Good Night, Forever



Darkness, the one thing you can see in the beginning as well as the end. Before birth, and after death; before waking up and after you go to bed for the night. All is dark.

I didn't know how I got where I was, but I do know just how strange it was. Before that, all I could recollect was walking home after a double shift at the hospital. I was too tired to be able to drive, also, I loved the cool night air of the city after a long day. It made me almost...Happy. The last thing I remembered was a small chuckle before a metal object cracked against my skull.

A cool gust of wind grazed my bare face, awakening me with a start. The air entered my lungs so suddenly it burned. My eyes could just barely adjust in the darkness, making me a viable target to whoever put me there. I stumbled to my feet, trying to get my bearings in the-what seemed like-maintenance closet. Fumbling and groping about, I finally managed to find a splintered wooden door. When the door creaked open, I stepped into the dimly lit hallway, trying to find any way out of the dark. This place was my own personal hell; I had always been achluophobic. Even now, I had to have some form of light before I dozed off at night.

After a while of wandering around the area, the pain in my head mixed with crippling anxiety forced me to collapse to the ground. The loud thud of my body on the concrete slab rang throughout the air, but I did not lose consciousness yet. I could see a small sliver of light underneath a nearby door, with what little energy I could muster, I managed to push my way to the door. I pushed on the dented metal and it slid inward. I bathed in the light for a few minutes, absorbing it, My mind felt like it was being glued together after being shattered by a three year-old.

After a while, I managed to get to my feet and entered the room. There were a few rough plastic stalls, and a few with doors kicked in or just missing. I was just a few feet away when a loud swish came to my right, mere inches from my head, before it could attempt to assault me again I leap on it. Knocking it to the floor I grabbed the object it used to assault me and discarded it. The thing screamed as loud as it could. I covered its mouth with my hand, seeing a reasonably pretty brunette woman lying in front of me. I pulled my hand away. "Thank God, there's another person here."

"Get offa me," she said in a small, raspy voice. "Jesus, I thought you were someone else." she stood, reaching for the lead pipe. I had discarded moments before.

I stood as well, wrenching the pipe out of her hand "I don't want you to hit someone like us." Then a strange smell got to me, putrid and pungent. I tried to follow it to the source. I saw one stall, and blood splattered on the floor that read ​open . I pushed on it and a loud, rusty creak ran through the stagnant air. There, on the wall, was a severed head. Jagged, ripped flesh dangled from the base of the neck, and a smile was carved into its cheeks. And in the stall toilets were chunks of the victim's flesh floating in gasoline. The sight forced me back.

"What kind of sick FUCK could do this to a person?!" I tried not to retch at what I saw.

A light whisper came from behind me, "The same kind that would do the same thing to you," it chuckled. That low, sadistic chuckle that could only come from a truly insane man.

Without thinking, I clenched the pipe and swung it as hard as I could at the source of the sound. Connecting with a satisfactory wet smack.

When the adrenaline finally slowed down, I saw what I had done. I dropped to my knees, lightly smacking her in the face "C'mon, c'mon, look at the light, Okay, trust me, I'm a doctor. Look at the light. Okay pupillary response normal." He snapped around her ears "Auditory response normal. Now say something."

Her eyes focused over my shoulder she whispered "Run."

A massive amount of pain came from my kidney. I stopped and coughed, thick red blood splattered over the floor and the woman. The low chuckle came again "Shhhhhhh..." then the world went dark.

Darkness, the one thing you can see in the beginning as well as the end. Before birth, and after death; before waking up and after you go to bed for the night. All is dark.