Drip. Drip. Drip. The water cried out as it hit the floor, hardly wetting the knobbly, white walls. He stared at the dripping drops of water watching as they fell silently through the air. A silent, painful echo resounded through his skull each time they finally hit the ground. He stared at the bright white light that hung above him encircling him in the middle of the bed. A burning red hatred rose from the tips of his toes and through his chest. His throat tightened as it rose to his head. His chest heaved slowly up and down as he took deep, angry breaths. He clenched his toes and bent his knees. Readying himself. He jumped up in an explosion of hatred. An unexplainable, uncontrollable hatred. His legs flung in the air as he grabbed for the light viciously. Trying to tear it out and kill it. Make it pain and make it bleed. So he could do a wild animal dance above its lifeless corpse. He sprung up again, his long fingernails scratching the thin glass of the lightbulb. The light sparked out as the bulb shattered, spraying glass all around him. He heard feet running through the hallway outside. Coming closer and closer to his cell. They ran past the door and stood on the other side of the blurred window. He made out the three black shadows with their burning red eyes peering in. Looking for him. Was this another nightmare? They said to ignore them. Forget about them. But they hurt him. And scared him. The shadows moved closer. Trying to find him in the pitch-black room. One of his dirty hands wrapped around his arm and his long fingernails dug deeply into his skin. Pressing and squeezing harder and harder. He moaned and groaned softly, enjoying the feeling of his self inflicted pain. His head thudded as he tried to remember if he knew whoever was out there. He could hear them talking outside. Saying something he couldn’t hear. All of a sudden an absolute quiet descended upon the hallway. “Where is he?”
The thin, childish voice repeated in his head as his ears rang shrilly. “Where is he?”
The voice was now deep and unnatural. Unsettling. Maybe even spine chilling. The shadows squirmed. Their black forms writhing silently. “Where is he!”
Their squeaky wails filled the room. It felt like a hot iron was laminating the skin on his ear. Melting his eardrums into a hot, stinging wax. Clumps of hair came out in his hands. His eyes teared up from the pain. Through the salty tears, he could see an orange glow. A red, hot flame spread across the wall. Its fiery tongues licking the grey concrete bricks. They blackened and burned. Crumbling to the ground in a grey, dusty soot that spread across the room in a dirty fog. His loose hair slipped from his hands and swirled into the storm of debris as he fell to the ground. His body bounced across the floor limply. Gliding along the cold, smooth tiles. His numb, paralysed body finally stopped as his head banged painfully into a fallen brick. He clamped his eyes shut. His body screamed in unbelievable pain. A white light flashed in front of his lidded eyes. “No,” he screamed, “No, no, no!”
He wanted to claw out his eyes and watch as they rolled along the floor. A red nerve sticking out behind them like a tail. The dazzling light disappeared and he opened his eyes. The only sound he could hear was the crackle of a burning fire. He choked on the dirty air as he tucked his shirt over his mouth and nose. And as he lay on the ground struggling to breathe one of the shadows walked through the flames and into the room. It was a boy with dark black hair and a thin, starved body. Their eyes met and the boy walked towards him. The fire followed him. Almost as if he was guiding it. “No! No, no, no!”
The boy continued walking toward him, ignoring his desperate cries. He tried to move, but it felt like someone was holding him down. “Welcome this mercy,” said the boy in a deep voice that seemed too mature for his size. He watched as the flame smouldered. “Join me in heaven.” Spraying glowing ash as he continued to walk towards him. “Come to the flames.”
“No, no, no! You’re not real! You’re not real!”
The orange and yellow flames jumped through the air. Striking the roof with their shimmering arms. He watched as the boy walked still closer towards him. The flames collided with his body in a fiery mirage. He opened his dry, red eyes. He could see a golden shining forest in which the trees had bright, glowing shadows. And upon their boughs were balls of fire sitting upon the branches like bright red apples. A golden shining forest in which his body burned. The boy spun around to face him. A black cold darkness surrounded the boy. Blocking out the trees’ burning shadows. The darkness closed around him as the boy’s gaunt body wrapped around him. He tried to speak, but his throat felt like it was alight. The boy’s face lifted in an almost invisible smile. “It’s so good to see you-”
He felt the hands wrapped around his back start to loosen. He watched as his body fell through the boy’s arms and into a deep, dark void. A deep, dark, empty void. He couldn’t see anything. Not the twinkle of a star. Not a light at the top. There was nothing around him just never-ending, perpetual darkness. He couldn’t feel his own body. There was no sensation of falling. But he knew he was falling. He couldn’t explain how, but he knew. Maybe it was just a voice. The voice of a boy too slim and small to fit. “Come back! Come back, please! Hold my hand! I’ll pull you back!” He shut his eyes hoping he would just wake up.
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