Sleep Is Death

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

My legs and knees were black with dirt that resembled soot. Anna and I were locked in a four-by-four room cluttered with boxes, shelves, a broken piano, pieces of board, and old newspapers stacked on top of a deep freezer.

She rested against the deep freezer, one of her legs wrapped in her torn gown and her arm in mine.

I had my arms around myself for warmth and modesty. I was shivering in only my underwear, but because Isaac broke her arm, I knew she needed something to keep it in place.

"Can you sit the hell down, please," she asked in a low voice and I stopped pacing. I turned to her like a deer in headlights, standing in the middle of the tiny room.

"I can't sit any longer or I'll lose my mind," I said and she let out a mix between a scoff and a chuckle.

"Wouldn't be much else to lose." She sounded out of breath. I lifted an eyebrow and she said, "Walkin' back and forth is only makin' the room hotter, makes you take all the air, and it makes time slow down." I relaxed my face. "You wanna get out of here? Sit the hell down."

I sat against the staircase across from her.

Earlier, he threw me against the piano—deep into the basement, then he sprinted up the stairs like he was afraid I'd try to escape.

Not long after, I heard Anna screaming and them grunting. She burst his lip and clawed his face before he dragged her down there with me, and when he tossed her against the deep freezer, she jumped up and kneed him in the crotch.

While he was doubled over, she ran to the staircase, but I didn't move. She made it halfway before he yanked her down by her hair.

She kicked and bit him on the way down, so he slammed her onto her stomach and dropped his boot onto her ankle. She let out a blood-curdling scream, releasing all the air she had.

She took a breath, then he did the same to her wrist. I heard the bones crack through his grunts and her screams. She was looking at me with tears trickling across her nose and onto the slab.

Panting like a dog, he knelt over her. He placed one hand on his knee and gripped her hair in the other.

"If it weren't for Lou, I would've killed you for that." He let her go and stood up, following her gaze to me. He told her, "Be like Haley," and then he left.

I watched her doze off, then I went back to pacing. I couldn't help it. I knew if I sat down for too long, I'd fall asleep too.

Lou and Isaac were too insane for me to trust them enough to let my guard down. I knew I couldn't make her stay awake—plus she was hurt, so I left her alone—but someone had to keep watch.

I lost all concept of time. There was only a small window way above the deep freezer but it was translucent and I couldn't tell sunlight from the ceiling light.

I sat beside Anna and placed her head on my shoulder. I thought about her face after he hurt her. She just stared at me like I'd let her down, and I'm sure compared to the other girls, I did.

Everything happened so fast, I didn't know what to do.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes with the ball of her left hand, then looked ahead. At first, I didn't speak, and neither did she.

Then I asked, "Are you feeling okay?" She swung her head toward me, still leaning against the deep freezer. "Sorry, that was a stupid question."

"No. No, it's fine." She lifted her left hand for a second like she was signaling her foot. "I'm doing fine; I'm feelin' peachy."

I ignored her sarcasm and asked, "Where are you from? You don't sound like you're from around here."

"I could say the same for you, Haley," she teased. "You sound like you're from up north." I dropped my gaze to my lap, and then she said, "I'm from Florida. A lot of the girls 'round here are from Louisiana, Texas, South and North Carolina. One girl's from Virginia, and another is from California."

"Why're you all all the way down here." She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head.

"You're new," she said but it sounded more like a question. I nodded just in case. "Now it makes sense."

I looked from left to right, then at her, and asked, "What?"

"Most girls would've stabbed Lou and ran off." She shrugged. "We all thought that's what you were planning when you grabbed the knife."

"I don't even remember doing that," I said, and she nodded.

"I guess it makes sense, then. Rosalyn helped you to your room. She said she saw you grab it, so she helped you upstairs thinking you were planning something."

"Why would you all be okay with me plotting on the same woman who locked that girl down here for something she didn't do?"

"Because some of us have been here for years and we're just waiting for a fucking miracle!" I blinked back, then knitted my brows. Anna took a deep breath, licked her lips, then said, "Listen, I'm sorry for yelling." I turned my attention to the staircase. "You just don't understand what it's like. I missed my sister's funeral because Lou wouldn't let me out. She told my parents I tried to hurt myself from grief; I would never."

I was silent for a few beats, so she followed my eyes, and then I asked, "How'd she pass?"

Anna looked at me like I was weird for wondering, but for some reason, it reminded me of Kristin.

"Cancer. She would've been twelve in a few months." I heard that static sound in my ears again. I saw flashes of Kristin's face, her smiling and her riding her bike beside mine. There was a group of us, but it was like we all were connected to her like branches.

"I killed someone." She slowly turned her head to me. "It wasn't my fault, though."

I told her about what happened the night Kristin died. I talked about our dreams for the future, the boys we liked, and how everything ended because of hide and seek.

I talked about Claire and how kind she was even though she was going through a rough divorce. I brought up my parents and how they weren't nurturing, just militant with high expectations.

I even told her about the time they missed my birthday, so Claire and her husband invited me to the beach to celebrate.

"They sounded like better parents than the ones you had." I nodded. Tears rolled down my face quicker than I could wipe them away. "Why'd they get divorced?

"I don't know." I sniffed and shrugged. She didn't say anything else, but she took my hand and gently squeezed it.

"This place sucks," I mumbled, watching the light bulb flicker.

Eventually, I went to sleep on her shoulder.

"Helen," a voice croaked. It sounded like someone taking their last breath, but when I jumped upright, I didn't see anything or anyone out of the norm.

As I shut my eyes, I saw a shadow near the staircase. I looked in front and beside us but didn't see anything.

I felt hot air hit my neck and I stopped moving. I didn't blink and I barely breathed. My jaw was clenched and my teeth were gnashed.

Slowly, I looked over my shoulder. A shadow was cast across Anna in the shape of a man, and I took a shaky breath.

My eyes widened when I saw a pair of white ones staring back at me.

I let out a scream from the bottom of my stomach and I crawled away from it, scraping my knees on the abrasive floor.

Anna flinched awake, then winced when her bandaged foot hit the other. She looked around as I backed against the staircase, breathing heavily between screams.

The thing was shrouded in darkness. It was so black that it looked like the color of nothing. Its blindingly white eyes squinted at me and its razor-sharp teeth smiled at me. They looked identical to that of a piranha.

"Helen, what's wrong?" Before I could answer, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I whipped around at the hips and my vision started to darken around my periphery.

Another one was squatting behind me like the one on top of the deep freezer. I screamed despite my body wanting to crash and my eyes demanding to shut.

More appeared from all four corners and walls. Some clung to the ceiling and some walked down the stairs smiling on all fours.