Sinner

Part 3 Surfing the past

Adrenaline rushes through me as I pant heavily after rounding a corner. I remember I am frantically running away from an unknown entity. The place I am in is engulfed in total darkness and I sense something evil lurking just beyond. But for the life of me I cannot recall what it is that I'm running from. A depraved psycho serial killer? A rabid animal? A demon? All I know right now is I'm scared, thoroughly and hopelessly frightened, shivering, huddling and cowering in a corner, hoping the evil will not manage to find me. Cold sweat beads on my brows and trickles down the sides of my temples. I stifle my heavy breathing, trying to suppress my presence and hide my location from my pursuer.

It is quiet all around, deathly silent and still. The air does not stir. There is not even breeze or wind blowing through this space.

The creaking sound of wooden boards rings eerily in the dark. A shuffling rustling sound can be heard in the distance. And finally, tak....tak...tak...an ominous clicking sound of claws clack against the ground. My heart beats faster and I swallow the gasp of fear which threatens to erupt from my lips. The steps slowly get closer. Panicking, I breathe as quietly and shallowly as I can. Curling myself into a ball, I make myself as small as possible.

tak....tak...tak...the creature scrabble past me. It is only when I hear its footsteps retreating into the distant then I let out the breath that I didn't realise I had been holding. A whoosh of relief flows through me, stilling my fears temporarily. I narrowly escape the creature's claws. I harbour a niggling sensation that I had been scratched by the creature's sharp claws before. But when I try to dredge up the memory, it blurs, fades and floats away like a wisp of cloud.

A loud bang breaks the silence. Lights suddenly flood the place, momentarily blinding me. Out of fright, I scurry into a corner and try to hide. Scary seconds ticked by and realizing the creature is not reappearing to kill me; I slowly open my eyes which were scrunched tightly closed in fear.

A mirror magically appears before me. In its reflection, I see myself. My brown hair has long since escaped the confines of the rubber band holding it in place. It resembles an unruly rat's nest. Dried streaks of tears lined my deathly pale cheeks. There are scratches and bits of dried blood on my face. Thin and wan, I look like a raving madwoman.

Cracks appear from the edges of the mirror and extend throughout the mirror. Frightened at what's happening, I hesitantly take a step back away from it. The glass in the mirror splinters and explodes out into a million pieces. Raising my arms in front of me to block the impact of the glass shards flying through the air, I give a small cry as I hunch over, trying to protect myself. When nothing hit me, I lower my arms and look on in wonder. The glass shards hang suspended in air around me, not even scratching me. Looking closer at the floating glimmering bits of glass, I see different scenes reflected on each piece.

In one, I see a dark figure of a person stepping through door, tracking bloody foot prints across the floor. The boys huddling under the bed begins to cry. They hide, covering themselves with the sheets. The sinister figure hauls and flips the bed up as if it weighs nothing and then proceeds to pull out the shivering terrified boys. Then with a swipe of his arm, his claws slice through their flesh like a knife cutting butter. Guts spill out of the boys' abdomens and though the glass doesn't transmit sounds, in my mind's eye, I can audibly hear them bawling in pain and scream in terror. I can taste their palpable fear, as the dark figure goes in for the kill. Unable to bear the gory sight, I avert my eyes when I see the figure go on its fours to eat the flesh of the children.

On another, I see a burning village, its flames shining a brilliant red against the dark night sky. The villagers are scrambling to flee their homes. The same dark figure, not man and not quite animal, shrouded in a black roiling mass of shadows, walks out of the raging fire and methodically picks off the villagers one by one. With cold precision, he cuts down each villager, not sparing the children. When all lay dead before him, he is drenched in blood and a torn off chubby arm hangs from his fingers. As if savouring a snack, he gnaws at the limb, tearing off raw flesh from its bones with his teeth. Sickened by the scene unfolding, I dry-heave the empty contents of my stomach.

Without warning, the lights dim and the world tilt on its axis. The room I'm currently in morphs. The landscape drastically changes to a lush forest littered with dismembered corpses. Glassy eyes stare out of the sockets at me. Large crows peck at the dead. I shudder visibly as I contemplate the carnage lying in waste around me. Out of a corner of my eye, I catch sight of a slight movement. Amongst a pile of dead bodies, a naked man pushes himself up from the ground. Blood covers his torso and legs. Dried red flecks spotted his face, obscuring his features. His fair blond hair is matted with blood. Belatedly, I realise he's naked too. I turn my back on him in embarrassment, but either he didn't notice my presence or I was too insignificant compared to the corpses.

Sensing no reaction from him, I slowly turn to look at him. His eyes widen in shock at the massacre and stumbles back. A soul-ripping howl tears from him. It sends cold shivers down my spine. He then runs towards me. I scramble to jump out of his way but am too slow. Unable to dodge, I brace myself for impact. But I seem to be a formless apparition, and he runs right through me, heading further into the forest.

The forest scene disappears and light suddenly blacks out. I find myself drifting in limbo in the dark, with no end in sight. A tunnel of light appears and I see a beautiful lady beckoning me over with her elegant hand. With nowhere else better to go, I heeded her direction and float closer, entering the tunnel. She smiles as I approach but doesn't say a word to me. She merely points in the direction I am supposed to go. I look at the direction she's pointing at and take a step towards it. Turning my head to thank her, I find that she has disappeared. Oh well, this is absurdly strange and surely is a dream. I head towards the end of the tunnel and partway, I fell...

Icome to in fits and spurts. Dreams which feel realistic swirl around in my mind.I dreamt but can't remember what happened in my dream. My head hurts likesomeone had taken a sledgehammer and smashed through it. My temples arepounding like a drum. My eyes refuse to cooperate and keep going out of focus. Thenmy lids close again and I drift off into blissful blackness. When next I openmy eyes, my lids are heavy and take much effort to pry open. Focussing on mysurroundings already saps most of my strength. But I will myself awake. Andforce my foggy rusty brain to start working.