Work Text:
Consciousness overtook me, even though I wanted so desperately to fall back into the void of sleep. My head was pounding, while my everything else ached with a dull pain. I could feel grime covering my form and the disgusting floor I laid on did not help. Go back to sleep, ignore everything else. The sweet release of slumber was so far out of grasp as I became eerily more aware of my surroundings.
With my eyes shut, every other one of my senses heightened. The tips of my ears and nose chilled in the frosty air and I huddled into myself, craving warmth. Creaks of a building settling and the muted coo of the wind made the silence more prominent, but even so, it felt so loud. The smell of dirt and pine wafted through the air along with something sharper in smell, something I couldn’t quite tell what it was.
Despite wanting so badly to ball up and drift away, I forced my limbs to uncurl and staggered to my feet. Opening my eyes, my sense of sight was able to roam free.
At first, darkness filled my vision, but my eyes got used to the lack of light. Tables and chairs were knocked to the ground along with scattered papers and other fallen objects. Dust covered the majority of surfaces, showing most items had not been touched, at least not for awhile. The floor was cracked and parts were exposing the framework of the ceiling below. The only exit in sight was a rickety door swung open, looking like it were to fall off its hinges at any moment. There were no windows, nor any gaps in the walls to show off the outside.
I didn’t belong here.
I began to walk toward the door but stumbled over my own feet in the process. God, my head hurt. The pounding of my head grew stronger the second I opened my eyes and my limbs ached with every move they made. Even so, I trudged forward.
The hallway just beyond the door was in worse shape than the room previous. Windows were present here, but all but a few were smashed to pieces, the sharp glass jutting out, tempting any passersby to just maybe, have a little touch. Windows that weren’t broken, had spider webbing cracks and were hardly see through anymore. The floor was old and rotted, most places collapsed and others looking almost near collapsing from damage. Burgundy splotches scattered the walls, paint peeling from their place. A few doorways lined the tall walls, some with doors, others bare.
What was this place?
I lurched toward a broken window, hoping to find at least a clue on where I was. Tall, looming trees surrounded the immediate area, their shadows long and haunting from the sliver of moon above. Stars covered the sky, shining beautiful lights on the overgrown plant life below. It would have almost been peaceful, but given the circumstances, chills ran up my spine. It felt too quiet. Something felt... off.
A loud bang echoed throughout the otherwise silent building. I whipped my head around, trying to find the source. Could someone else be here?
“Hello?” I called out.
Again, the bang rang out, followed by another and another and another. It seemed somewhat close by. I furrowed my eyebrows and stalked down the hallway the noise seemed to be coming from. As I got farther and farther down, the rhythmic banging grew louder. I found myself in front of a bathroom. Even before entering, I again called into the air.
“...Anyone there...?”
The banging continued just as rhythmic as before. Still cautious, I slid the door open. A large window was at the end of the room and moonlight flooded the area, casting an eerie light. I stepped forward and felt the floor to be strangely sticky. Now that I was in the room where the banging came from, I could now hear that the rhythmic bangs followed a distinct pattern. Pause, creak, bang, pause, creak, bang. It seemed to be coming from the last stall of the bathroom.
I slunk over to the stall door, the squelch of my dirty sneakers against the sticky floor reverberating throughout the room. Moving my hand to pull the door open, I felt a pit begin to form in my throat. I grasped the handle in my hand, the metal cold against my palm. Wanting nothing more than to get it over with, I swung the door open.
The stench hit me first. The smell of iron and raw meat entered my nose without warning. The pit in my throat turned into a gag and I held myself up on the door. The moonlight didn’t hit the inside of the stall, so I felt my way in. The creak and bangs continued, despite my interruption. As my vision adjusted I saw in the corner of the large stall, there was a tall figure. My need for human contact as well as help, overwhelmed all my other senses telling me this wasn’t right, and I reached out to touch their shoulder.
“Excuse me? Do you know where we are?” The second my hand hit their shoulder, I froze.
It was soaked in blood.
My eyes adjusted fully and I got a look at the figure.
Glass was embedded in nearly every inch of his skin and shoved down his throat. The glass was overflowing out of his mouth and his head was bent back in an awkward position, like a puppet who lost it’s stuffing. Parts of the tissues of his flesh were flayed off and hung from him loosely. The creak and bang that I had heard was the noose around his swollen and red neck, swinging him back and forth from a flimsy pipe on the ceiling into the wall next to him. His face was unrecognizable, but the fear and dread in his glassy eyes was unmistakable.
The second we met eyes, a muffled gurgle came from the boy’s meat that was previously his throat. He weakly flailed his limbs at me, causing me to lurch back, horror plastered on my face. Fear was deep in his eyes, they stared horridly at me.
He was dead.
I couldn’t even scream. My brain completely forgot how to function. I stared at the body, eyes trained on his own. I stood in one place, my form refusing to move and my mind blank. The swing and thud into the wall echoed throughout the room, the eerie silence behind it holding dark meaning.
After a moment, my brain gained some sort of control back, but only enough to blare one thing at me.
Run.
I scrambled my way out of the stall, out of the bathroom, out of the hallway. I held a hand over my mouth, silently begging myself not to throw up. I just ran, my mind now racing far faster than I could escape. The area around me blurred and fuzzed out as I continued to run, I didn’t know where I was going, I didn’t care where I was going, all I knew was that I had to get away.
I tripped over a stray floor board and fell into a heap. With an interruption, my perception came back to reality. I whined in pain, and sat myself up, leaning against the wall. I had to get out of here. I went to get to my feet, but was thrown back to the ground by a searing pain in my skull.
“You abandoned me!” Someone yelled, their voice wavering. “No! No, no. I didn’t! Please think about what you’re saying-” “Shut up! I’ve done so much for you, I’ve done everything for you! All you’ve ever done is hurt me and call it a friendship! I’m done. I’m done playing your stupid games.” Sobs could be heard, from which voice was unknown.
I gasped sharply, trying to catch my fleeting breath. What was that? A memory? A vision? A dream? Everything ached and throbbed, but I ignored it in favor of trying to decipher what I just heard. It didn’t last long, however. The image of the hanging boy crept its way back into my brain. Though, this time, I couldn’t hold it in. I clenched my stomach, folding over to the side, and retched onto the floor.
I wiped away the leftover vomit on my mouth with my sleeve and slowly got to my feet. This wasn’t supposed to happen. If I were to remain okay in the head, I had to get out of here.
I staggered down the musty hallway I had found myself in. I had no idea where I was, no idea how to leave. Avoiding the rotted flooring, I looked around for some sort of exit. I found myself at the end of the hallway, facing a pair of large wooden doors, the metal handles barely holding onto the soggy wood. I pried the doors open and entered the vast and nearly empty room.
Stacked against the walls were boxes and crates, some tipped over spilling out their contents, some shattered open, and some simply standing up straight, dust covering their tops as if no one had touched them in decades. Lonely string lights hung from the ceiling, their bulbs smashed and wire exposed to the damp air. In the middle of the room lay a few machines with hefty looking saw blades, most rusted beyond use.
I crept closer to the machines and inspected them more closely. The saw blades were much larger up close and most seemed to be in perfect condition other than the rust. A pair of workers gloves sat on each of the individual machines, ready to be used. Breathing in the air caused a sharp sneeze to exit my mouth, I found the culprit to be the sheer amount of dust that covered the machines.
There was nothing of use to me here. As I was about to exit the room, I noticed a stairwell leading downwards, too dark to tell where to. I stepped over to the stairs, and looked down the twisted inky blackness, hoping to find some sort of clue as to where they lead. No matter how hard I strained my eyes, I couldn’t make out a thing.
I debated whether going down this possible death trap was a good idea. There had to be another way, I wasn’t about to risk my life on these rickety old stairs when there was the option to find some other path to take. Besides, there was something I didn’t like about them. Obviously this was an old building and the threat of the steps breaking and myself falling through was there, but there was something else too. They radiated some sort of distinct energy. A dark, unpleasant energy. The pit in my stomach returned full force when I stared down the dark stairwell.
I inched my way back out of the room, holding my breath the entire time. There was no physical evidence to prove it, but I felt one wrong move would cause a disturbance.
Even when I had closed the door and was far away from the stairs, I could still feel the pit in my stomach, and it had spread to my chest. This dark overencumbered feeling was diseasing me and I didn’t know how to fix it. My only possible idea of a solution was to get out of this place, and that’s what I intended to do.
At this point, my conscious was completely ignoring the pain I felt, instead focusing all it’s attention on my goal to leave. I found myself wandering the halls aimlessly, only going where my legs would take me.
Until, I felt compelled to walk somewhere. I had no idea how or why I knew this specific route or where it was taking me, but somehow it felt... important. My aching feet led me up to a generic looking window. It looked the same as all the other windows in the immediate area. It was ceiling to floor and the glass that was left inside the frame had been smashed open, like something crashed through it. Something big. Outside, it had only gotten darker, the moon was now covered by clouds and the dark shadows had now dimmed, blending in with the darkness. Only then did I notice the sound of the howling winds. They shrieked and moaned at me, trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t understand what. I don’t know if the sound of the wind covered it, but I couldn’t hear any sort of life. No bugs, no birds, nothing.
Abruptly, another scorching pain washed over my head. I hastily gripped the broken window to stabilize myself.
“Bring us more.” An echoed voice demanded. “No, no I can’t do this anymore. I can’t take it!” Cried another. Heavy chuckles. “You do not have a choice, do you? Hurry now, we grow hungry. Bring more, before we lose patience.” The echoed voice rumbled.
Jagged glass sliced through my helpless flesh, blood now gathering into my hand.
A feminine cackle. “You enjoy this, do you not?” The echoed voice jeered, sickly sweet delight in their voices. “No, no I don't!” The other defended. “Do not deny it. We always knew you would. We see the excitement in your eyes when we feast. You are a monster, just like us.” It cooed. “Don’t you ever compare yourself to me.” “Oh, but sweetheart, we ARE you.”
The burn in my hands was ignored in favor of the pain in my brain.
“Let yourself go.”
A raw painful scream split through my throat, and I fell to my knees. Sweat blanketed my skin, and I hysterically tried to wipe it away, though only successfully mixing the blood on my hands with the perspiration. My entire form quaked and shook, and a ringing blared in my ears. I coughed and gasped, desperately trying to regain my breath.
Gradually, the shaking decreased, the ringing dulled and the sweat was wiped away. However, now the pain in my palms were more prevalent than before. The sticky fluid flowed down my hands and dripped onto the floor. I winced and pressed them against my torso as a temporary solution. The cloth of my shirt and the force of the pressure caused the bleeding to slow, but not stop.
Icy wind seeped through the window and swept onto my hunched form only now making me realize how long I had sat there. Wincing, I stood from my spot. The blood loss symptoms were obvious as I got up, immediately getting dizzy and light headed. So I ripped my pants and crudely fashioned bandages onto my hands with them. I fastened them down and shut my eyes with fatigue. My entire body throbbed with pain. The mental torture of this place was causing me to effectively lose my entire being. I stumbled on.
The walls of the building creaked and moaned while I staggered forward. I couldn’t tell where I was anymore. The halls were twisted and maze like, as if everything was ever shifting. Everywhere looked familiar and different at the same time. Nothing made sense anymore. Tears filled my eyes and I choked back an aching sob.
I slumped to the floor and pressed my face into my bloodied palms. Tears, blood and snot mixed together as I sobbed into my hands. Why did this happen? What did I do to deserve this? All my emotions had burned away and that remained was despair. A disgusting, horrible feeling that was hell bent on making me nothing but an empty husk of a human. All I wanted was to go home.
“Oh, sweet pea. You are home.”
I sucked in a hot breath. Tears still clouding my vision, I whipped my head around frantically, searching for the source of the voice. Surely, I had lost it. My fragile mind had finally broken and now I was hearing voices.
“We can assure you, we are very real.” A pause. “Oh, did you injure yourself? Tsk, what would you do without us here?” A tearing fleshy sound and a sharp pain in my hands. I clenched every muscle in my body, trying to block out the pain. Then, the burn in my palms was gone. I looked down at them. Completely sealed up. The only thing to suggest that something was there, was a dark thread woven throughout my skin. Stitches.
The air in my lungs was snatched just as quickly as I had breathed it in. In and out, in and out. Each time faster and more frantic than the last. My body craved oxygen, but my lungs would not comply, only shallow breaths were given.
While I was trying to grasp reality, the dark murky feeling that had taken up my stomach and chest was now spreading to the rest of my body, like an infection. And now it was starting to manifest. Thick shadows pulled itself out of me and loomed over my hyperventilating form. A single clawed hand of many, rested on top of my head, gently stroking my hair in some sort of a semblance of a crude comforting action. Crooning of many voices whispered in my ears. Reassuring words, but I knew the mocking undertone they had. Their voices plagued my ears and thoughts. Slowly but effectively driving me down into a pit.
I shrieked desperately into the murky air. I couldn’t even wait for an answer. Stumbling onto my feet, I raced in a random direction. Everything surrounding me blurring as I sprinted. Down stairs, through doors, it didn’t matter, all I could think was go. Leave. Get out.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I heard the voices surround me. Taunting me, pleading me, commanding me to stay.
“You can not run forever!”
“Where are you going?”
“Get Back Here.”
Then I saw it. The staircase. Everything in my entire being said no, I couldn’t. My legs heard none of it. They completely were detached from my brain and listened to nothing but themselves. I scrambled down the steps, frantic to escape the shadows. I felt as though I was stepping deeper and deeper into a heavy black pool of darkness. Nearly every step I thought the wood would collapse beneath me and I would tumble into a dark void, never seeing the light of day again.
The steps held.
My spirit did not.
The moment I reached the bottom of the staircase, my psyche collapsed. Wailing and sobbing, I dropped to the floor. I convulsed in my spot and dry heaved onto the rotting wood underneath me. The thin thread I had left connecting myself to reality had snapped and my body reacted harshly to it. I gripped my arms and clenched my eyes tightly, trying to hold onto some semblance of sanity. No more. No more.
My cries were not heard as the shadows crept their way back into the area. They manifested again, though this time, their many clawed hands touched every inch of my body. “Shh, sweet darling. It is time.” Their voices murmured, annoyance and disgust hidden in between the comforting words.
For the last time, my fractured mind blasted an intense torture.
A looming figure over a cowering girl. Violet aura surrounded the figure and illuminated the girl and cast dark shadows on her terrified face. Tears stains ran down her cheeks and several cuts and bruises littered her body. “Genny, please don’t. I’m your friend! Don’t let it take over you, you’re stronger than that thing!” She pleaded. The figure twitched slightly, but did not falter. They moved closer, and the girl screeched. Uneven pieces of glass floated up from the ground and around the figure, all bathed in the same violet light. The glow lit up the figure, showing it’s true form.
Along with the glass surrounding them, glass was embedded into their skin, some “healed” around the intrusions while others hung loosely from exposed flesh. Old and fresh scars, cuts and stitches covered their body, ripped clothing especially showing them off. Their long matted and tangled hair cascaded down their shoulders and down their back. Dried burgundy blood contrasted notably against their pale white skin. So white, almost like a ghost. Dirt was caked onto their body, aged and dried. Their face was marred with scars, the most obvious one along their cheek and one splitting into their eye. Clearly the eye had been slashed into. An empty socket was all that was left, darkness the only thing filling the void, dried blood still seeping through the wound. Though they were severely disfigured, I could tell whom the figure was.
“Who’s Genny? I’m Jagged.”
The glass suspended in the air shot towards the girl and sliced through her skin. She screamed in agony. The squelch of meat and muscle being flayed apart accompanied her pleas and begs for help. Hatred was filled with every cut. Skin severed and blood spilled. It didn’t make a difference to the figure. Their hunger was too strong.
Her body slumped over, hardly even a body anymore as much as it was a hunk of meat.
I screamed. I screamed and screamed and screamed. My psyche was falling apart before my eyes, and I needed to grasp some sort of reality.
“My name is Genny. I’m eighteen and I- I...” I pleaded with my mind. Please, give me something to hold onto. I begged and cried, but nothing helped. The burning pain, the ache. It was unbearable. Someone, please wake me up.
I had remembered.
A small throaty chuckle erupted from my lips, fresh tears still dripping down my cheeks. The small chuckle soon escalated into giggles, then laughs then full on screamy shrieking. After all this time. After all this self torturing, I had remembered. Visions upon visions of bodies filled my shattered mind.
Bodies that I had tortured.
People I had killed.
Lives I had taken.
“We are glad you have seen it our way. There is no more Genny.”
Looking down at my shaking hands, I saw the blood. The blood that wasn’t mine. I had done it all. It was my fault. Mine. Mine. Mine.
The sound of footsteps and a voice calling out caused my head to turn. An hour ago, the sounds would have been welcomed, but now, they made my blood turn to ice. Someone new for us to take.
“We grow hungrier.”
All sense had left me. All there was, was flesh. All there was, was pain. All that remained, was Jagged.
Outside, the September breeze blew harshly on the new home of a broken girl.