A Vulnerable Broken Mind Read online

  John and Amber sat at a table by the window and the man came to wait on them. “Hello folks, my name is Joe Brown, I’m the owner and main cook here at Pasquale’s and I would like to welcome you. Now that you’re here, I can honestly tell you that you have great taste in food.” He grinned and both John and Amber laughed

  “Our menus are right there at the end of the table.” He indicated to the menus sitting near the window. “I’ll let you browse through those for a little bit and I’ll be right back.” He said jovially and walked off.

  They had decided just to order a small cheese pizza, to split between them. Once they had ordered and were waiting for their food, John and Amber struck up a conversation. “What are you looking forward to doing most once we’re there?” John asked Amber.

  “I’ve always wanted to walk through Cinderella’s Castle.” Amber smiled. “I’ve wanted to do that since I was a little girl.”

  John smiled back. “Well, you’ll soon be able to do just that.”

  “What about you?” Amber asked.

  “I’m jumping on the biggest rollercoaster I can find once we get there,” John answered and Amber laughed.

  “I think you’ll be able to live that fantasy too,” she said as she continued to laugh.

  Lunch could not have been any better. The man made them feel at home and the food was very good. It was one of those small, perfect experiences that you love to talk about when you go on vacation and wouldn’t change a thing about. Joe Brown had made the experience very memorable. While they might have been visitors, he made them feel at home.

  It was soon time for John and Amber to hit the road once again. They wished Brown a fond farewell and left.

  They were both smiling as they got back onto the road. The stop at Pasquale’s was a great experience for the both of them. An even happier thought flooded them both as they realized where they were headed.

  “Are you sure you’re up to driving all the way there?” Amber asked rather seriously. “We could stop at another hotel for the night.”

  “No,” John replied. “If we don’t make these reservations, I highly doubt we’ll be able to get another room. If we pace things out perfectly, we can be there very early tomorrow morning.”

  “Are you sure?” Amber asked, feeling very concerned about John.

  “I’m very sure, sweetie,” John said and quickly leaned over to give Amber a kiss. The kiss helped bring the smile back to her face.

  As the hours grew later and the sky darker, Amber had fallen asleep, leaving John in silence. He didn’t want to turn on the stereo in the car and wake her up. He hoped that the signs, lights from the other cars and the thoughts in his head were enough to keep him awake.

  Another hour passed and he began to see signs for hotels and gas stations. He looked over at one of the signs and wasn’t drawn to the destinations listed on the sign but to what appeared to be a figure standing underneath it. His headlights briefly shined on what appeared to be a little girl standing beneath the sign.

  It took a couple seconds for John to process what he had seen and then he immediately looked back. The bright lights from the cars behind him prevented him from seeing the sign again. Curious, he pulled over to the side of the road. The sudden stopping of the car woke Amber. She slowly stirred and then opened her eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” She asked groggily.

  As she asked, John unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door. “I’ll be right back, I just need to check something,” he said.

  “What are you doing? What’s going on?” She asked in a more worried tone. She sounded more awake once she realized how distracted John was.

  “I’ll explain when I get back. Wait here.” John said, trying to sound calm. He shut the door and began walking towards the sign. He couldn’t see it from a distance as the headlights from the cars passing still shined in his eyes.

  The sign became clearer as he got closer and he jogged towards it. As he reached it, he realized that there was absolutely no one standing there. He looked around and tried to see if there was anybody standing anywhere near the area.

  He began to walk back to the car, dejected. He proceeded to look back constantly, trying to see if anyone would appear. He could have sworn that he had seen a little girl there.

  When you’re all alone in the dead of night, in complete silence, you sometimes see things. Hallucinations that form in your imagination appear. They seem so real but you soon find out that they are only real to you and nobody else.

  “Was that what happened to me?” John thought to himself. But no one could answer that question besides him. He would have to decide whether or not to accept it as a hallucination.

  When John had got to the car, Amber stared at him with concern. “Are you okay?”

  “I thought I saw something out there.” John replied and he told her all about it as he drove off. As he told the story, he took the next exit and went to the nearest gas station. He was just pulling into the station as he concluded with the story.

  “I think you’re a little tired.” Amber said with a knowing smile. “I’ll drive from here. I’ve had enough sleep for the day. You clearly need some rest.”

  “It seemed so real.” John marveled. He knew that he sounded childish when saying it but it was all that he could think of to say.

  “I know, dear, but you really need some sleep,” Amber said. “Let’s get some gas, get a few drinks from the station and I’ll take the next shift. Are you okay with that?”

  John sat in his seat for a bit before answering. He was still pondering what he had just seen. He wanted to convince himself that it wasn’t real but he couldn’t manage to do so. While still feeling very conflicted, he knew that he had to answer her.

  “Okay, that sounds good to me.” He answered and he wasn’t being dishonest in his answer. Being in the passenger seat and getting a few hours of rest would actually clear his head.

  After getting gas and a couple of drinks for themselves, they were back on the road.

  John fell into a deep sleep. Amber was always nervous when driving at night but having John next to her offered her some comfort.

  By the time John had fallen asleep, they were on the highway, away from the lights of any city or rest stop. Amber would occasionally look up at the stars, which were very visible. Looking up at the stars was one of her favorite things to do; she had loved it ever since she was a little girl.

  Amber took a quick glance at John. He looked so peaceful in his slumber, so much so that it brought a smile to her face. While looking, she noticed that in her peripheral vision, lights from the cars in front and passing her had completely gone out.

  When she turned her head to look forward, the cars were gone. When she looked to the back, there were no signs of any car. The road did not resemble the road she was on just seconds before.

  She looked up at the sky. The stars that were visible were now completely invisible. They were now covered by thick, almost black clouds that would be indistinguishable if it weren’t for the moon that just barely seeped through one of them. The moonlight did not last long as it was soon drowned by more clouds moving in.

  Amber looked around as the wind began to pick up speed. Soon enough, she could feel the gust shake the car.

  The rumble caused John to stir and eventually wake up. His eyes were completely blurry when he first opened them. All he could see was dark fuzziness in front of his eyes. He closed them tight and shook his head to wake himself up a little more. When he opened them again, his vision had cleared enough to see the dark and endless road in front of him.

  “Where are we?” He asked Amber as he stared into the bowels of absolute nothingness.

  Amber stared at him. Her expression screamed the word “panic” but she was fighting with herself to remain as calm as possible. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “Did you make a wrong turn?” John asked, trying to remain calm himself.

  “I didn’t turn at all.” Amber explained
. “I turned my head for no more than a second and when I looked back, all of this appeared in front of me.”

  As she said it, a bolt of lightning struck in the distance. Lightning then continued to strike violently around them. Neither John nor Amber could hide their nervousness as they looked around.

  “We need to get off of the road now,” John said in a slight panic. “Get off at the next exit.”

  Amber looked at John with a look of worry. “John, I haven’t seen a car, an exit, or even a sign for a while now.”

  John looked around, doing his best to remain calm, and looked for a sign but after a couple of minutes, he realized that it might be a lost cause.

  “What are we going to do?” Amber asked.

  John wracked his brain but drew a blank. “I don’t know. All we can do is drive on and hope that an exit appears; hopefully far sooner than later.”

  Despite her worry, Amber continued to drive and she and John tried to look for some sort of sign or even a car to show them that they weren’t out in the middle of nowhere. As the lightning got worse, it began to rain; it didn’t begin slowly. On the contrary, the rain came down in hard and fast drops. Its force caused the car to shake harder. The combination of the wind and rain made it harder for Amber to drive. Her visibility was very obscured.

  “John, I can’t see,” She shouted in full panic.

  “Just hit the brakes and stop here.” John said immediately.

  Amber slammed on the brakes but the car didn’t stop. “HIT THE BRAKES,” John shouted.

  “I AM,” Amber shouted back as she pressed her foot against the brake all the way down to the floor.

  Amber looked forward and a look of shock came across her face. John looked in that same direction and saw a figure standing in the road. The figure quickly became clearer as the car sped in its direction. Soon enough, a little girl came into view.

  Caught by surprise, Amber quickly turned the wheel to avoid the little girl and they veered off the road. They spun into the woods, the car hitting several branches. The car rocked violently as Amber frantically tried to stop it. A tree appeared in front of them but they only had a few seconds to view it as the car slammed violently into it before everything went black.

  Chapter 2: Waking Up From the Abyss

  John

  Deep in John’s brain he didn’t know whether he was dead or alive. All he saw was blackness before his eyes. However, if he was dead, how could he know that he was seeing all of this? Was he in hell?

  Before he could ask himself any more questions, a light materialized. The light was in the distance and floated directly in front of him. The light reflected off a pair of walls that surrounded him and a floor that he was standing on. He was in a hallway.

  The atmosphere was rough and cold. The walls and floor were made of old chipped wood. The floor creaked with every step as John walked closer to the light.

  “LEAVE ME ALONE,” a woman’s voice screamed, startling John. It was so loud that the vibrations from it shook the hallway. “NO! I don’t want to. LEAVE ME ALONE!” The voice continued to scream. John had to cover his ears. His ears felt like they were going to explode from it all.

  Despite that, he continued to walk towards the light. After a few moments, he was no longer staring into the darkness. The white bright light dazzled his eyes. It did not last long as he felt himself being lifted from the hallway. He drifted very slowly back to the real world.

  Waking up from the abyss is always painful. What is the true abyss; is it the nightmare or is it the real world? When things are at their darkest, you sometimes don’t know which one is more welcoming.

  John slipped back into reality in the most painful way possible. His whole body was slumped forward. He felt his head pressed against the dashboard. And there was bump on his head from hitting it. His chest hurt from the seatbelt digging into it.

  Dazed, he slowly sat up and slumped back into his seat. Every part of his body ached in the process. He could feel glass shifting in his lap as he moved, indicating that the windshield was broken. The smell of smoke flooding his nostrils also told him that the front end of the car was smashed.

  It took a while for all of his senses to become fully aware of the situation. Besides the nagging pains caused by the accident, nothing felt broken.

  “Amber, are you okay?” He asked as soon as he was able to open his eyes slightly. His vision was black but cleared up after a few seconds. He waited for an answer but no answer came.

  “Amber?” He questioned again but there was still no answer. No answer could only mean one of two things; she was hurt or dead. He hesitated to look over, not wanting to confront the possibility of the latter.

  He slowly turned his head to look toward the driver’s side of the car. He was welcomed to a terrifying horror before his eyes. The seat that Amber was sitting in was completely empty and there was no sign of Amber. “Amber,” John shouted once more, hoping that if he was louder, she would answer, but he was answered by dead silence yet again.

  When he felt well enough to do so, John opened the car door, which to his surprise opened without a single problem. He faced another challenge, getting out of the car itself. The crash had so much force that it caused the floor of the car to buckle and rise.

  It had risen high enough to trap John’s legs between the floor and the dashboard. John, desperate to get out, didn’t care if he ripped his legs off; he was getting himself out. He pulled with all his might; his screams of pain echoed throughout the woods. Half of John’s body was sticking outside of the car while the rest of him was still trapped.

  He pulled with every fiber of his being, trying his damnedest to free himself. After exerting most of his energy, he looked down to realize that he had only freed a quarter of both of his legs. He rested for a couple of minutes to catch his breath. He was completely worn out by this point but knew that he had to get out .

  He grabbed onto the door with both hands for leverage. From there, he pulled as hard as he could and screamed so loud that he thought that his voice was going to give away. Despite the pain, the effort paid off as both of his thighs were out. It was easier to pull the rest of his legs out once his thighs were free.

  Much to his surprise, there was not a lot of blood. But there were severe scratches on both of his legs from the dashboard and they were both numb; so much so that John didn’t move for a couple of minutes for fear of falling because he couldn’t feel them. Although, considering the situation, John considered himself rather lucky.

  After regaining the feeling in his legs, he stood up and looked around. “Amber,” he shouted once more but got no response. He looked around the car to see if there was any sign of her. To his utter dismay, he couldn’t find anything that told him where she was.

  He looked around to get a sense of where he was. They had apparently driven fairly deep into the woods as he couldn’t see any sign of the road. He wouldn’t have even known where to begin if he wanted to get back to the road.

  His instincts were telling him to walk further into the woods to look for Amber. With few choices at his disposal, he had nowhere else to go but to follow those instincts. Before leaving, he checked his pockets. He still had his wallet in his right pocket but the most important thing was in his left pocket; his cell phone.

  A great idea struck him. Amber had her cell phone. He turned on his cell phone; it was still working perfectly. He called her number.

  RING

  John’s heart sank as he heard her phone ringing only feet away from him. He turned in the direction he was hearing it from and, sure enough, in one of the cup holders in the car sat her cell phone. John hung up the phone, disappointed and frustrated.

  With no other choice, John walked deeper into the woods. The farther that he walked into the woods, the darker it got. John was claustrophobic and with the trees surrounding him, he felt like he was in a box that had no holes to breathe through and no lid to open. A rustling in the trees caught his attention. He could only ass
ume that it was an animal of some sort.

  “Amber,” he shouted hopelessly. He knew he wasn’t going to get an answer. He didn’t even know where he was himself. If he turned one way, there were trees, and if he turned the other way, there were more trees. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, he realized that he didn’t even know how to get back to the car.

  The box now felt like a dark circle that he would be doomed to walk around for all eternity. That maze that everyone fears to go through. Every time you think you’ve reached the other side, you’ve only reached another wall. If the wall could talk, you knew that it was laughing at you.

  After walking for a little while longer, John suddenly stopped. All hope was gone. He was starting to think that he would not only never find Amber, but he would not be able to get out of the woods.

  He sat down on a nearby log and stared at the ground. He wracked his brain for a solution. He just sat in silence and thought to himself.

  “Hello,” said a gentle voice. While gentle, it still made John jump. He thought that he was alone. He turned to look in the direction of the sound. It was a little girl; an adorable little brunette in a red and white striped dress.

  From what John could tell, she was no older than ten. What really stood out about her to John was her eyes. She had piercing blue eyes, which were staring directly into John’s. They were almost hypnotizing.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” said the little girl sweetly.

  “Who are you?” John asked, trying to sound equally as gentle.

  “My name is Carol,” she replied with a smile. “What’s your name?”

  “My name is John,” John said. His nerves were finally starting to calm.

  “What are you doing here?” The little girl asked, still keeping the smile on her face. “You look lost.”

  “I actually am,” John admitted. “I’m looking for someone very important to me. If you don’t mind me asking, where exactly is here?”