Sundew

Chapter 5

Suddenly, it all seemed to make sense, why this place felt awful and dangerous. All it took was for the lights to go out. This was the kind of place that, if you visited while busy, you'd feel somewhat less uncomfortable, because there'd be people around you, you didn't have to worry about feeling lonely the way Sunny had felt in Catholic School: a loneliness that, under less populated circumstances than this hospital, was corrosive to your mental health, the kind that would drive you to the point of drawing a face on a volleyball and naming it "Wilson." (But, I've never actually seen that movie.) It was the kind of feeling that crept up your spine when you walked down the dark, silent hallway in your home when it was 1 in the morning and you had to take a piss. That eerie sense of silence (Actually, I can faintly hear people just a few rooms down from me, though they're quite far away), that lack of human presence where it should've been

What surprised Sunny was just how fucking dark room had become all of a sudden. Sure, the sun may have been blotted out by the smeary rain clouds, like a child carelessly rubbing grey paint on a canvas, but normally light still shone through. Then Sunny looked at the clock. Somehow, it had become seven pm faster than you could say, "Slap my ass, pull my hair and call me debbie!" How had time passed him so quickly? (Better yet, why does this all seem so strangely familiar?) It was dark out, now.

"This isn't your average every-day darkness," thought Sunny, hearing Spongebob's voice in his head, "this is... advanced darkness."

Sunny laughed at this thought, but the nervousness in his voice was apparent, even to him

Faster than the speed of sound, a ribbon of lightning danced through the sky, accompanied thereafter by its titular cracking noise like the bang of a gun after a muzzle flash. Wait. Was that-

KRAKOOM

The lightning's voice seemed to add a sort of percussion to Sunny's anxieties. He didn't think anything of it, as it had only been within a split second that he saw (Or thought I saw) something in the corner. Sunny kept his eyes trained on the corner of his hospital room. Another ribbon of light. The corner was illuminated, but nothing seemed to be there.

KRAKOOM

Wait, what the fuck was that? It only seemed to appear as the light from the thunder was disappearing, but... No... No, there was no way. Sunny wasn't scared. No, he wasn't scared, he wasn't. This was just his overactive mind playing tricks on him, Another flash. It wasn't really a full shape, more as it was one that was poking out from the bottom of its little frame of darkness, rising out of the little pool of shadows cast by the wall beneath the window the way a graceful swimmer might poke their head out of the water. Another flash, and... yup. Oh, god. Sunny could make out what looked like a head. No more details other than that. No... that wasn't true... He could make out one other thing. Its head was climbing, rising out from the shadowed floor where nothing could be seen when the lightning didn't flash. My god, it was pushing itself out of the darkness from whence it came. The terribly familiar sucking noise was back again,

KRAKOOM

The percussion to his thoughts again, the soundtrack to his own current inner monologue. Another bolt. This time, Sunny could make out what appeared to be shoulders, crawling with something he could not fully discern in the light. Sunny pulled his covers up to his face, the way he had when his mom would torment him with suggestions of boogeymen in the closet.

No, please god, no, Sunny thought, pleading. Forget having to deal with Mencho's enforcers, as Sunny himself had whenever they thought him to be refusing a smuggling operation. Those fuckers may have been sadistic, but they were still human—flesh and bones. This, however? This thing staring him down and ravening for Sunny's flesh? Now this was terrifying! Another illuminating bolt shined through the dark room. The thing was much taller now, perhaps standing at full mast. Sunny tried to back away as far as he could. Again, he was a child back in his room.

KRAKOOM

Sunny wasn't prepared to go. This was it. What could he have done better in this life? Well, maybe it would've started by not being such a fairy, as that was something for which dad had understandably beaten him—it went against nature, as the good book stated. Better yet, he shouldn't have gotten involved with people like those in Jalisco. He could've been many things, possibly a writer.

A red light emanated from within the thing's face. Sunny stared into said-light, feeling he had seen it before—that he should know where he'd seen that light before. Some vague memory came to mind, one involving black, humanoid silhouettes. But, the longer he stared... the... harder... he... found it... to... stay a... aw... wake...