Nightmare
I could feel my heart pounding, slamming against the walls of my chest as I ran. I tried to ignore it and concentrated on putting one foot in front of another to escape, but to no avail. All I could hear was the scraping soles of my shoes on the pavement for every step I took.
Taking a glance over my shoulder, I drew in a sharp breath. The towering silhouette had caught up to me. My eyes widened as I drank in its features. Wide-framed and tall, it stood, blending into the surroundings as if the darkness was a part of it. There was no escape. I would soon be swallowed whole by the darkness, just as I was by trepidation.
“Ahhhhhhhh!” A scream tore out of me like a great shard of glass, piercing through the ominous night like air raid sirens before it eventually got muffled. Whether my scream was a futile attempt to wake myself up from the nightmare, or just a call for help, I wasn’t sure.
I felt something covering my mouth and panicked. Biting down hard on whatever was clamping my mouth, I pushed it away hard and took off once again.
This was my last chance.
My heart still drumming, I kept running. I ran for my life and didn’t stop until I reached home.
My mind was in a state of turmoil when I reached home. Breathing hard, I leaned against the door and felt my trembling fingers against the handle. Apprehension was gnawing away at my last bit of sanity.
“What was that?”
The towering figure from my nightmare.
“Is it coming after me?”
Footsteps nearing.
“Did it follow me home?”
Shadows dancing on the walls.
“Am I safe here?”
Lurking in the corner.
It laid heavy in my heart. All I could feel was the chilling air’s embrace on my skin. All I could think about was the walk down the old alleyway on my way back home.
The alley had been dimly lit and I saw a dark figure ahead of me breathing heavily. Then I smelled something odd, traces of something metallic in the air. I stopped in my steps and looked closely ahead, only to see something lying beside the man in a puddle.
Blood. Corpse. Murder. Chaos wrought. I ran.
I closed my eyes and tried to clear my thoughts but to no avail. My whirlwind of emotions were bubbling and my nerves were wreaking havoc to no end.
It was a sleepless night.
The next day was visiting day. Walking into the Red Cross Hospital, I could immediately smell the familiar scent of the disinfectant. I sigh a breath of relief, taking in the familiar sight of the busy hallway. I checked into the system for admittance at the counter and went up to the second floor to visit my brother, John.
He was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor after many health checkups when he was in the military. He had to undergo surgery to remove it and has been hospitalised for a month now after the surgery. I have been taking time off to visit him.
John was allocated a room that was quite isolated. The chilly air whispered on my skin as the goosebumps broke out.
Footsteps nearing.
Shadows dancing on the walls.
Lurking in the corner.
The nightmare.
I shuddered. Why was I thinking about that? Now wasn’t the time. I sucked in a deep breath in an attempt to calm my wild thumping heart. Putting on a smiling façade, I opened the door.
“John, how are you? I heard that you’ve been recovering fast. ”
“Yeah, I’m doing quite well. ” John looked up and replied with a slight smile.
“What about you? You don’t look so well, dark circles and all. You should see yourself in the mirror.” He continued teasingly.
“It’s nothing. I’ve just been thinking a lot.” I felt my heart miss a beat as I averted my eyes for a second. I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.
Time flew during the visit. It wasn’t long before I had to leave. While we were hugging each other goodbye, I noticed something amiss about my brother’s right hand. It was red and swollen.
“What happened to your hand?”
“Oh, I’m not sure about that. I woke up with it. Maybe I bit myself when I was having a nightmare?” John said halfheartedly.
My heart jolted.
Bidding a hurried farewell, I left the room with a skipping heart and clammy hands. What happened last night has definitely caught up to me and I was starting to feel paranoid.
“A bite?”
I found myself wandering aimlessly along the hospital corridor, unable to calm myself down from my thoughts. When I became tired from all the pacing, I sat at the bench leaning along the walls of the hallway. The nightmare kept finding its way back to me, creeping amongst the shadows. Resigned, I slouched down on the bench for a moment.
Then the voices started.
“...last night...kill…”
“...no brain tumor ...scheme to control...”
“....wiped memory...mindless puppet…”
I shook my head in frustration. Shut up! Stop haunting me!
I stood up to take my leave, only to realise that the voices were gone. What was happening? That wasn’t me?
Confused, I sat down again and heard voices once more. My eyes widened in surprise and sucked in a sharp breath. Leaning my head against the hollow wall, the voices became audible.
“The chips implanted into our soldiers’ brains are working well. Nobody suspects anything.”
“Great, it has been very successful. Including what happened last night, there have been four successful attempts. It’s about time we report to them.”
I was frozen in shock.
Were they talking about my brother? Was the brain tumor all a lie? Was it John last night?
I could feel my energy seeping away from me and my body turning cold as I considered the different possibilities.
“Thud!” I lost my grip on my bag and it dropped on the ground, snapping me out of my daze. Unfortunately, the sound was loud enough to alert the people inside and they rushed out of the room.
“I..I swear I didn't hear anything… I..I..” Still not recovered from the shock of what I heard, I stammered.
My brother… John was still there, right?
It couldn’t be true. My brother was not a ruthless murderer. It couldn’t have been him who assaulted me, who killed someone in cold blood. It simply wasn’t logical, how everything about his condition was a lie. I prayed desperately for some sort of comfort, for reassurance that this wasn’t real, but the conversation l’d just heard rings loud in my ear, unforgiving.
My thoughts were spinning in my head and my heartbeat was picking up by the second. The drummer in my chest, pounded out a melody in my ear, more random and crazier than the regular song, as random and crazy as my thoughts. I demanded that it slow, but it didn't. I couldn't help it. I was trapped underneath a sea of anxiety, drowning, with no way to get out. I was terrified and confused and—
“She knows.”
