by Ian Black

Created on: March 05, 2009

A claustrophobic room. Darkness all around, creaping in on all sides, like the birth of a coalesced form. A sound, faint, but distinct; the dripping of water somewhere in the room. Even though I cannot see properly, I can feel the cajoling mockery of Darknesse's laughter eating away at my mind.

My eyes were stinging with droplets of sweat falling from my forehead. Something strong - metallic - had been fastened securely about my wrists, which bit painfully into my flesh. My wrists were sore, screaming out in agonized protestation. The rusty metal had cut and bruised my flesh; dark and purple and pink swollen flesh threatening to burst at any minute.

Throat dry. Can't see anything, due to the thickness of sweat stinging my eyes. I am terrified; the darkness is so thick, I can't even see my own legs, lying uselessly on the ground, numbed and broken. How long have I been here? I don't know. The walls are so thick, I can't even here the sound of cars zooming by. All that I can here, is the continuous sound of the drip, drip, dripping of the water.

From somewhere unknown, I hear the thrumming of power being turned on; the reverberations sending chills down my spine. My mind begins to play dirty, cruel tricks in my head. As my eyes retain their consciousness, I cannot help but keep a horrified gasp from penetrating the quiet edginess to this dark pit of Hell, escaping my dry mouth.

On the ground, all around me, I see monstrous devastations. The smell is overwhelming! So many twisted, crushed, and broken bodies lie in haphazard conditions; each of their faces contorted into masks of suffering, pain, and death. There are bits of severed limbs in some places; the stomachs of bodies ripped open; gouges of flesh that have been viciously ripped to pieces...And next to me, to my left, is a little crumpled, smashed up body of poor little bird; its wings snapped in several places, its round, marble-sized eyes gazing into nothingness. Whether it had met the same unsavory end as the rest of these poor, tormented souls, I couldn't tell.

I feel my body convulsing vigorously, as though my mind is waiting for the one last, horrific nightmare image to glide into my thoughts, the rich, deep churning of vomit waiting patiently to be set free from my stomach.

My breathing is hoarse, raspy. I feel sick - terribly sick. My throat tightens, stomach grumbling. The smell is horrendous! I feel like I have falling into someone else's nightmare. But even if it were a nightmare, it just felt too real and looked too real to be a mere illusion. No, I suddenly realized with abject horror. This was real.

And, as my head turned slowly, painfully to one side...I saw something move. It was quick, but definitely something. I was trapped. There someone - something - alive in here! Dread creapt in on me. I didn't want to die, but from my current predicament, I couldn't see any possible way of getting out of this hellish scenario.

My eyes drifted slowly in and out of consciousness again. My head limp, I froze. Something had just breathed on me. It was so faint, I may have been imagining it. But, no. There it was again; the definite sound of ragged, labored breathing. As my eyes slowly came back into focus, I wanted to scream, but my throat was dry as an oven.

Crouched in front of me, its black, soulless eyes gazed in to my own. Its skin looked terribly dry, dark green, like vomit; bits of flesh had been ripped away; its matted, black hair layered with dried up blood. And as recognition burned furiously in the pit of my mind, I suddenly realized that I was now sitting, gazing into the demonic, sinister gazed of a blood-thirsty, ravenous zombie...

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