The dream of the damned (508 hits)
Category: NoneRating: -1.33 on 4 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Al <revenge_of_the_killer_dustbin.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2004-03-16 17:13:36 EST
Again and again he felt the knife pierce his flesh, tearing at his skin with its obscene bite. He smelt the solemn stink of the blood as it flowed from his stomach. He cried aloud as the pain tore through him, sending sickening shockwaves through his body. He stumbled backwards with the impact of the knives, and shuddered violently, spitting bitter blood onto the serene, sterile floor of his room. Reeling with the shock he fell to the floor.
He didn't mind. He wasn't afraid of this.
What tore him apart was the laughter.
He never saw their faces, or their eyes, only their smiles. Their laughter filled his body with the worst pain imaginable. Their grins ate away at him like some horrible disease, they seared him with their smiles. Their whoops and howls raidiated a sick dementia he could not bear to listen to. As he lay there in a pool of blood and tears, all he heard was the laughter, forcing apart his eardrums and pounding on his brain. He felt his body heave one last time, and he saw his eyes die a solemn death, turning dull and grey, to match the grim sky.
He awoke in a puddle of warm sweat and urine, screaming like a child. Closing his eyes he wished his conciousness would just drift away. He wished that he could leave the world behind like the other inmates. Why couldn't his eyes just vanish, just lose their spark and send his conciousness screaming to the afterlife? He was still screaming. The nurse came. He stopped.
'Please...no...i don't want to dream the dream again.' He begged the nurse.
'Come now...it's only a dream. It can't hurt you.' She smiled a callous sickly smile.
Bitch, he thought, as she condemned him to the dream. He had penetrated her eyes, peering into her mind. He knew that she smiled as he screamed and grinned as he dreamed the dream. Sadistic bitch, his mind screamed, but already he was drifting away.
Three years he had lain in the same bed. Soaked in his own fluids, strapped down, unable to move. Misery was his only companion. A small square window taunted him with visions of the cloudy sky. He had seen the apocalypse from that small room. He had watched the world disintegrate bit by bit in front of his terrified eyes. No wonder they called him insane. He'd seen all of them living their secret lives, grasping the bottle with their limp hands, unconcious on the floor, or snorting a line of coke while some gaunt hooker probed their penis. All of their lies, betrayals and violent actions were stamped in his mind.
It was happening again. He felt the first blow...more vividly than ever before. Something wasn't right. The mouths had faces, laughing sadistically at his pain. Wild drunks...some kind of gang. He screamed as the knife was again thrust into his stomach, to the laughter of the crowd. More of his drunken assasins drew knives. Blood and sweat mixed in his mouth...the taste of pain remained the same. He cried out, but nobody seemed to hear. The nurse was far away, drinking champagne and flirting with strangers. His eyes filled with salty tears of desperation. The doctor was injecting heroin into his veins in his filthy apartment. No.
The colours in the room were decaying fast. He spat blood on the floor. He smiled a bitter, gap-toothed grin as he collapsed to the floor. At least he wasn't crazy.
User Reviews
Submitted by KoolWang (user info) at 2004-05-29 07:25:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Wanga-langa-ding-dong
Submitted by BalloonKnot (user info) at 2004-05-10 15:51:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I leave it open to menstration
Submitted by Falconer (user info) at 2004-03-17 02:28:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I wanted to leave it open to interpretation. He could be paranoid, he could have multiple personalities. I wanted it to depend on the reader.
Submitted by LiteracyLover (user info) at 2004-03-16 20:16:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
hm, tryin to figure this out here...
I like the whole in medias res thing, but there never really was an explanation of the situation in the body of the story, just a little background info. maybe we're supposed to make of it what we will, but i'm tired.
does he have like multiple personalities, a Shining-esque thingamob, or extreme paranoia??