The Reaper

Chapter 10: Gibbous

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BANG! B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BANG!

"AAAAAHHHH!"

The screams and the gunshots echo loudly. I can hear them through my ears. Tightly, I shut my eyes, covering my ear with one hand and the other with a pillow, and still hearing the noises as loud as they are. Screams of agony and terror, gunshot here, gunshot there, my breath becomes shorter and shorter.

Get out of bed. Pace around. That always helps.

Back and forth, back and forth, I pace across the room. At each pace, the room feels smaller to the point there is no space left for me to move. I sit on the floor, overwhelmed with many emotions, making my head feel heavy. I open my busted locket in desperate hopes of finding calm, but the blood stain...I can see Lauren standing there looking straight at me, all lifeless, with bullet holes throughout her body. Her blood starts leaking profusely out of each hole to the point the blood covers her entirely. Reminding me of the failures of keeping my promise, tears are running down my face, leaving my cries uncontrolled. I haven't cried this hard since my return to that beach.

"Daryl?" The fat woman, Nurse Esther, enters the room.

She tries to support me, but I jerk my shoulders off her hand. "Leave me alone!" I cry.

Esther pleads, "Daryl, please, let me help you –"

"NO! GO AWAY!"

...

"Oppa...? Oppa? Oppa?!"

BANG!

"AAAH! HA! Ogh...!" The grueling pain is searing through my chest like my heart is about to explode with each beat it makes, but in only a few seconds, it immediately goes away as if the pain was never there. After a few more breaths in, I suddenly remember the dream I just had. Lauren's voice echoed through my ears repeatedly as if she was trying to grab my attention, and then the gunshot. Once again, I pace around, trying to think of good memories. I am trying to think of Lauren and Pam and all the fun we had. I close my eyes to see us playing in the snow and having hot chocolate together; at the zoo and amusement park. But suddenly, I see flashes of dead bodies, gunshots, and those gunmen. I see their faces as if they are right before me. I opened my eyes, and, for a split second, the tall man stood a few feet away from me! He shoots his gun!

BANG!

"AAAH!" I scream in terror, forcing myself to jump back. I crashed and knocked down a few table items to the floor. I growl and groan in anger, frustrated and confused, asking myself why I keep remembering that day. "AAAAAAAGH!" I roar loud and hard like an animal, opening my eyes so widely I see a scalpel on the floor. I grab it and look very intently at the sharpness of the blade. I sit up, visualizing the floor as the faces of those pieces of shit. I switch the scalpel into the reverse grip. The short Hispanic man with a flat top – I stab. The black man – I stab. The fat blonde woman with a manly voice – I stab.

...The tall man...I stab! Stab! Stab! And I stab once more!

Each stab I make is more brutal than the one before. Images of their faces flash before my eyes, making me stab their faces again and again until I see them ugly and mangled –!

Knock, knock, knock!

I tossed the scalpel away the moment the door knock scared me. I remained seated, trying to pretend nothing had happened. Justin opens the door with the girl from earlier holding a food tray. "Daryl!" She hastily places the tray on a table and runs to me. "Are you okay?! What happened here?!" As always, I completely ignore her as I get myself up and return to bed.