“Danielle, so good to see you,” came Franklin’s voice to my left.
I glanced over. My surroundings were drained of color and everything presented itself in black, white, and various shades of gray. As my eyes adjusted to my surroundings, I understood where I was. My old room at the hospital. Franklin sat in a chair in the corner, next to the window. I lay in my bed. I attempted to sit up, but felt resistance. I looked down to see my arms and legs bound to the bed once more.
“Don’t bother, you’re stuck here,” he said, pulling the curtain away from the window and peeking outside. As he did, I watched colors light up his face, reflecting the beauty of the outside world.
The room was similar to what I remembered, yet different and dreamlike in nature. It was a twelve by twelve room with a bed, a window, white brick walls, and white linoleum tile. As I lifted my head to get a better look around, I noticed some differences. There was a beautiful wooden door, not one that would be found at the hospital. It had intricate designs woven into the wood. There was no handle, simply a key in the middle, sticking out. I squinted my eyes, hoping to make the color return to the room, and my attention fell to the end of the bed by my feet.
“Grah ahh arh arh!” came a ravenous cry from my feet, causing me to jump backward in my bed as much as possible. I moved my feet up and positioned myself on my elbows.
“What the fuck is that?” I shouted, glancing down at a black metal cage with a terrifying creature inside.
The creature was the most unusual thing. I tried to place it, but its figure shifted continuously from the form of some sort of ravenous dog, to some sort of lanky beast, to something almost demonic in appearance.
“Oh, that?” Franklin said, rising from his chair. He grabbed a blanket from the chair and proceeded across the room. He tossed the blanket over the cage. “That’s just that dark thing inside of you that you can’t control. The thing I helped you keep in its rightful place.”
As Franklin proceeded back to his seat, the noises under the blanket became more faint. I silently thanked him. He glanced out the window again. As he did, his face lit up once more.
“Danielle, you must see how beautiful it is outside,” he said.
“I would love to, but. . .” I said, lifting my hands in my restraints.
“Well, there’s the exit, you can simply leave,” he said, motioning for the door.
“What’s through that door?” I asked.
“You might call it salvation, peace, contentment. Others would call it death,” he said emotionlessly.
“I’m fine here,” I said.
“But they’re all waiting for you,” he replied.
“Who?”
“All of them, they’re down there right now. They’re down there happy, laughing, at peace. Your father, your brother, and your mother.”
I lifted my head off the bed, “My mother? My mother is dead.”
“No, Danielle, she’s not. She doesn’t exist in this life anymore, but surely you can’t believe she’s dead. She’s right there,” he said, pointing a finger towards the window. “Oh, no. Now they look worried. They’re looking for you. They need you there with them.”
“But I can’t move,” I said, struggling once more.
“But you chose to be here. You didn’t have to come. You admitted to a crime you didn’t have to, left your family. Even when you had the opportunity to go back, you didn’t. You abandoned them.”
“I had to,” I said with doubt.
“Who would’ve know what you did. Oh no—” Franklin said, halting his conversation and standing up to look out the window. “They’re coming for them.”
“Who? What do you mean?” I fought my restraints harder but felt them binding tighter.
I glanced down and saw the wraps that bound my arms and legs had transformed into pale white snakes with black eyes. They twisted their bodies and ensnared my limbs in vice grips. With their simple expressions, I could almost notice a look of satisfaction as I struggled.
“Danielle, you must go now! You must protect them, don’t make the same mistake as before. They need you to be there for them!”
I shook my head as I continued to struggle, “It wasn’t a mistake. I couldn’t take care of them.” The snakes tightened their grip, piercing the skin as blood poured onto the bed, “I was just a kid. I needed to get help; I needed to take care of myself.”
I heard the sound of water leaking and saw streams of water begin to run down the walls. I could hear the walls of the institution bow at the force. They shuddered and waved against the pressure like plastic.
I could hear the creaking of hard wooden beams. The sound rolled from one side of the room to the other. As my eyes followed the noise across the room, the walls burst like black balloons, creating waves of dark liquid that enveloped the room. I was ripped from the bed and swept away with the current.
I outstretched my limbs as I felt the dark waves knocking into me at all angles. I reached out and felt my body thrust downward, then I was head over heels in the undertow.
As the waves swelled and then fell with one final crash, I felt the dark liquid rescind. I lay still for a moment, expecting the water to rush in again. I pushed my face off the surface of the flood to find that clumps of mud drenched my arms. I glanced up to find a wall of round rocklike bricks facing me. I rolled over into a sitting position, and turned my head from left to right, then back again, finding myself encompassed in a wide cylinder of these bricks.
“Danielle!” came an echo of a shout. “How you doing down there?”
Above me, I
