each of the metallic beds that lined the walls, the scent of decay and powerful sedatives wafting through the air. I realized that my iron bed, with a strange simultaneous hardness and softness to it, was against the far left wall of the room. It was the same bed.

No. I'm not here. I can't be here, not again. Not again!

Slowly, shakily, fighting through the slight irritation and pain, I turned my head to my right. I froze, my muscles stiffening, fists clinching, heart hammering as I saw him. It was just a dark shape that flickered in and out of existence in the faint light, but I knew it was him.

What does he want with me? Hasn't he done enough? What did I do?

He tilted his head, then disappeared out of thin air. I didn't realize I was holding my breath until I let it out.

I can't stay here! I have to move! I have to move now!

I forced myself to sit up straight, trying hard not to wail in pain. I turned and set my feet on the floor. I felt dizzy, the world spinning, my head pounding, my body weak and frail. I forced myself to stand up and yank the IVs from my tingling arm, watching as the blood oozed down my trembling form. Slowly, carefully, teetering with my arms spread as if just learning to balance on two legs, I walked toward the exit at the far right corner of the room.

I peered behind the half open metal door, wishing I was tall enough to look through the window at the top. I saw nothing but another rectangular room, with two pillars by the door at the far side. I squeezed through the door, careful not to make a noise.

I startled at a reverberating snapping sound, and twirled to my left. The wall had completely disappeared. Behind it, little by little, the floor changed. First solid tile, then several tiles scattered around, then only grass. Then, a massive mountainous amalgamation of rock and dirt, a waterfall cascading down from the top and splashing into the small lake below.

Then, slowly, as if it were a chemistry project, the waterfall turned crimson, soaking the lake with his blood. Soaking with my blood. I backed up, then hit something.

I whirled and screamed. He stared down at me, blood gushing from his empty eye sockets, his flesh ripped and rotten. I whipped around to run, then slammed into something else. The air was knocked out of me and I fell hard onto my back. I forced myself to stand back up as fast as I could in my disoriented state, and saw what I had hit. Suddenly, the wall was back in place, hard as concrete. I turned back to see him slowly starting toward me, as if stalking me like a predator, as I was backed into a corner.

I twirled, hearing the sounds of him approaching me, as I banged on the wall, screaming, “Please! Please open! Please help me!”

I felt a stabbing pain in my back, and I was thrust into the air. Pain wrapped around my neck and I wheezed, struggling to breath. Suddenly, I was face to face with him, my nose almost touching what would've been his.

I squirmed and kicked, slamming my fists against him, trying to wrench myself free. I was pulled even closer to him, until all I could see were the gory, eyeless sockets, staring into my soul and burning into my mind. I tried to scream, but with his inhuman grasp around my throat, nothing came out. My body exhausted, my muscles sore, my lungs heavy, my heart hammering, I gave up. I let myself cry. No, what crying was without breathing.

Pain. Fear. Heartache.

Lungs and eyelids heavy, fatigued limbs numb, back aching, body stinging, mind suffering.