Young Writers Society

This is a short story I am going to post in two parts. The title won't really explain itself until part two.

Enjoy!

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Out of control

They had left me lying where I was. I could not move. Suddenly another face appeared above me. I could hardly see it through the haze of pain. I flinched causing myself more pain. I feared that the face would finish what they had begun… My thoughts began to fade away. I could hardly keep my eyes open anymore. The face swam even more before my bruised eyes. “Oh my god…” said a deep voice. I was fading away incapable of understanding more. The voice sounded as if it was coming though an ancient radio with bad reception. My brain could not understand that voice and face belonged together. Then I was gone.

I awoke alone behind garbage containers. Without thinking I jumped up and came out from where I had been lying. At that moment several things caught up with me. One, I felt no pain but had I not been in strong pain? Two, my senses were overflowing with information. I staggered because I could not take it all in. Especially what I saw confused me. I closed my eyes and slowly sat down leaning against the container. I tried to focus on one sense at the time. I held my breath so that I could focus on what I heard. It was the most astonishing sensation I had ever had. I felt as if I were standing right in front of the loudspeakers during a heavy metal concert, while a choir of air hammers was on my other side, with a car race going on around me, and the masses cheering at all three. I could not distinguish a single sound from the others. I waited for a few seconds, for the noise to go down but nothing happened. It only continued to drum against my ears.

After deciding to ignore my hearing I quit holding my breath. The smells were almost as bad as the noise but at least I could tell them apart. I could smell pizza, exhaust fumes, sweat, roses and thousands of other things, many completely unknown to me. But these smells were only a distant impression. The overruling smell was that of garbage. Rotting potatoes mixed in with diapers and old socks, and everything else people threw away. I had the feeling as if I had stuck my nose into weeks old garbage and breathed in deeply several times. The smell was so bad that I held my breath again. I was not ready to move jet. Not until I had figured out what I had seen.

Carefully I opened my eyes. The sight had not changed from before. Although I knew that I had lain behind garbage containers and the smell told me that I was indeed next to garbage containers I could not see them. In fact I could not see any defined forms. Streaks of different colors and shades were all that I could see. It was as if an artist had taken is paintbrush and drawn lines in all different sizes forms and colors around me. A bit like an impressionist painting if you look at only a small patch of it with your nose almost touching it.

Since none of these senses were working properly I decided to figure our what I could feel. I could not taste anything around me - luckily - so that was off my mind. I directed my attention towards my bare arms and legs. My arms were touching the container I was leaning against. It felt rougher than I had expected it to be. I remembered the containers being very smooth. The ground beneath my legs also felt rougher than it was in my memory, but I could deal with the information coming from this sense. It was not overloaded with impressions.

All the information my senses were giving me would not allow me to concentrate on the important things that I needed to orient myself while walking. I chose to wait for everything to calm down. I closed my eyes and waited for the noise to get quieter. I do not know how long I waited. To pass the time I tried to identify the sounds. After a while I could tell them apart.

I heard the cars on the street and people walking and talking. If I concentrated on a conversation I could even understand what they were saying. I could hear water running, birds singing, music playing, wind blowing and many other sounds. What was the most astonishing were the quiet sounds, the ones I normally would not have heard unless I was standing right next to the source like the sizzling of fat in a frying pan.

Gradually the sounds became quieter. Occasionally I heard a car or a conversation; here and there I heard the call of an owl. Encouraged by this I stopped holding my breath. Wait a second? How could I have held my breath for so long? I did not have time to dwell on this subject for the smells tormented me again. They too had changed. The stench of garbage was still there but the fainter ones were different. The smell of food had gotten a lot weaker and the exhaust fumes were not as present either. I became more aware of the smells I did not know; they awoke my appetite. Now more confident of myself I opened my eyes. There could not have been a grater contrast. The reduced smells and sounds were nothing against this. The confusing colors that I had seen during the day were now gone. What remained were objects in different shades of gray. No colors. On my right there was a brick wall. On my left and across from me there were garbage containers. They were a darker shade of gray than the wall. Since I now could filter the important information out of all the impressions my senses sent me I got up and walked out of the alley.