Paranoiac (20 page)

With a loud bang I slammed into
something sturdy and unforgiving. Panic-stricken I gasped for air
trying to fill my lungs. My heart was throbbing in my temples and
my body was in shambles. I shifted painfully and slowly sat up. The
small narrow corridor was quiet but I could hear something vague in
the distance. “I killed her,” I muttered sadly, her screams still
fresh in my mind. I can’t believe I killed Molly. I killed Molly,
then I murdered everyone brutally, and I enjoyed every second of
it. Looking fixedly at the frayed journal lying on the steps, I
listened to the indefinable tones grow louder and louder. My
throbbing temples were blocking out the rhythm and structure of
it.

I had so much blood on my hands. All
of this misery and guilt wasn’t worth knowing the truth. This wild
goose chase was my design and chasing my curiosity ruined
everything I fought to forget. There was no one to blame but
myself. “Then you’re ready,” Droned a velvet voice from
behind.

I swung around, jumping to my feet and
started weeping heavily when I beheld the cellar door, towering in
its oak frame. For the first time I realized I wasn’t in my shabby
room like before. Though I wanted to run and get as far away from
this door as I could, I was incapable of doing so. I took a step
closer and put my hand out to the door. “Amy. Vince. Josie. James.
Hanna. Senter. Rosanna. Davis. Molly,” Listing, I bowed my head in
shame. I could hear what sounded like music getting louder. Getting
closer. “You’re all in here,” I sniveled, remembering everything.
Every brutal, awful moment was looping in my mind. I could still
smell their blood and feel their twisted broken bodies.

This was the end of my road. The only
rock left unturned. I’ve untangled all of my lies and the only
thing I could do was face my fears. Turning around, I picked up my
wicked memoir. Every awful truth and delusion was etched onto these
pages and it was the only testament to my terrible deeds. I held it
at my side and placed my hand onto the brass doorknob. Electricity
fired through my body. My hairs stood on end and goosebumps
shivered down my arms.

I twisted the cold metal knob and the
door cracked open. A faint smell of decay seeped through the door,
making me cringe. Cautiously I opened the door, pulling it wide. A
putrid wave of death and bleach filled the small corridor. The
inside of the deep cellar was pitch black. Quivering, I took a deep
breath and crossed into the black void. Behind me I could hear a
loud cacophony getting closer. They were undoubtedly a swarm of
screaming sirens.

The cellar door slammed behind me,
cutting me off from the outside world. I was practically floating
in this black, putrid abyss. The more I tried to ignore the smell,
the more pungent it got. The rancid smell was an awful blend of
rotting meat, sickly-sweet decaying fruit and bile. It was sharp
and bitter and I knew it was coming from what used to be my
friends.

I willed myself to stake a step
forward into the cold dark crypt. All around me I could hear a
faint, strange humming. It was coming from all around me and I
could feel it vibrating in the air. Reaching around the room, I
desperately felt around for a light switch only for them to
precipitously flicker on. Instinctively I took a step back. My
breathing was uneven and I wanted to crawl out of my own skin. The
spacious deep, dim, dungeon was freezing cold. My breath fogged in
the air as I took nervous steps into the rank, shadowy depths. The
further I walked into this vault-like crypt, the worse it
smelled.

My foot slipped underneath and I
looked down to see a long, dark red smear that led to the back of
the cellar. The buzzing, humming, sound was getting louder whilst I
wearily followed the bloody trail. I couldn’t help but wonder whose
blood marked the floor. My face crumpled sadly as everyone’s faces
flashed in my mind’s eye. I pulled up my head slowly, clearing my
mind and peered into the dim, dark cellar. Something shiny was
glaring in the corner of the room. The buzzing hum was growing
louder and the appalling smell of death was getting
stronger.

Rounding the corner, I
followed the bloody path then quickly stumbled back, dropping the
notebook onto the floor. I was startled by dozens of reflections of
myself and then I saw it. Heaped in the shallow corner of the brick
and concrete cellar floor were piles of trash, the missing oriental
rugs, and black garbage bags.
The mirrors
were also littered amongst the trash. All of them were
different sizes, piled and leaning against the walls.

Then the horror faded into view. There
were dark viscous smears on the floor, rugs and mirrors. Bloated
gnats and flies buzzed in swarms around the bags. I covered my
mouth in disgust trying not to gag at the maggots pouring from the
slimy garbage bags and grease-stained rugs. I wanted to run, to
hide, but it was far too late for that. My friends were inside
these bags, chopped and folded into bits. Worst of all was Molly,
her corpse was rolled into a rug stained with black grease. Her
hair was hanging out of the end, dripping with dark fluids. The
second I tried to look away I heard his voice, “Don’t be shy Isaac,
be proud!” My eyes darted up and I saw my pallid twin in all of the
mirrors, replacing my reflection. I tried to back away but I
couldn’t move. “This is the end, Isaac,” He said cheerfully. Every
mirror was off synch, moving and speaking independently from each
other.

Distressingly, the bags started moving
and shifting, knocking handfuls of maggots onto the floor. The
demon in the mirror chuckled his off-synch appalling laugh and the
putrid, rotten smell amplified. “Isaac…” Moaned several hoarse
voices as the bags continued to twist and writhe.

“
No, no!” I bumbled out
incoherently, terrified by the impossible repugnance in front of
me. A blackened, pale, bruised, and greasy hand reached out from of
the bags. Maggots spilled out with it as it contorted itself
free.

“
Isaac… Why?” Bemoaned
several creatures from the abhorrent trash pile. Another
disgusting, rotting arm plopped out of the bag and started reaching
for me. My whole body was quivering with fear. With my heart
pounding painfully in my chest, I still couldn’t budge an inch. My
haunting, spectral brother continued laughing maniacally. Every
mirror sounded off at disorienting intervals.

“
No, get away! Stop!” I
cried helplessly as all of the bags and rugs starting shifting and
falling. All of them were moaning from the gory piles of
disgust.

“
Oh, Izzy! It hurts!”
Cried Amy’s gargling voice as she wrenched herself from the bag.
Her bones ground and popped underneath her syphilitic, sagging,
nasty skin.

“
Why Isaac?” Vince wailed
alongside Amy. He crawled his way out of the rancid bag, half
covered in plastic sheeting. Water was dribbling from his mouth and
his bloated, puckered face was teeming with bloat flies and
maggots.

“
Looks like everyone’s
here for the party,” Mocked my monster, happily clapping his hands
as my other victims wriggled and squirmed their way out of the bags
I put them in. They were all re-attaching their limbs that I
heartlessly sawed off.

“
Isa-” Breathed Josie
airily, trying to crawl over to the broken wood and glass beneath
her. Her eyes were intently locked on mine and her blackened,
featureless face was trying to moan my name only to come out as a
gagging, airy gargle. Rosanna, Senter and Hanna all ripped their
way in my direction. All of them were heavily decomposed and
chanting my name, questioning why I killed them.

“
I’m sorry! I didn’t want
to! He made me!” I shouted desperately, jabbing my finger at the
largest mirror.

“
No Isaac! It was all
you!” Senter cried, crawling over to Hanna. He leered at me with
bitter anguish with his eye still dangling out of its socket,
shriveled and buzzing with bloated flies. The demon clone in the
mirrors chortled, still out of synch with all of his counterparts.
Senter’s hand sunk into Hanna’s already crushed skull and slimy
maggots spilled out.

“
You enjoyed it! We know
you did,” Hanna wheezed pulling Senter’s wet, bloody hand from her
hollow, misshapen head.

“
I loved you Izzy,” Amy
cried as she helped her brother crawl out of the muck. His face was
sunken in and unrecognizable.

“
Stop! It was… I had to!”
I howled, blubbering pathetically. My feet were still fused to the
ground and they were all crawling, inching towards me.

“
Isaac! You lying
monster!” A muffled voice mumbled from within one of the rugs.
Davis shifted and contorted his dislocated body out of the rug. He
plopped greasily on top of the garbage pile and scowled at me
furiously. “You betrayed everyone!” Davis lamented, popping his
joints nastily back into place. “But most of all you betrayed
Molly!” He limped over to the other rug and reached into it,
grabbing Molly’s head.

“
No! Please!” I bellowed
at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t bear to see her again. To see
her rotted and brutalized would be the death of me.

“
I thought you were going
to face your fears?” The mirrors echoed, synchronized in their
mocking for the first time. Davis continued to yank at Molly’s
corpse as the others started to get dangerously close to me. The
abhorrent shade in the mirror was laughing insanely as he watched
the culmination of my sins come to a close.

“
Oh, Izzy. How could you
do this to me?” Whimpered the one voice I was praying not to hear.
Davis hunched and fell to the ground disjointed as Molly pulled
herself out of the disgusting rug. Her once gorgeous face was
rotted, swollen and revolting. Amy and James were crawling at my
feet as Molly finally pulled herself free. “You raped me Izzy! You
choked the life out of me!”

I was frozen in place and my victims
were gaining on me fast. The imposter was cackling his velvet
chuckle, louder and louder as Molly limped and grasped towards me.
Her dress was ripped, stained and a dark fluid was dripping from
between her legs. The flies were humming and buzzing ferociously
around the living carcasses. “Izzy?” They all began to cry,
reaching out for me.

“
No! Get away!” I shouted
trying to push them away. Their arms were wet and cold against my
skin. My twin was snorting with amusement. “Stop laughing at me!” I
yelled as they pulled me down to the chilled, concrete floor of the
cellar, closing my eyes and covering my ears tightly. The vengeful
remnants clawed at me chanting my name and ripping at my limbs.
“No!” I yelped in excruciating pain. The mirrors continued to laugh
with a preternatural boom. It seeped passed my hands and burrowed
into my ears. I could feel the dead scratching and striking my
body.

Then, abruptly it all went quiet. The
buzzing, the laughing, the chanting. It was all silent and still. I
opened my eyes with caution only to see the rotten, rancid,
remnants encircled around me. They were all grinning ear-to-ear.
Black blood seeping from their orifices and maggots dropping from
their disgusting, oily clothing and saggy skin. They all looked
down at me for minutes, just breathing airily. Very slowly they all
parted on either side making room for Molly.

“
This is it, Izzy,” She
said gently, walking slowly over to me, her soiled dress hanging
off of her shoulders. “This is how it ends,” Molly choked, rasping
as she crouched eerily in front of me. Grabbing my both sides of my
head with her cold dead hands, she smiled sharply. Maggots were
digging into her gums, gnawing on its grey flesh.

“
Please don’t,” I begged,
echoing the same pleas for mercy that she fought for. My undead
audience chuckled and clapped at my words. My face was pulled
closer to hers and my monstrous, sallow double started to laugh
again. Molly smelled so terrible but I was too afraid to pull away.
She began to kiss me harshly, forcing her bloated, maggot eaten
tongue into my mouth. I started gagging uncontrollably as her cold,
slimy, sour tongue writhed in my mouth.

“
What’s wrong, isn’t this
what you always wanted?” She said pulling away from me. I
instantaneously dribbled vomit down my shirt and began to coughing.
“Don’t you think I’m beautiful Izzy?” Molly responded, feigning
sadness. I tried to retreat but my rotting onlookers stepped
forward and held me down. A scream came from my throat but it was
lost in my spectral demon’s velvet snickering. Molly sauntered
creepily over to me and removed her dress while crawling on top of
me. Her skin was cold, grey and bruised. Maggots were hanging and
spilling from her crotch as she crawled up my body. My foul victims
held me down even tighter and finally I gave in.

As her icy hand wrapped around my
neck, my body went limp. I peered up at what was once the love of
my life and said the last words I would ever speak, “I’m so
sorry.”