Present day
The soundof the gun going off reverberates throughout the metal of the warehouse. It ricochets like a rock bouncing down a tin roof, only it’s louder… So much louder.
That didn’t just happen. This is a nightmare. It’s not real. It can’t be real.
Only as my gaze strays across the room and I take in the scene, the walls start to close in. I can’t breathe. All I can focus on is him… lying on the ground. A dark red puddle steadily increasing in size under him and around him. A gut-wrenching wail so full of horror and despair fills my ears, consuming my head. It pierces my heart. Stops my breathing.
The voice calling my name, in absolute terror, finally grabs my attention and suddenly the sound stops for a split second. Realization chills my blood. The scream is coming from me.
“Hope… Hope… look at me… Stay with me! Goddammit! Stay with me! You have to get out of here! You can’t be here right now, Hope! They’re already on the way… and you can’t be here when the police show up.”
But the screams don’t stop. I can’t. The horror is too much. If anything, I scream even louder. The sound of my own screams echo deep within my head, now a permanent resident. I barely hear the voice imploring me to look away from the scene on the filthy floor of the warehouse, but I can’t. I can’t look away from him. He’s on the ground. My vision starts to waver, and I blink, desperate to try to make the scene disappear.
It will be okay. This isn’t real. None of this is real.
It’s just a night terror. Like I had as a child. If I take my time and breathe with my eyes closed, when I open them, I’ll see everything is okay. I’ll be in my pink childhood bedroom, and everything will be fine.
It’ll be fine.
A sound like bubbles under water penetrates the fog within my head. Opening my eyes, I look past the man in front of me, desperately trying to get me to move, to leave, and see him lying on the ground as the puddle continues to spread and darken.
That’s black… it can’t be blood. Blood is red and that is almost black. Blood isn’t that dark. It’s not. This is just a nightmare.
It’s not real.
Hegurgles as blood trickles from the corners of his mouth, making a smaller pool on the stained concrete floor. He looks at me with a mixture of fear and acceptance on his face.
He knows.
Dear God, he’s choking on his own blood. This is real.
He gurgles once more and his eyes widen before his hand weakly lifts, only a few centimeters, reaching out for me…
I can’t move. I can’t breathe. This is real. This is happening…
Oh my God… this is really happening…
It’s not a nightmare.
The darkness I’ve somehow managed to defy up to this moment suddenly consumes me. I feel weightless as my bones liquefy… I try to speak but nothing comes out as I succumb to the abyss.
No light… only blessed darkness.