Page 14 of Fragmented Illusions
That is… until his words register.
The creepy one laughs maniacally as he gains on me. He crowds me but I keep my eyes locked on the other one, unable to break the contact.
Dark waves of cloth wash over my vision, shrouding me in darkness, before I feel something hit the back of my head.
I cry out at the blinding pain and reach my hand to the back of my head. Warmth coats my fingers as I press them against my skull and the pain radiates even further before it all goes dark.
Part II
“Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?”
—Edgar Allen Poe,A Dream Within A Dream
Chapter Four
Fallon
Light flutters in and out in flashes. There is a steady beeping I recognize all too fucking well. A beeping I wish more than anything I wasn’t hearing right now.
I couldn’t have messed everything up.
Icouldn’thave.
I have been doing so well. I’ve been taking my medication. I only ever hear the one voice—the one that has always been with me. The one Iknowis never going away. And I’ve made my peace with that. I accept it.
But why am I back in the hospital?
Whathospital am I at?
I squeeze my eyes shut as I try to remember what happened. What the hell did I do?
I search through my memories of what happened and when flashes of white porcelain flicker behind my eyelids, my eyes fly open, and I bolt out of the bed I’m lying in. A clatter rings out around me, piercing through my panic for a single moment.
My eyes dart around frantically as I search the room for the faces of the men who killed me.
Or… who Ithoughtwere going to kill me…
Why am I alive right now?
Why am I in a hospital right now?
“What the fuck is going on?” I ask breathlessly to no one but myself.
The confusion and fear mingle inside of me like intimate dancing partners as I begin to remember more and more of the previous night—at least I think it was the night before.
My eyes find the blind covered window behind the bed I was just lying in. The sun’s rays peek through the slots, creating a striped pattern along the tan plastic frame of the bed. I suck in a breath of relief. I can see the sun, which is good.
My eyes remain locked on the pattern the sun is creating, and the lines start to go in and out of focus the longer I stare.
Light and dark.
The sun cuts through the darkness, shattering the solidity of it, yet the darkness still remains. The shadows threaten to overcome the light. Always lurking at the edges, ready to strike. Ready to consume.
The darkness is always there, no matter how bright it is. Because once the lights go out—and they will eventually—darkness is your only friend.
“Shit!”
