FLASHBACK

The prison cell was barely six feet by four. The dull paint on each of the four walls carries a burden of memories which psychotic prisoners, drawing closer to insanity, had been scratching at the walls. It was either suffocatingly quiet or pierced with the screams of tortured inmates. It was within these four walls that I embraced hysteria. However, it wasn’t always like that. There was a time when I didn’t give in to the overwhelming feeling of delirium. The first few days were the worst.

‘The cold steel gates loomed over me as I was dragged into the dark abyss of the prison. The wails of tormented convicts perforated the grey, cold walls of the prison and the scent of agony and despair perpetrated my senses. I hissed in pleasure as the pain of the shackles around my wrists, rubbed the skin raw, sending a trail of crimson blood dripping down onto my fingertips and staining the grey floor below.

Grasping my elbow in his crushing grip, the guard dragged me towards a heavy metal door with a brass plaque engraved with ‘psychiatric ward’. The screams were deafening now, filling my body with a sense of dread. Putting his hand on the metal handle of the door, the guard pushed on the door and stepped inside dragging me alongside him.

Looking around, my heart palpitated in my chest as I took in my surroundings. There was a long hallway with various rooms on each side of it. I could sense the anguish and torment that permeated this place. Turning around, the guard reached out with his calloused fingers and gripped my jaw tightly; his stormy blue eyes piercing mine. Licking his lips, he racked his eyes down my scantily clad body; he sneered ‘it’s play time whore’.

Pushing me towards one of the rooms on my left, he shoved me inside and with a grunt I fell to the floor, unable to catch myself as the shackles bound on my ankles and wrists, cutting deep into the skin. Taking one last glance at me on the floor, he turned and slammed the door. The tension of the shackles cause the blood to start cascading down my fingertips and feet. Taking a few deep breaths, the scent of metallic rust infiltrated my senses as I closed my eyes in ecstasy.

Glancing up, I noticed that I wasn’t the only person in the room. A burly man stood to my left, dressed in a doctors’ lab coat. Positioned behind him, a small statured woman grinned sadistically as she looked me over. The room contained a metal bed in the middle of the room, with medical implements surrounding it. The doctor ambled towards to me with strong strides, his expression blank as he put his hands around my waist and lifted me up.

Dragging me over to the table, he forced me to lay down on it and signalled for the woman to do something. Twisting my head I saw that there were leather restraints attached to the bed. Gripping the first one she fastened it over my waist and buckled it up there. Next she moved onto my ankles, she unlocked the metal shackles there, tutting at the red, raw and bleeding skin. Fastening the restraints there, she moved her attention to my wrists and did the same thing. Once I was restrained to the metal bed, the doctor looked at me with a detestation in his icy cold grey eyes.

Picking up a clipboard from the side, he started to read the information there. ‘Lilith Black. Aged 17. Servant to the Franklins. Diagnosed with masochism and sociopathic tendencies. Sentenced to a lifetime imprisonment. Confessed to the murder of Edward Franklin Junior, Charles Dalton, Thomas Quinton and William Roswell. Claimed that the decreased were rapists’.

Wrenching my head to the side, he caressed my face, running his fingertips lightly over my cheek. ‘You have the softest skin, such a shame that you are here’, he crooned. Placing his hand on my neck, he put a device over my head and secured it. The doctor placed a wooden bar into my mouth and told me it would help keep my screams muted.

The doctor then attached some wires to a machine and I could fell the pulsating increase until it started to become uncomfortable. It felt like there was hot acid being poured on my body and my heart was beating out of my chest. The pressure on my head increased as whimpers started to escape my mouth. My back arched, trying to get rid of the relentless electric shocks being put through my body. Turning my head to look at the Doctor, I noticed a sadistic smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. My heart rate increased again and the pressure on my head increased to the point of agony. Black spots began to invade my eye sight and I closed my eyes relaxing as the darkness began to consume me.