The Coma Patient

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

My breath hitched as Christian went to pull me through. I planted my feet right before the threshold.

“Chastity, are you alright?” Christian asked, turning back to me.

“I—I can’t go in there, Christian,” I whispered.

I knew that inside that room held my deepest nightmare. Something I’d dreamed up when I was little. It was also something that kept returning to my memory, something that I still feared.

“Chastity, you’ll never get back if you don’t come through. You can do this, Chastity, I know it.” Christian’s eyes were wide and confident.

I swallowed. “You don’t understand—“

“You’re scared, I know that. But you have to deal with it, Chastity; if you don’t then you will be stuck here alone forever.” There was urgency in Christian’s voice that I couldn’t ignore.

“Alone? I thought—“

“I’m only here to help you get through this. If you don’t want to continue—or if you don’t try to continue then I will vanish,” he explained.

“I don’t want you to leave,” I whimpered.

“Then I need you to come through here and deal with this,” he said. His voice was strained as he squeezed my hand lightly. “You can do this, Chastity. I’m here to do this with you. You won’t be alone.”

I nodded. “You’ll stay with me?”

“I’ll even hold your hand through it,” he promised.

I nodded again and allowed him to tug me through. The door slammed shut by itself, making me jump closer to Christian with a squeak.

A loud crash sounded and the floor vibrated along with it. Christian moved my hand to his other hand and wrapped his right arm around my shoulders. “It’s okay, Chastity.”

A single light came on in the middle of the room. The room was filled with a child’s toys; old, broken toys. They were everywhere; on the floor, hanging on the ceiling, nailed into the walls…everywhere. In the middle of the room sat a man. His eyes were large and a very bright green, his hair was pitch black and looked like it was painted on his shiny plastic like head. His chin had two lines, one from each corner of his mouth drawn down. His lips were a light pink and shiny. His appearance wasn’t startling—well it wouldn’t have been if I didn’t know how this nightmare went when I was younger.

After a moment he smiled at me, similarly but differently from the original nightmare. “Hello, Chastity,” he said. His words were broken up and slow. “W-would you like to play a game with me?” he asked tipping his head to the side.

“N-no,” I shook my head. “I want to leave.”

“But you must play with me to get to the door,” he said.

I shook my head. “Get out of the way.” What was meant to sound strong and steady came out shaky and weak.

His head turned back up and his eyebrows pushed together. His eyes darkened angrily. “That is no way to speak to me, Chastity. That is not the way to speak to your friend.” His eyes moved to Christian. “Who is this? Is this your new friend? Do you treat him as you do me?”

Christian looked at him strongly and confidently. “She likes me a hell of a lot more than she likes you, that’s for sure.”

The thing’s eyes narrowed and they began to turn a red color. “She is mine.”

“I don’t think so,” Christian shook his head.

In return he only looked up at the ceiling. “Trap him.” Without a passing beat Christian was yanked back by clear strings, hauling him up into the air.

“No!” I shrieked. “You promised!” I yelled as he went higher.

“Chastity, look out!” Christian warned.

In that second something was around my stomach hauling me up. Only this brought me to the ventriloquist man rather than to Christian. “No! Let me go! Please!” There was no way to hide the pure terror in my voice.

“Chastity, you should know better than to be rude to me,” he said darkly. “You are now mine.” With that I was flung into a shelf of dolls that sat on the left wall. I cried out as I hit the ground and the shelf toppled over on me.

“Chastity!” Christian yelled.

The shelf was too heavy for me to push off. It wouldn’t come off. I was stuck. Breathing was something I was finding quite difficult with the shelf on me. One of the individual shelves was digging into my stomach and beginning to really hurt. I let out another small cry and pushed harder at the shelf.

“She will die under there,” I heard the ventriloquist man say to Christian. He let out an odd sound—I think it was supposed to be a laugh. “You wanted to save her…so strongly…so passionately. It is quite amusing, Christian. How long have you been watching Chastity from your perch—“

“Shut up, you idiot!” Christian yelled. “Let her go, Sebastian! Let her go!”

“Go and retrieve her yourself, Christian. You are free to do as you please,” was the fading reply.

“Chastity?” Christian asked loudly.

“I’m here!” I called, tears rolling off my face. A moment later the shelf was being lifted and I could fully breathe again. Christian hauled me up and hugged me closely. “You told me you wouldn’t leave me.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Christian whispered.

“H-how did you know him?” I asked, looking up into Christian’s eyes.

Christian gave me a small smile. “I’m sure you’ll find out later. But for now we need to keep going.”

I nodded. “Okay.”