hChapter 2 Paradise Bay
(A/N: if you imagine the ghosts happening to YOU it's a lot realer and scarier. And to clear it up, no wings in this story. Also, sorry for taking so long, but I'm on a break. )
DAY ONE
This night, five minutes before bedtime, I sit at my desk, drawing. I dread going to bed, hoping the beasts don't come. Currently, I'm drawing a picture of one of them, I don't know why, probably to show Max. This one is the one that calls itself Lucius. He's a shadow, almost, glowing red eyes. Even though he's a shadow, he's a physical being, if that makes any sense. Like, he can just stare at me from the corner of the room, like many of the others, or he can drag me out of bed and wraps his wispy shadow hands around my neck and hold me, feet above the ground by the throat, constricting until I pass out. Luckily, this isn't an everyday occurrence. Unluckily, it happens.
I think back to what Max had told me earlier, before we departed.
"Hope you're a heavy sleeper," She had cautioned. "Because here, there is a lot of screaming."
What did she mean by that? I should know, but for some reason, I can't seem to figure it out. I guess in a place like this, the looney bin, there are so many reasons why people could be screaming. Maybe not so many reasons, but so many demons.
I look down at the picture I have been absentmindedly drawing since I began thinking. Now, rather than Lucius just standing, gazing intently at the viewer, one chilling arm is reaching out, his hand the only clearly defined part. I may be a good drawer, but I could never draw such a good hand. It's bony and emaciated, bits of flesh hanging down, the skin shriveled and pulled back like in a prune. The hand looks disturbingly real, and ready to choke me.
I slam the sketchbook shut.
No way I can look at it. Rather, I open my eReader, just for the warden, a severe looking older woman, to walk by and turn off the light and shut my door, leaving me in darkness.
I know that I probably won't be able to sleep tonight, which is good, because the things only seem to come after I've slipped into the arms of Morpheus. To put it simply, they only seem to wake me up. I vow not to sleep tonight, but to seem like a good little boy, I slip into under my covers and rest my head on the pillow. The soft, soft pillow. I realize that I didn't sleep yesterday night either, and that I am actually quite exhausted. But it doesn't matter. I stare at my ceiling, trying to see what I can find in it's cracks and lines.
...
My eyes pop open abruptly, my view going directly to the ceiling. Shit! I must have fallen asleep. 'What woke me up?' I ask myself.
"Fang..." Whispers a chillingly eerie and familiar voice. I sit up in my bed, pressing my back against the wall. "Fang." I swivel my head to scan the room; I see nothing. "Fang."
I stare straight ahead, just to the right of the door, where the voice seemed to come from. I see a wisp of fog, that's it. Then, bit by bit, the fog grows into a single cloud, a hazy apparition, a silhouette of a person.
I have see this one before, pretty much harmless. I am always terrified by the demons, but this one scares me less. It glides towards me, closer and closer, and I press myself against the wall.
All of a sudden, there are two red flickers, becoming orbs, and I realize that this isn't the mist I thought it was. This is a shadow, Lucius.
"Fang. That's your new name right? Nice girly there..." He says again. I can hear the taunting in it's voice.
I try to say something, but now I'm too terrified to. I can't look at him anymore, so I avert my eyes to the ground below the window, nine little squares of white splayed against the darkness. I feel a burning sensation on my cheek, and I know it's Lucius, running his dry-ice cold fingers down my skin. I can't move or turn away, either from Lucius holding me with some sort of force or me being paralyzed with fear. The flesh on my right cheek feels scorching, but cold and I can almost sense the formation of ice crystals in my flesh and blood cells. This is frostbite, very sever frost bite in seconds. I know from experience that soon my skin will turn black and crack, possibly chap and peel off and shrivel. It will defrost, soggy like defrosted tofu, the warm air shocking it, the skin becoming putrid and dead.
I also am aware that tomorrow, when I awake there will be no mark, no sign of this ever happening other than a faint red mark.
"Fang..." He says, hovering over my new bed. I can hear in his voice that he is teasing me, hurting me, but only giving me a taste of the pain. I am aware instinctively that there is worse to come. I tear my eyes away from the window, and do my best to stare directly into his 'eyes', the red orbs that chill me to the very core.
I want to scream so much, but I know that I shouldn't. In fact, I probably can't even physically scream. His eyes burn into mine, literally burn, and my head sears.
"Go." I manage to spit out in a sudden burst of courage, my voice strained. "Leave."
Lucius just stares back, remaining in a stoney, terrifying silence. I can see him back up a little bit, then he flies forward at a incredible speed, disappearing into the wall just above my head.
...
DAY 2
I wake up in a cold sweat, still breathing heavily from the night before.
Instinctively, I touch my cheek, wishing there was a mirror in the room. We're not allowed mirrors in our rooms. Something about dicier risk. I wonder if being stuck in a place like this made you want to die more. Probably.
I can't feel anything on my face, but the skin is a little more sensitive and feels like it might be flaking a little bit. It's probably red, too.
Today is sunny, I can tell because of the pale gold light streaming into my room. I pull myself out of bed and look out the window. The sun is barely up, and it shines through a few low clouds and fog. I'm looking out to the countryside, so besides yellow, everything also had a faint green and white filter.
It's stunning, almost enough to make me forget about the night before. I guess this is the seaside beauty of Maine. Maybe that's why this place is called Paradise Bay. I have to admit, it's pretty nice.
"Breakfast!" Snaps a warden walking by on patrol. I hear the shuffling of the other guys here as they get up to scoot down to the dining hall. I joined them and opened my door, at the same time as the other doors swing open too.
I look at all the unfamiliar faces, meriting a few glares and I realize that I know no one. Even though it's only my second day, I still feel as if I should know my hall-mates.
All of a sudden, someone bumps into me, and not expecting that, I stumble.
"Shit!" Says a guy's voice, coming from the floor.
I look down to see Iggy. "Hey, Iggy." I greet, helping him up.
"Hey dude," He replies, dusting himself off. "Didn't see you there."
I laugh and we start off to the dining hall together. "So how do you get around blind?" I ask him as he perfectly finds and descends the stairs without tripping. "By the way you move, you can't tell."
"You get used to it. It's a blind thing." Iggy shrugs. "Heightened senses, getting used to your surroundings. It's hard to explain."
We enter the doors to the meal room, and Iggy leads me to the table where the girls and Gazzy are sitting. Yes, he LEADS me.
"Hey." We greet at the same time.
"Hi." Nudge says, since she is the only on without food in her mouth. As everyone else chews and swallows, they greet us as well.
"How was your night?" Max asks, and the statement seems general.
Everyone shrugs and says 'fine.'. I just touch my cheek and don't answer.
Angel speaks up. Her voice is scared and meek. "They came last night. They didn't hurt me this time, but they said they were gonna try and make one of us dead."
...
Everyone seems to ignore Angel's little comment, and I wonder if it's a frequent occurrence or if they're just ignoring it.
"What day is it? Max asks as we walk together out of the meal room.
"You don't know?" I ask, shocked.
"It's vacation time right now. I don't do any school work and I have nothing to even tell me the day of the week." She explains.
"Oh." I say. I wonder how long it will take me to forget the date. "Yesterday was July sixth, so today's July seventh."
Max looks shocked. "It's already July?"
Again, I am shocked. "Yeah. Didn't you know? I mean... You can't be that far under a rock, can you?"
Max isn't listening. She just looks sadly into the distance, walking mechanically. "It's my birthday soon," She finally remarks, slightly melancholically as we approach the hall to the rec room. "I wonder if my parents will visit me... Well me mom anyways."
b
"What do you mean?" I asked. "Don't you ever get to see your parents? Mine promised to visit whenever possible."
Max and I walk through the door of the rec room, being held open by a plump nurse in blue scrubs. "No."
"Why."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay." I shrug, figuring she'll tell me when she's ready.
"Actually, do you want to know? I really just want to get it out there so there's no issues later. My dads in jail -that I won't talk about for sure- and my mom she's sick, really sick."
"I'm so sorry." I reply, not exactly sure how to reply to what she has just confessed. "I don't know what to say." I reply honestly.
"It's okay," Max says quietly, a sad smile on her face. "I'm going to go watch television. I suggest you look out the window a bit because it's the last time you'll see the sun in a long time."
Max points blindly towards one of the widows. Sure enough, bright golden sunlight dapples the tile below. A glance upwards reveals a spectacular view. A slate grey and mossy green rocky cliff, the endless azure ocean, glittering with the sun and white foamy crests. Seagulls fly throughout the empty sky, where not a cloud rests, except for on the horizon, where they are tall and ominous. Underneath them I can see the grey sheet of rain. At least the sun will last for awhile. The view is breathtaking. I find it strange that such a strange place is somewhere so beautiful. I more expected an asylum to be more in the outskirts of the bad part of town or in a rural area, surrounded by animal-cruel factory farms.
I am struck with the urge to capture this unexpected panorama on paper. I would rather take a picture, but all I had was my paper.
I continue drawing for an hour or so, until I finish, and only moments later, a storm rattles the building.