INSANE

【12】

I involuntarily started shaking my head back and forth. I felt myself starting to sweat, but at the same time I was shaking with goosebumps.

The sounds from outside the room were now drained out because of how focused I was on the breathing.

"N-No," I whispered to myself; quietly at first. I kept shaking my head back and forth. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to get up; to face it.

"No." I swallowed, my throat feeling crusty and dry, almost like I hadn't drank anything in days. Which was kind of true. Even though they had given me water, it wasn't at the times when I wanted it. Everybody here needs to operate to their schedule. And if you don't obey, you won't be respected.

I squinted through the darkness. Under the wooden table in front of me was a small wooden beam that must've fell from the table because it was loose. Without wasting a second, I sprung forward and grabbed the piece of wood.

The breathing behind me changed suddenly when I felt somebody trying to grab onto the back of my neck. Who is that? I asked myself. Though I knew it could be anybody, I had one guess.

Using all my strength, I squeezed my eyes shut and twisted out of the person's grip. I held on tightly to the piece of wood in my right hand as I took a couple of steps backwards before opening my eyes slowly.

Sure enough, standing right in front of me was the same man from before. The same man who was in the hallway with the straitjacket. The one who gave me a death stare. The one who was in my dreams. The one who was in my room before pushing me over and completely disappearing into thin air. The man that had made me sound crazy in front of Elizabeth and Harold.

My eyes widened as I caught view of something he was holding in his free hand. I wasn't sure exactly what it could be due to the darkness, but my heart skipped a beat when the object shined a metallic silver color as he slightly moved. Since the straitjacket straps were covering most of his face, I could only see his eyes. And even through the darkness, I could make out him staring at me with a look of instability and pure attrocious.

"Wh-Who are you?!" I screamed loud enough for anybody in the hallway to hear. I backed up slowly, lifting the piece of wood higher.

In response, the man stood still. However, his eyes were still transfixed on my face.

I dreaded to turn my back on him, but the door — my only escape was right behind me. I had a chance.

I watched him carefully as I closed the distance between the door and I; walking backwards. I put my left hand behind me and slowly searched for the knob. But as my hand landed on it and I tried to turn it, the knob seemed to be frozen in one place. It wouldn't move to the right or to the left.

As if he could see exactly what was going on, the man slowly started taking steps toward me at a menacingly slow pace.

My heart pounded at a hundred miles per hour as I turned myself around and punched the door several times. There wasn't a single sound in the hallway,however.

"HELP ME!" I screeched as loud as I could. My throat felt as if it were on fire. "PLEASE HELP ME!" I tried the doorknob again, but it wouldn't budge. It was jammed, and I was stuck inside a small, dark room with some kind of psycho. I had tried my best to evade the nurses before, but now all I wanted was somebody, anybody to hear me.

I turned away from the door and glanced back at the man.

At first, he was no where in sight. But that was until he suddenly lunged forward at me. Something scraped against my lower left arm, slicing it open. He has a knife, I told myself, starting to panic. This is the end. Is this the easy way of dying in this place? Is this easier than being tortured to death?

I whacked the man in the face with the piece of wood and threw myself backwards. I landed with a thump against a hard wall; the impact knocking the wind out of me.

As much as I felt pain start to overcome my whole body, I knew I had to fight it to survive. I glanced down at my left arm to see nothing but dark red.

I peeled my eyes away from my arm when a tall shadow came over me. I didn't have to glance up to know he was standing over me.

Instead, I took a shaky breath in as I slowly looked up.

My heart dropped into my stomach as the man attempted to swing his arm at my head. I ducked down and somersaulted on the hard floor past the wooden table. I attempted to search for another weapon to defend myself but there was nothing in sight. Of course not, this is an asylum. So where did he get the knife?

Feeling weak, I pushed myself to go on. Pulling myself up off the floor, I scanned the room. There was nothing but darkness. From before, I knew this man was strangely good at hiding. Just because he wasn't in sight, didn't mean he wasn't in the room.

And sure enough, I was right.

As if he walked right out of thin air, the man emerged from the darkest corner of the room. My back ached from my impact with the wall, but I tried my best to ignore the pain. My life depended on it.

I pushed myself again the wall, sliding away from him. But then he abruptly stopped in his tracks before making another sudden move. Weaponless, I tried to throw a punch at him. But as soon as my knuckles collided with his face, he absurdly froze in time and then grabbed my arm, hardly pushing me against the wall. My back hit the wall once again, sending pain all the way up my spine.

This time though, something shattered from behind me. I dropped my gaze down to the floor unable to fight back.

That was also when reality came right back at me.

It isn't just glass that broke behind you. It's glass from the window. I remembered that I noticed the window in this room didn't have bars like the patients had. All it had was a sheet of glass.

I suddenly felt cool air hitting against my bare neck. That was the first time I felt fresh air in a long time.

The man pushed me by the shoulders. I let out a scream but it came out as a muffled choke. More glass broke from behind me.

I begged for the nurses, the doctors, or even another patient to burst into the room. I begged to be caught. I begged to be back in my room awaiting whatever would come next. I didn't know which was worse, this or that. I'd die either way.

I lifted my arms and tried my hardest to push the man away from me, but he was too strong.

I was flailing my arms in all different directions, trying to get the man to step away from me. But that was when my left arm caught on a sharp piece of glass that had been broken by my impact with the window.

I silently screamed as the glass sharply cut into my arm; almost in the same place the man cut me.

I didn't have enough time to truly feel the pain because all my pain was washed away with a wave of fear as the man took hold of my neck with his arm. His grip got tighter and tighter on my throat until suddenly, I was almost completely hanging outside of the window. And then, his grip was getting looser and looser.

There was nothing below me like there had been before; there was only pure air and darkness. It was still night outside and I was falling. Falling who knew how many stories down. Falling to the last area I would see.