Tainted Sleep

Chapter 1

Running. I'm always running. I never know why, just am.

Always a different place though. An abandoned factory, the city docks at night, a dense forest, an empty school.

Then I start to notice the shadows. Looming above me, threatening to devour the light.

The claws of darkness reaching for me, talking to me in soft, alluring whispers.

"Come on darling, join us."

"We'll keep you safe, you know that."

"When haven't we saved you?"

They're right, the voices. They've always kept me safe and away from harm but nowadays the voices seem to be changing and altering their intentions. They seem to want to break me. Piece by piece, driving me to the brink of madness and further.

"Oh honey, our intentions have always been the same..."

"You were just too naive to notice before."

Why? Why now? Why me?

"Asking questions gets you nowhere, baby girl, you know that."

"Just trust us."

"When have we ever led you somewhere you didn't like?"

There was that one time...

"Don't try to deny it, you love where we take you."

"That empty, desolate land of self hatred."

"The colourful world of madness."

"The black pit of sadness."

"Admit it, you loved them all."

The bad thing is, I did. I loved those places. The comfort, the warmth, the trickles of red. I loved it all.

"Then that stupid bitch counsellor showed up and took you away from us and gave you meds to keep us away from you."

"It's clearly not working though, is it?"

"You were doomed from the start baby doll."

I hadn't taken any meds in a few days, I either kept forgetting or I genuinely felt happy enough not to need them. Clearly, as always, I was wrong. The voices squeeze through the smallest cracks in my mind and then whisper to me, bringing me back to the comfort of their sound.

"Do you love us?"

"We can tell, you know."

"Your eyes say it all."

When they talk to me I no longer feel so alone.