“I’ll come get you in an hour for recreation time,” Maria spoke softly while leading me into my cell, her voice slightly worried at my continued silence.

My hand rose, running the cold silver cross along my fingers, my eyes never leaving the barred in glass. Outside a beautiful day resumed as if to scorn the actions that resulted in my being here, as if to further reiterate my forever caged soul. I could feel the warmth of the sun against my skin, and yet instead of comforting me it felt like a slap against my cheek for I knew there was no way I would ever be allowed beyond these four walls. My eyes wandered over the sterile blank emptiness of my room knowing all it lacked were the padding. No matter how friendly Maria appeared to be I had to remember I was still enclosed in this prison, I was still surrounded by those who were a danger to others, a danger to themselves. A lock still remained on my door, and I still had no way of obtaining a key.

“I know you told him.”

I felt Maria pause even though I did not turn to face her. “What do you mean Anna?”

“You told him that you heard me speaking to someone when you knew I was alone,” I said calmly as slowly I turned to look at her. My brown eyes were dead, my voice flat, emotionless. I watched in silence as sweat trickled from her brow even though the chill in the air should have made that impossible. She swallowed nervously and I realized no matter how many kind words opinions never changed. Maria was afraid of me when I had arrived and little had changed since. I could practically hear her heart pounding in her chest.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she lied.

My brow rose condescendingly, my eyes already seeing through her lies, pass the false sense of calm she wanted me to believe.

“Dr. Thompson was scared of Anna Marie for a reason. I’ve never seen that look on his face before. They found that missing nurse and I know Anna led them to her body but the things she said; the things that happened to that poor woman were just plain evil. And evil never resided in these walls until she came here. I don’t care what anyone says there’s something wrong with this little girl. Di meliora.”

“Do you think it possible to talk to the dead, Maria?”

“Do you mean in a prayer?” she whispered, her eyes never wavering from mine.

I looked down at my cross, tears coming to my eyes, “Sometimes I wonder if anyone hears the prayers spoken in silence.”

Her hand reached out to brush against my chin, her grasp making my gaze return to hers, but as her skin came into contact with mine I saw her eyes widen in surprise. Her mouth fell open in fear. I saw tears flood her sight, her skin quickly lose its color, her breath coming in small pants as if the very act of breathing was more than her body could seem to fathom.

I watched the tears puddle over her lids, falling in ragged paths down her cheeks before the very image of her disappeared all together, and as if suddenly sightless I found that in its place I saw nothing but darkness. A bright light suddenly blinded me and I raised my hand to shield my face, but as I looked down I saw my hand was not my own.

“There you are! Think you can fucking hide from me!” a man yelled, his form unexpectedly blocking the light the shone around him. His clothes were dirty, he smelled of alcohol and filth, and in his hand laid an open bottle already more than half empty.

He advanced towards me and I felt myself cower further back against the wall behind me which only seemed to piss him off more. His hand clutched a clump of my long hair pulling with such force that I cried out as he physically pulled at my small form, knocking hangers that I never realized rested above me to the floor.

“Get your ass out of there!” he screamed pulling strands of my hair from the roots while managing to drag me from my haven, my nails ripping at the soiled carpet.

What the hell was going on?

The last thing I remembered I was standing in front of Maria and now… this.

His grip on my hair grew tighter, but never did he lessen his hold no matter how loud I cried. He drug me down a shabby hall, its walls seeming to deteriorate around me, broken toys scattered the floor. And then I found myself inside a room, broken bottles decorating the stained carpet, dirty clothes covering the meager furniture… and a bed.

The very sight of that bed filled my heart with fear. My small hands shaking with an unknown need to escape, my tiny chest quivering with unexpressed emotions. My mind was my own, and yet this feeling of horrifying dread didn’t belong to me.

“No!” I screamed, this time uncaring of the pain that radiated through out my body as I struggled to escape his hold. My shoeless feet kicked out aimlessly making contact with his shin, and as I heard him cry out in pain I made it to the doorway not even pausing to notice the palm of honey colored hair he still clutched in his grimy hand.

“You little bitch!”

His hands grasped my throat, gagging me as he pulled my body from the ground, my feet still kicking the air. I struggled to draw breath but those hands only seemed to tighten. It was only as my foot connected with glass as the mirror crashed to the floor along with my small battered body did I notice my reflection was not my own.

With his hand quickly moving to his jeans, removing his belt, widening my legs, his merciless hold never leaving my throat I felt that dread overtake me like a familiar friend I could never seem to break away from. I silently prayed for someone to wake me up as I listened to the zipper give way, his fingers impatient as it grasped my small night gown.

My eyes met the stranger in the reflection of the mirror horrified at what was about to happen, at what I couldn’t seem to escape. My mouth opened and as I felt my panties being shoved away I heard myself whisper, “Daddy.”

I gasped, my body falling back against the bed, my breath coming in small pants as I stared back up at Maria, her expression as dismayed as my own. Tears poured from her eyes, streaming down her cheeks to fall unaided off her chin. Her fingers clutched her cross, her mouth falling open, lower lip trembling before finally she spoke.

“What did you do to me?”

“I – I,” I stammered but even I was too shaken to respond.

“I left that hell a long time ago, and yet in seconds you brought it back,” she accused, her eyes full of shame, her expression hateful as she gazed down at me.

“Was that your dad?” I whispered.

Her hand moved to cover her trembling lips, her whole body seeming to shake unwillingly. “You… saw him too?”

“I was there with you.”

“That’s impossible,” she declared but we both knew that was untrue. Her gaze fell to the ground then on unsteady legs she turned from me heading for the door.

“Deo adjuvante non timendum.”

She turned back towards me at my words spoken, translating them easily, “God helping, nothing should be feared. You speak Latin?”

“No, but you do.”

I watched her try to comprehend what I was telling her, but that look of fear and hatred refused to leave her eyes. “You’re wrong about that. There is something to fear, and whatever that something is, it lies inside you.”

Her words cut into me like knives, for I was just as horrified and shocked at what had happened as she was. I never asked for these things to happen to me, and I longed for past moments when boring was my normalcy and the absence of excitement clung to my every waking moment.

I watched as she moved to the door, weight clinging to her shoulders making her appear as if any second she might collapse. She remained ignorant to my own internal struggle, too burdened with her own emotions, and once in the doorway she didn’t pause to look back. And never had the slam of a door sound so absolute, so final. The sliding of the lock in its place doing nothing to appease my feelings of unease.

………………………………………………..

I jumped at the sound of my door opening; its creak of protest on old rusted hinges seemed to yank me unwittingly from my troubling thoughts.

“Recreation time,” nurse Holly announced, her smile as unpleasant as a grimace on her pretty features.

I rose silently wondering why it was her who came to retrieve me, while glancing at her red aura with cautious eyes. “Where’s Maria?”

She rolled her eyes in disgust, “Maria bailed on us moments after leaving your room. Anything you want to confess?”

My eyes fell to my hands trying to digest the information she had just told me, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yeah sure you don’t,” she replied contemptuously, “just like your never ending and quite convenient mental black outs. Look I really don’t give a shit. All I know is thanks to Saint Maria going home supposedly sick I now have to cover her fucking shifts, and for some unknown reason I know I have you to thank for that.”

“I- I didn’t do anything to her.”

“Spare me the big innocent act. It may have fooled Maria into bringing you your meals, and leaving you to yourself while safe guarding you from the other patients, but that time has ended. And I’m afraid my poor Queen Anna Marie your reign is over. I think you’ll find that once snatched off your pathetic pedestal your no different than any other psychotic nut job we have to put up with. Now get your ass to the recreation area!”

Sighing deeply, I told myself to calm the inner worries that plagued me as I slowly walked towards the door while ignoring Holly’s gleeful expression at my semblance of submissiveness. There was nothing I could do but follow orders, and while I still couldn’t understand exactly what had happened between Maria and I, or how I could possess the power to enter her memories and yet never know it I still walked pass Holly with careful precision, vigilant to not let our skin touch.

“And here your highness lies your loyal subjects,” Holly announced, her hands quick to shove me into the noisy room. I gasped at her cruel treatment and yet was secretly relieved when her touch resulted in nothing more than a small stumble.

The room held no more than eight to nine people, girls all about my same age. Maybe only two or three appeared to be a few years younger. We all wore the same matching white jogging pants, tees and tennis shoes and yet while my alert eyes moved around the room some I could see stared out the window, their gaze completely vacant. A television played a black and white movie in the corner and I watched from a distance as one girl sat directly in front of it, watching the screen while monotonously repeating every line they spoke.

I stepped around another girl clearly in a world of her own dancing in circles to a song only she could hear, choosing instead to perch anxiously on a couch in a far off corner.

God, was this truly my life?

My fingers rose to touch the cross that lied around my neck, the one thing that remained constant in my life.

“I like your necklace.”

I turned quickly towards the voice speaking to me, slightly relieved to find the small girl no older than thirteen coloring peacefully at a table to my right. Her long brown hair was pulled into two long braids, a small patch of freckles covered the bridge of her nose, and her brow was furrowed as she scribbled brown on whatever image she was trying to project on the paper, her tongue sticking out her mouth as she continued with unwavering concentration.

“Thank you, it was my grandmothers,” I whispered.

“She dead?” she questioned emotionlessly, her eyes never leaving her paper.

“Um… yeah. I only met her a hand full of times before she died, but she left this to me.”

“You know everything dies eventually. At least you have something to remember her by.”

Um… Okay. “Yeah I guess so.”

“You know they’ll never stop.”

I froze, “They, they who?”

“The ones after you.”

I tried to blink away the confusion, turning my body towards her trying to understand the words coming from her mouth, “What do you mean?”

She glanced up from her paper and finally I saw her eyes, one brown, the other one green, “the scary creatures that are following you.”

My heart stilled inside my chest, “You’ve seen them?”

“They come out at night riding the shadows like waves. They smell of decomposing trash, a horrible stench you inhale way before you actually see them. They want to steal all of the light, suck the very essence of life from your body.”

I found myself scooting closer, a chill suddenly filling the air as if her words had sucked every sense of warmth from the room. I whispered, “What are they?”

“You don’t really believe her, do you?” a voice interrupted. A girl with a stock of long red hair, angry green eyes, her bulges of fat running over her tight jogging pants, and her shirt barely covering her massive stomach suddenly stood before me, her silent arrival almost scaring me as much as the other girl’s words. “Harmony here is as crazy as they come.”

“I’m not crazy! I have seen them!” Harmony insisted, her face quickly filling with such rage so suddenly that I scooted a little further away.

“Yeah sure you have. Just like you swore you saw the Easter bunny in the hall last night, and Santa in the yard this morning,” the other girl cruelly mocked.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about! I know what I saw and the new girl saw them too!” Harmony’s expression was furious but when she turned back to me she transformed back into the sweet little girl she first appeared to be. “You saw them too right? At night the- they came to you too, right? Tell her I’m not crazy?” she pleaded.

From her earnest expression I wasn’t sure what I believed.

My continued silence only seemed to further prove this new girl right. “She hasn’t seen shit otherwise she’d be just as nuts as you!”

Shaking her head with such force I thought she’d hurt herself Harmony rose from her seat, her crayon remaining crushed in her hand, “No, no, no she saw what I saw! Tell them you saw it too!”

“I – I don’t know what-,” I started trying to calm her down.

“She didn’t see shit you nut job!” the other girl screamed, cutting me off.

“Yes she did Julie! She did see them! I’m not crazy!” Harmony screamed her hands sweeping out to knock her pictures to the ground; papers flew cascading to the ground like confetti, other girls around us happily trying to catch them. “I’m not crazy! I’m not crazy!”

“Harmony calm down,” Holly yelled, two attendants waiting restlessly at her side.

“Tell them you saw them too,” she pleaded to me. “Tell them how they attack in the ni- night? How they listen to your every thoughts and words through the appliances and through the televisions!”

Oh my god, she is crazy.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No! You said you knew!” she screamed, her eyes accusing as the tears overrode her gaze. “I know you can hear them too. They tell you to do things, to hurt people!”

“No I never-.”

“You’re a liar! You’re all liars! I’m not crazy!” she yelled as she quickly climbed on top of the table pulling at her own braids, as tears fell off her chin.

“Harmony, get down from the table!” Holly ordered.

“They all watch me, wa- waiting for me to show a weakness! But they’re not going to get me. They’re not going to get me. They’re not going to get me,” she repeated, her body seeming to rock back and forth of its own accord.

“Harmony,” Holly said calmly while moving closer, her hand stretched out as if trying to reason with a crazed bull about to charge, the attendants not far behind her.

Harmony appeared passive, compliant her only movement that repetitive rocking motion, but as soon as Holly’s hand came into contact with Harmony’s arm all meekness vanished. Harmony belted a scream as if attacked, her arms swinging, her leg launching out before her as her foot came into full contact with Holly’s face.

Holly flew back against another table, blood dripping from her busted lip, “Get her!”

The two male attendants moved quickly at a now remorseful Harmony. It was as if the sight of blood had woken her from whatever trance she had been under, but instead of gently helping her now docile form from atop the table the attendants yanked at her feet, her small body swiftly crashing down around her, her head smashing brutally against the wooden surface. Blood seeped from her wounds, coloring her pale face, her eyes rolling back into her skull before closing completely.

Holly moved forward, her hand checking Harmony’s throat for a pulse, and then with an expression of disappointment at finding one she motioned towards the callous men who remained free from reprimand, “Take her back to her room and make sure she stays there.”

Then I watched in horrified silence as they grabbed her arms without an ounce of gentle consideration and drug her from the room, feet still sliding against the tile and blood trickling a small trail behind them.

“Never can stay out of trouble, can you Anna?” Holly taunted, her vicious eyes on my stilled form. She grabbed my arm yanking me towards the exit, blood still pouring down her chin. “I should have known you’d be responsible for something like this.”

I glanced over my shoulder my eyes landing on the overweight girl still standing near the puddle of blood.

“Told you Harmony was nuts, but of course no one ever believe us, right Kylie?” she asked the person to her side, but as I glanced back I noticed she was talking to thin air.

Holly yanked me ruthlessly back down the hall to my room only letting go of my bruised arm once in front of my door. Then she shoved at my back, her foot sticking out just far enough to cause me to trip over it falling helplessly and viciously to the floor, my face catching my fall. I whipped around onto my back looking back up at her with tears in my eyes, and blood pouring from my nose.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice the contraband you had hidden in your room!” she screamed, her eyes burning with undisguised hatred.

“I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t have anything,” I pleaded, my hand rising to touch my bruised nose delicately.

“Oh is that a fact? Another lie spouted from that evil little mouth of yours! You’re going to love lights out!”

My eyes rounded in alarm, my body quickly moving across the room to where my night light used to reside and yet now sat only an empty outlet.

No she couldn’t be that cruel!

My gaze rose frantically towards the window watching as dusk fell, the sun losing its battle to the impending vast dark sky. Tears trickled from my chin, my head moving slowly back to the gloating figure blocking out my soon to be only source of light coming from the hall.

“Please, No!” I pleaded my body quickly crawling towards her, but she kicked away my weak clutch I had on her legs staring down at me with distaste.

“Get used to this room Anna Marie because trust me these four walls are all you’ll ever see!” And with that she slammed the door sheathing me in the forever welcoming darkness.

I sat basked in twilight for I don’t know how long. The minutes felt like hours, the hours felt like days. My body remained cramped huddled in a corner, my legs while half asleep stayed raised to my chest, my trembling chin resting on my knees. One hand clutched my cross as if my only grip to what minuscule piece of sanity I had left, while my eyes clung to what little light remained as if a silent prayer for the darkness to remain at bay.

“Deo adjuvante non timendum. God helping, nothing should be feared. Deo adjuvante non timendum,” I repeated continually, like a silent chant that would somehow keep away whatever hid in the shadows, my tears sometimes clogging my throat so much that words seemed impossible.

Dinner came and went and yet still my door remained unopened, the sounds outside my room nonexistent except for the occasional distant footsteps.

Was this my punishment for whatever I had done in my past? What lied in my absent memories so ghastly that I was rendered to endure this torture?

My eyes watched as the last of the light was extinguished, as it slowly melted away surrendering to the harsh black ink smothering its presence before my very eyes, until it was so dark I couldn’t even see my raised hand in front of my face.

“Lights out!” I heard a male’s voice yell in the distance but I knew it was pointless to call out for help. I had done that for hours after Holly left and all that had resulted from my efforts was a sore throat, and the knowledge that even if I did need aid they would not come to my rescue.

And that thought seemed to scare me most.

I could hear the gentle sound of rain hitting against the window pane, thunder clouds rumbling in the horizon making the hope I had of a moon filled night vanish as quickly as the thought had come.

“Deo adjuvante non timendum,” I whispered but this time smoke rose from my lips, the temperature dropping so swiftly that I began to shake, my eyes widening even though it did nothing to help my sight, fear running down my spine. A trickle of sweat dribbled down my face, my heart beating at such an alarming speed I was sure it would burst inside my chest. My breath came out in small spurts as if choking on the very air I so desperately desired to inhale as I clutched my chest trying to control my asthmatic breathing. I felt a lightness to my body and even surrounded by darkness I could sense my body shutting down, dizziness seeming to take over.

“Anna just breathe,” I murmured quietly wishing I had some small hope to cling to. “Andrea where are you?” I whispered through my labored breath, lying my head against the cold wall wishing with all my heart that I was crazy enough to see my sister standing before me just so that I didn’t feel so alone.

The putrid aroma of burnt putrefying flesh assaulted my nostrils mere moments before I heard it move. My body became stationary, so motionless that it was a wonder that I continued to breathe at all. I heard the scraping of scratches against tile as dark claws grazed the ceiling moving with slow precision to the floor aimed for where I cringed. I felt something graze my hair and with tears blinding my sightless view I whispered, “Andrea?”

Thunder attacked the sky, rumbling so loudly it asphyxiated any facade of silence that once penetrated the air and along with it a brilliant flash of light exploded through the room giving me my first view of the hundreds of voracious beasts just lying in wait before me, eager to attack. My eyes widened in horror at the sight of so many of their warped bodies suspended from the ceiling, perched on my bed, every available space besieged with these evil beings.

And there before me, its claw still clutching tenderly at my hair, sat the biggest one of them all, so close to my face that I could feel the blood drip from its teeth falling down onto my already stained shirt. I stared into its red eyes so empty, so bare of the very embodiment of what it was to be human that a tear trickled down from my lids. I watched in stunned silence as its claw rose to graze my cheek, its very touch burning like acid into my skin, and I bit my lip with such force that I drew blood in my attempt not to cry out, watching as it withdrew the moisture of my fallen tear only to raise its hand to suck it from its talon.

“Poor Anna Marie,” It croaked, its mouth widening, its teeth so sharp it could have cut into my neck with ease in seconds. “Deo adjuvante non timendum,” it mocked, “how misguided you are.”

My chin trembled, tears now flowing relentlessly from my brown gaze, his claw once again burning me as it stroked my quivering chin, “there is much to fear, there is much to fear for you.”

And in that moment the lighting stopped swiftly enveloping us back into darkness just as a force gripped my leg wrenching me from the refuge of my corner causing the paralysis of my vocal cords to come to an abrupt halt finally allowing the release of the horrifying scream I felt buried in the very center of my heart.

I felt myself being drug across the floor talons ripping at my clothes, blood seeping through its fabric leaving a crimson path of pain painting the once white tiles. I was lifted from the floor by my feet suspended from the ground by a grip that was unyielding. Blood dripped from my many cuts oozing into my eyes only to drizzle from my hovering body. My arms swung out in a feeble attempt to break free which only resulted in more slashed skin and more scarlet liquid to pour from my battered body.

“What is it you want from me?” I whispered, the blood rushing to my head, the dizziness growing that much more evident.

The lightening lit up the sky, the room bursting with illumination as if alit with fire and all around I watched as they loomed closer their long tongues extended, desperate to taste my falling blood. I screamed as claws took hold of me as some too ravenous to wait any longer took seize of my arms sucking at my open wounds, draining me of what little blood I had left. While others continued ripping at my clothes to get to any untarnished skin to shred open so that they could continue to feast.

“Andrea”, I weakly called out, the darkness taking over even though the lightening still lit the room. It was death summoning me, my tired body yearning to heed his call, and yet my gaze traveled to the door. Still even through all my cries it remained locked and yet as my eyes fixed itself on the steel white entrance I could hear the sounds of glass cracking. It started as a tiny creak then grew with force as I lay in the agonizing depths of despair at the edge of death watching as the glass on the door finally burst, tiny specks of glass lining the floor. At that exact moment the barred in window shattered along with it and still the creatures heeded it no notice. I glanced back at the door, concentrating with a might I never knew I possessed waiting with precious seconds I had left as the lock gave and the door flew back on its hinges. Finally their faces turned from my beaten body, gazing at their sudden freedom.

“We must finish what we were ordered to complete,” The huge creature yelled to the others although some had already slithered towards the door, the temptation too great.

“She is already dead. There is not much left to take from her. We should seize this moment and plunder what is so freely offered to us,” another hissed into the silence.

I watched through sluggish eyes as they wavered between physically watching my impending death and the enticement of causing so many more. I felt my eyes close but I gasped openly at the unimaginable pain throbbing through my body as he sliced a finger down my stomach, his talon almost seeming to cut me half.

“Let us go.”

And with those words said I fell to the ground, my head smashing into the hard tiled floor, my vision indistinct, clouded by red, and then suddenly I found myself shrouded by nothing but that unspeakable black.

……………………………………………………………………….

(Hope you liked this chapter. I have never written a story like this before and I really like writing all the gory details if you hadn’t noticed. I’m hoping to upload the next chapter soon but it always takes me way longer to write for this story than my other one I guess because I pay more attention to detail with this one. If you have any comments please let me know because my other story is completely different than this one and I’m constantly worried if I’m pulling this off lol. Thanks for reading.)

By the way I don’t think my story is getting that many views and quite frankly I find advertising a serious pain so I’m going to write because I love to write and if no one reads it that’s their loss lol.

Until next time….