Prologue
My heart raced ahead of me and i felt as if i would give out at any second my breath got quicker and shallower with every second until my lungs were screaming in protest. Everything about the man advancing before me screamed "RUN!" The permanent smile of victory was glued to his face, it clung to his features, twisting them into an expression that churned my insides. Somehow, he seemed repulsive, as if he meant to repel me, and yet there I stood... glued to the spot... Frozen as I looked into the cold black eyes of my killer... My Hunter
Chapter 1
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
I counted the seconds in my head knowing they were my only reassurance and only comfort that I was not yet dead. But why? I wanted to be dead, I had wanted this nightmare to end, hadn't I? Wait... What nightmare, I'm confused. My head was a jumble and I found I couldn't tell the difference between reality and dream anymore. I felt a presence somewhere near me, but I made no attempt to contact them, I was happy here, led on a soft bed of feathers, counting seconds... 3,895 seconds later, I became aware of distance hum, like speech but it was blurred somehow. I began to remember things... Bad things, I began to remember and my head burned with the truth. I saw that day when they told me the truth about myself. I can't stand it, why oh why???
Chapter 2
"Rowan... Do you know why you're here?"
"No" I replied,my voice was hoarse and my throat dry.
"Rowan you are here because you cannot tell the difference between dream and reality... Rowan do you understand me?" Mr. Cark barked in my face, he had given up the 'nice' and 'friendly' role a long while ago, but he saw no change in my belief of what I had seen.
There was along silence before I spoke, " I know very well why you seek to change my mind sir, but the thing is sir... I don't care sir."
"He is not real Rowan, he is a figment of your imagination! How many times must I say it?"
I continued to stare blankly at the wall, this is always where our conversation goes, everyday he tries to tell me the hunter isn't real, but I know he is, I just know it.
" Ever since you woke up in this hospital, I have told you that there is no hunter, that you are safe, that you no longer need to be compelled to take your own life!" His voice became louder with each word, "ROWAN, YOU NEED TO WAKE UP... THESE ARE DREAMS!" his breathing slowed as he gathered up what was left of his self restraint and he plastered an uneasy smile onto his face.
"You are safe with us Rowan", I shivered, I didn't feel safe, I felt trapped, trapped in a world of white walls, iron bars, hospital gowns, measly plain food, solitude with my only company Mr. Cark and my vivid nightmares that tormented me, I carried their weight around on my shoulders at all times. But I had given up a long time ago. I was nothing, a no one, I had no identity, I was Rowan but that was all, my life wasn't worth living any more. My vision blurred and the room seemed to move as if I was dizzy, The Hunter crept into the fire front of my mind and my head swam in terror and hopelessness.
" Go then, we shall talk again tomorrow Rowan," his voice resigned and the ghost of disappointment returned to his face.
Chapter 3
"Rowan" snarled the Hunter, I could feel his glassy stare burning into my back, but I didn't look back, I couldn't bring myself to look at him again. I couldn't bare the thought if his cold face, the sharp cheek bones, the thin lips and the piercing black eyes. Oh those eyes! They were what kept me awake at night and made me dread my sleep and the nightmares that came with it. Those eyes...
"Rowan?" He whimpered, as if he felt rejected by the fact I refused to talk to him. He always did that, played games with me, made me feel like a nothing, which was true really. The problem with having someone in your head was that he knew my every thought, my every fear. A sickly feeling of terror spread over me as his face turned into the cruel smile he always made when he was about to do something terrible.
"Arrrgghhhhhhh!" I screamed, I scrambled out of bed and stood in the centre of the room, beads of sweat forming on my forehead even though I was shivering.
"Rowan?" Pleaded the hunter again, this time it felt as though the hunter was really there. I felt cold breath on my shoulder as I someone was standing behind me. I felt a claw like hand clutch my wrist, it squeezed my wrist tight... Too tight, I was in agony, screaming on the inside, but in the outside all I could hear was my hammering heart and the cold breath. The pressure on my wrist got tighter and tighter... I began to turn... The pressure got tighter... I was still turning...
There was no-one there, the pressure on my wrist was gone, but someone had been there, hadn't they? But nobody could come in or out of this room, it was locked. My ears still ring with the hunter's words but I distinctly remembered the cruel smile he gave me, something was about to happen, I could feel it.
I woke to pale golden sunlight streaming through the heavy iron bars of my window, casting patterns of light across my concrete floor. I sprawled myself on the floor and tried to soak in every second of sunlight I could get, every chirp of bird I heard and every gust of summer breeze, at least, I thought it was summer...
When eventually the icy droplets rain came, I reached beneath my mattress for my hidden chalk and began to idly sketch patterns across the floor. How long I sat there, I do not know, as I no longer measured the passing of time, the sun meant awake the moon meant asleep, that's all there was.
Long after the dark had come, I stood back to admire my sketch but froze as I saw that the face looking up at me was the cold sneer of the hunter. All of a sudden, a wave of cold fear washed over me, followed by hatred, I collapsed to the floor and began beating the floor violently with my fists, elbows, knees and feet. Purple bruises began to form but I didn't care, anything to get the hunters face out of my head and off my floor.
"Quick, come quickly!" Someone shouted from the corridor outside my room, "patient 981 is shouting again!"
"Arrrrggggghhhhhh!!!" I screamed, " Go away, go away, please go..."
My voice trailed off into a whisper as salty tears trickles down my face. My chest ached as it rose and fell with my intense sobs. Next came the sound of my heavy metal door, groaning as it was heaved open, the last thing I remembered was the cold, sharp bite of metal on my arm and the draining feeling as the drugs surged through my body and I fell into a deep, uneasy sleep.
Chapter 4
I lay on the bed in a state of paralysis, I guess they put more than sedative in that injection...
I couldn't move any part of my body, but it was steadily wearing off and I could finally open my eyes. I was surrounded by white padded walls that were soft and squashy, the only things in the room was a hard, plain bed much like my old one, there was also a small toilet on the corner and a glaring electric light that buzzed overhead providing light because there was no window. I instantly remembered this room from the end of the corridor, it was the one where they only put hopeless cases. The people that had lost all sanity, had lost all hope and the people that were force fed drugs until their mental health was worse than before. The people that wailed and screamed every night, the people that eventually disappeared.
I suddenly became aware of something small, scratched into the fabric on the wall. When I looked really closely I realised it said 'KILL' it was written over and over in faint pink, smudged writing, I suddenly realised that it had been written in blood and they had obviously tried to scrub it off. The words sent a stab of fear down my spine and I was shivering... Was I really that hopeless?
