A Vulnerable Broken Mind Read online

  “Don’t be afraid,” the little girl said.

  “But I am afraid,” Amber replied weakly.

  “Don’t be; he’s coming for you,” the girl said.

  “He won’t be able to find me though.” Amber whispered.

  “He will be able to,” the girl assured her.

  “How do you know?” Amber asked, fighting desperately to stay awake. However, this led her to another question that she asked herself. If this little girl had been in her dreams before, how was she here if she was still awake?

  “I just know,” the girl said simply. “You need to fight for a few more seconds, stay awake.”

  “I can’t,” Amber wept, feeling more drowsy by the second.

  “You can,” the girl said desperately, gently reaching up and grabbing onto Amber’s good hand. “Look at me.”

  Amber fought the pain and the drug to lift her head up to stare into the girl’s eyes. While her vision was blurry, the girl was close enough so she could see her. Her blue eyes pierced her own.

  The little girl stared at her for several seconds. “Good, now you can rest. He’ll find you.”

  “But I don’t understand,” Amber said as she drifted away.

  “You soon will, rest now,” the girl said softly.

  The drug took full effect. Her eyes became heavy and the world around her began to fade away. She was soon falling into a world filled with nothing but black.

  Chapter 7: An Unforeseen Truth

  John’s world was completely disoriented. He felt sick and lost. His eyelids were like lead; they were heavy and wouldn’t open. He knew that he was in the real world and knew he was awake. He tried to move but his body felt dead. He couldn’t move his arms, feet, fingers or toes.

  His nose was very much alive and working. The smell of a damp and moldy environment filled his nostrils. The smell burned his insides and he knew that he was in an unpleasant environment.

  “Wake up,” said a voice that he recognized as Ralph Hunt’s. His eyes were finally able to open but his body was still dead weight. He opened his eyes but was greeted by Ralph Hunt in a clown mask with blue hair. The same mask he had seen him carrying before. He jumped at the sight of him.

  He could vaguely see another figure standing behind Hunt. He couldn’t see the other man directly. He could slightly see his height and build, which gave him away as Ken Sparks.

  John scanned as much of the room as he could. It looked like an old prison cell. Old and almost rotted looking cement was all around. The cell door was a wide square barred door that was aged and rusted. The room was lit by a dirt covered light, which just barely made anything visible.

  His eyes then set themselves on Hunt. “You’re a brave man,” Hunt said, a slither in his voice. All John could see was Hunt’s eyes. The rest of his face was the clown mask. John didn’t find the mask nearly as disturbing as Hunt himself.

  John continued to try and move but couldn’t. “What have you done to me?” He asked; only his eyes and mouth remained mobile.

  “We gave you a little medicine of ours, paralyzes the body from the head down but keeps other things functional, such as eyes, mouth, heart and other organs. It’s an extraordinary little drug,” Hunt explained, amused. “It’s especially useful for moments like this. I knew you would want to attack us when you woke up . We didn’t want that to happen.

  “Why are you still fighting John? Why did you continue to search? After repeated hints you should’ve known better than to challenge me. Do you truly care about her that much? She’s just a woman. Surely she’s not worth all of the pain you’ve gone through so far. Why can’t you just let go?”

  “I refuse to,” John said defiantly.

  “Well, I’m afraid you have no choice.” Hunt reached down and lifted John’s lifeless right hand, which had John’s wedding ring on it. John couldn’t even feel him touching his hand, nor could he pull it away. He took John’s wedding ring off. John wanted to attack him. He wanted to rip him limb from limb but was unable to. All he could do was think it, which was completely useless.

  “There’s no point in fighting,” Hunt said. “You will lose. Whether you like it or not, she is mine now and there is nothing that you can do about it. I commend you for your efforts but you are going to have to realize that they will lead you to nothing but failure.”

  He then held John’s wedding ring in front of his eyes and John was powerless to reach for it. “Let this be my signal for you to give up,” Hunt said. “You won’t need this any longer. The drug will wear off after a certain amount of time. I’ll give you until the morning to make a decision, John. You can either leave and start a new life or you can try to fight again, in which case, you will die. It’s your choice. But let me warn you right now, if you choose to fight me John, by the of end it all, you will be begging to die.”

  “Why not just kill me now?” John asked. The first option sounded very phony to him. He did not believe that Hunt would just let him simply walk away.

  “I don’t like killing people, John,” Hunt replied. “At least, not with my own hands. Like I said, I commend your bravery and your efforts. I feel you deserve an option. You should be thanking me and thanking your lucky stars that I didn’t alter my decision.” Hunt got up and walked out of the cell. “Goodbye John. For your sake, I hope you choose the right decision.”

  He walked out of the cell and closed the door. He and Sparks walked to the right; their feet echoed as if they were in a hallway. John then heard a door close in the distance.

  John was left alone to lie there completely motionless. He tried to move but his limbs remained still and lifeless.

  Only minutes after they left, John could hear other footsteps coming towards the cell. Soon, a small shadow appeared on the wall across from the cell. It only went up to the lock on the door, which was only a few feet tall. As the shadow got closer, it became more detailed; long hair and a dress formed in the shadow.

  Soon enough, a figure walked in front of the cell; it still remained a shadowy figure in the dark lighting. “Don’t give up,” said a familiar voice. The little girl was there again.

  This occurrence brought a certain question that John had to ask. “You aren’t real, are you?”

  After asking that, the little girl remained quiet. She stepped forward and into the cell; as if the door didn’t even exist. She stared at John. Up to that point, the girl had stared at him in an innocent manner. The look was not the same this time. This was a much different look, of sorrow. Her striking eyes now became slightly red and watery.

  “I am real…to you,” she said emotionally.

  John merely gave a confused looked. “What do you mean?”

  “You see me and that makes me real,” she said. This was starting to sound like some fairy tale. Her explanation sounded like it came out of some kids’ book. “I can’t really tell you who I am.”

  “Your name is Carol, right?” John asked and the little girl nodded. “Why can’t you tell me?” John was still trying to move while he spoke. The drug was starting to wear off. His fingers were finally starting to twitch. “If you’re so real, then how is it you got in here without being noticed? How come you disappear so suddenly?” John had a million other questions but there was only one left that seemed to really matter. “Who are you?”

  The little girl stared at him. John could actually feel her emotion through her eyes, yet she remained silent. Her foreboding eyes spoke so much but it wasn’t enough for him; he needed to hear the answer.

  Suddenly, the little girl walked toward John and sat next to him. Her eyes never left his as she did so. “I really can’t tell you who I am. As much as I would love to, I just can’t. You wouldn’t understand now but by the end of this you will.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “I really wish I could tell you,” she said in a whisper. John wondered if she was saying this to him or to herself.

  “Is there anything that you can tell me?” John asked.

  The little girl continued to sta
re at him. “You need to save her,” she said, her expression becoming more serious. “The both of you need to stay alive.”

  John’s gears switched towards Amber and he came to a horrifying realization. “That might be impossible. I don’t know how I’m going to save her.”

  “You’ll know soon enough,” the little girl said shortly. She then got up and began to leave. “Be brave and please don’t give up. You must live.” She said gravely.

  “Why do our lives matter so much to you?” John asked, but tried not to sound forceful. As he said it, the feeling in his hands were completely back and he could now feel his upper body beginning to recover.

  The little girl paused briefly, looking like she didn’t quite know how to answer. “If you live…I live,” she said finally. She then turned around and started walking out of the cell.

  “What do you mean?” John asked as he began to move his upper body. She did not answer though and continued to walk away. Soon, she was completely out of sight, leaving John to himself, all alone in the silence.

  After his upper body recovered, he could finally start feeling his legs again. He felt great relief as his toes finally began to move again. With the little girl gone, he began to refocus his mind on saving Amber. He just didn’t know how he was going to do it.

  When he was able to freely move his legs, he attempted to stand up, which was easier said than done. He firmly planted one hand on the floor and one on the wall in an attempt to pull himself up. Some of his nerves were still in recovery mode, as he felt heavier than usual. With all of his strength, he managed to get himself up to his knees.

  He kept his hands on the wall to keep himself balanced. He then planted one foot on the ground. He could feel certain muscles pulling and stretching in his leg as he did it but he didn’t feel any pain. He decided to try his luck and plant his other foot on the floor. He managed to do so and tried to push himself up but luck was not with him as he stumbled backwards.

  He stumbled all the way to the cell door and collided with it as he fell down. When he made contact with the door, it shook rather aggressively, which he thought he could use. When John had recovered from the fall, he got back to his knees and grabbed the door and began to shake it. The door was not the least bit sturdy, which meant John had a chance to get out of it.

  He used the cell door to try and get back up to his feet. With a great deal of strength and the door to keep him balanced, he was able to achieve it. He waited a little while until he felt that he had control of his own body and then finally let go of the door. He then walked around the room when he felt that he had control over his legs again.

  Once he knew that he was ready, he focused his mind on the door. He walked up to it again and shook it once more. The door seemed like it would be easy to dislodge with the proper amount of force. While still a little stiff in some areas, he felt that he could charge at the door without a problem.

  John began backpedaling towards the back wall, but didn’t take his eyes off of the door. He bent down in a football player-like stance and tried to muster up as much anger as he could in order to tackle the door; it was an easy feat for him to accomplish. The bars were replaced by the face of Ralph Hunt in his mind.

  John broke into a run. He stuck his shoulder out as he ran and braced himself for the impact. His body collided with the door. Pain shot through his body after the hit but he could feel the door buckle from his tackle. The force knocked John back to the ground. His vision was blurry at first but when it cleared, he looked at the door.

  Half of the door was sitting off of its hinges, which created a small hole but not enough for John to fit through. He got up and looked at the damage from up close. He could hear the door down the hall open. When he went to look towards the door, he could hear it close. This told him that they were aware of his attempted escape.

  This did not stop him. He was so close to getting out that he was not going to turn back. From what he could tell from looking at the damage, all the door needed was one swift kick. He hoped that he was right because he knew that his shoulder could not endure another tackle.

  He took a couple of steps back and took a deep breath. He quickly ran at the door and swung his foot at it. His foot made full contact with the door and the pain from the force made him think that he was going to break his foot. The door nearly flew off of the rest of its hinges. It slammed into the wall next to it and nearly bounced back into John’s face but he caught it in time.

  John slowly stepped out of the cell and was stunned to see a very long hallway to his right. At the end of the hall was a short set of steps leading to a red door, which stood out greatly with the rest of the hall. John began walking down the hall and was stunned by its appearance.

  To the left was an old and yellowish concrete wall that was littered with cracks. He realized that he was underground, as vines and some tree roots protruded from some of them. Above John was a line of small, dim lights that barely lit up the hallway.

  To the right of John were more cells. There were five cells and John was in the very last one. Ralph Hunt and Ken Sparks had clearly done this before. The thing that scared John was the fact that they had never been caught.

  He continued to look at the cells until he had reached the very first one. Up until that point, the cells were empty but this cell had something that caught his eye. He walked towards the cell. While a dark room, he could vaguely make out a rope hanging from the ceiling; tied in the horrific shape of a noose.

  While John didn’t believe in ghosts, he felt especially uncomfortable when looking at the noose. A haunting feeling struck him straight in the stomach and rendered him motionless. While he did not know the person who had hung him or herself, he knew that he and that person might have had a lot in common.

  It’s a haunting image looking at any kind of sight of someone else’s death. However, when that sight might be reflecting your own future, it’s an even tougher image to get out of your head. Your only hope and prayer is that déjà vu is nowhere in your future.

  John took his eyes off of that sight before him and turned back towards the red door, which was only a few steps away from him. He walked up the steps and paused for a brief second. The doorknob was bright gold and reflected John’s own nervous expression, staring directly back at him. For a second, he did not recognize himself. He placed his hand over the knob.

  He turned the knob and opened the door slightly. He was greeted by darkness. He pushed the door all the way open and the light from the hallway helped him see a wooden set of stairs that was very long. He looked up and tried to see where they led; they led to a cracked door, which brought a little bit of light into the room.

  John hesitated but began to walk up the steps. He had to stop for another second and slow down his pace as the stairs creaked with each step. He tried to make his steps as light and slow as possible, which reduced the sound greatly.

  His nerves rose and he began to sweat as he got closer. He stopped at the door as the stairs came to an end and began to push the door open. There was no noise coming from the other side, which made John even more nervous. He didn’t know what was waiting for him on the other side.

  As he pushed the door opened, he began to see into whatever room it led to. His eyes first set sight on a white wall with a painting of a rain forest and under it was a small table and a pot of flowers on top of it. A pleasant image in an unpleasant place.

  He pushed the door opened further and saw that the white wall was actually connected to a set of stairs.

  The door led to what appeared to be the entrance room to Hunt’s house. It was a large room with an all-white appearance. The stairwell was fairly big and led in two directions; one side led to the left part of the house, and the other, to the right side of the house. The two directions were split by a railing with an ugly gargoyle that rested at the very front of the stairwell. To his left were two rooms. One looked like the living room and the other was the kitchen. As he approached the first step to the
stairwell, he stopped to get a sense of where he was.

  He tried to think back to earlier that night when he had snuck up to this very same house, getting a sense of what part of the house that he had seen Hunt in. There was one door shaped entranceway to his right, which appeared to lead to a hallway. The first room in that hallway was opposite of the doorway; it was the very same sitting room where John had spotted Hunt, that hallway led to Amber.

  He was about to walk towards the hallway when he was greeted by the unmasked Ralph Hunt and Ken Sparks, a sight of horror that he could have done without. They stopped at the sight of John. John could see an unconscious, nude, and cut up Amber sitting on the shoulders of Hunt.

  Seeing Amber in this state drove John into anger and vengefulness, the likes of which he had never felt before. He was about to strike but didn’t have a chance as Sparks went for his gun.

  Instinctively, John jumped back behind the stairwell and just made it out of sight as a gunshot went off, nailing the gargoyle and shattering it to pieces.

  John could then hear the shuffling of feet. He heard the front doors open and a pair of feet go through them. He could hear a pair of feet coming towards him and with help from the white marble floors, he could see the shadow of Sparks coming towards him; his arm extended with the gun in his hand.

  “No! Let’s go,” Hunt shouted emphatically.

  Sparks stood there a little longer, clearly thinking it over. He then turned around and followed Hunt out of the house.

  Filled with pure adrenaline, John quickly got up and ran towards the doors, which had just closed. He plowed through them but was already too late as a black SUV sped around from the left side of the house and down the road to the highway, its tires screeching. John hopelessly stared in its direction as its tail lights went out of sight. John ran towards the driveway and desperately tried to see the SUV but it was long gone.

  John’s adrenaline faded almost instantly. The SUV’s disappearance brought John back to an instant state of depression. He turned around and walked back to the front steps, sitting on the bottom step with his head down and his eyes watering with tears.