Set Me Free

Chapter 4

Kelsie spent her 16th birthday strapped to her bed. She had an outburst and this was her punishment for not being quiet. The voices buzzed in her head.

"We take her tonight."

"No one can know about us."

"Manny wants her alive."

Kelsie tried humming to see if it would drown out the men in her mind. It didn't. They were really loud today, making her head ache.

She had been in here for six years already. Her parents and brother had long since forgotten all about her. Mr. Crisp had met with her earlier today and tried to get her to admit that the voices were just in her imagination, that she couldn't really hear people. She was ready to admit it but something held her back from saying it out loud.

Maybe if she just said it, then the staff would stop making her do things she didn't want to do. If she admitted it was all make-believe, her parents and brother would come and visit her again. Maybe even take her home with them.

She had started writing in notebooks a few months earlier and everyday she would write down that the voices weren't real, that she needed to just tell someone that she wasn't hearing things. But everyday something in her prevented her from opening her mouth and saying those words. The words that may set her free. The voices were always there, sometimes louder then others. She didn't understand the concept of what they were saying or why they were violent in nature at times. Maybe she was evil inside and the voices was just her inner dialogue.

The voices suddenly surged in her mind.

"This is the place, I just know it."

"Can you smell that? That spicy aroma?"

"Is that her?"

The voices were so loud, surely someone could hear them besides her.

Her mouth opened and words spilled out, combining into one long sentence.

"Thatscenthastobeher.I'veneversmelledanythingsodelicious.Dowehavetoleaveherfullofblood?Doyouthinkshecanhearuscoming?"

Tears started flowing from the corners of her eyes, sliding down into her hair and onto the pillow. She pulled at the restraints on her arms and only succeeded in hurting her wrist.

There was this feeling that wherever the voices were coming from, they were close to her location. Kelsie thrashed her head on the pillow. She just knew that evil was coming for her.

"Ismellherthestrongesthere."

Kelsie looked towards the door to her room. It suddenly swung open and a man stood there, only he wasn't a man. He looked normal, almost handsome, but there was something off about him. There was a strangeness to him, like a creature hanging from his back. Kelsie didn't know what to make of it.

"I found you!"

Kelsie heard the voice in her head and also in the room. She had watched the man's lips move to the words. They matched what she heard in her mind.

"You smell delicious!" Another man appeared behind the first. They had different looks, one was blonde with a slender build, the other had brown hair and was plumper, but they were the same. The same strangeness emanated from them both.

Kelsie knew in that moment that she wasn't crazy, she didn't deserve to be in here. The owners of the voices were standing in front of her, licking their lips.

Kelsie opened her mouth to scream but the brown haired man was fast, faster then a human should be. He was by the door one second and the next, he had a cold hand over her mouth. His skin felt dry, almost like paper. Kelsie's body felt like it had dozens of spiders crawling all over it.