Distorted (an Alex Kralie story)

Part 27

"I see you're gettin' along with Charleen..." A staff member said, crossing their arms. I just silently nodded and turned to look at the clock. It was 3:00 pm.

Charleen looked over at me, "The clock here's about an hour behind, or maybe two hours. I can't really remember."
"Oh, that's alright. Time doesn't really matter in a hellhole like this, I could assume."
"I can agree with you for the most part. All you have to remember is that when the clock hits 2:15-ish... We get to go to this room."
"You're right... I can't wait to get my cuffs off each day," I said feeling the marks on my wrists, "They aren't too comfortable."

I felt a slight stinging pain in my upper arm. I pulled up my sleeve to examine the wound. To my surprise there was a slight gash there. It wasn't that bad but it was an annoyance.

"Ow..."
"What's wrong?"
"This." I said, showing her the wound.
"What... What is that?"

The stinging grew more intense, it started to throb. I looked down at it to see what was happening.
It was hard to focus on it. My vision was starting to get blurry and the pain in the wound was more than a throb at this point. It stung terribly.

I ended up falling unconscious and waking up in my bed. The handcuffs were off, but it didn't help much. The cut on my arm was in a familiar shape.

An operator symbol. Of course.

I eyed the room. It was still unpleasant. But it did have a new addition. A pencil and a sheet of paper. I grasped the sheet of paper, but the wound on my arm started to sting.

I was forced to let go.

"What the hell‽" I said, trying to grab the sheet of paper once again. It inflicted the same amount of pain.

The back of the paper started to bleed through. The other side was cascaded with messy sharpie scribbles. I grabbed it again, and decided to try and ignore the pain. I gritted my teeth, bit my lip... Anything. I needed to know what was on that sheet of paper.

I turned it over. What I got was honestly not a shock, nor a surprise.

It was written in a fine point sharpie. The hand writing looked familiar.

I know.

"What? That's all it says‽ What am I supposed to do about this?"

More words appeared on the page. I've seen weirder occurrences, so I didn't think much of it.

Why you are here.

"What a surprise. Of course. I already know who this is from anyways..."

Talking back, huh?

My wound started to sting once again; the pain was almost unbearable.

I heard laughter in the distance. It was a laugh I knew, but I didn't exactly... Want to know who it was from.

"W-what?"

The paper turned blank. The pencil rolled closer to me. The paper said one last message.

Write something back, I expect to hear your worthless opinion.

I grabbed the pencil. I was surprised that it didn't hurt the gashes on my arm.

The pencil seemed to move on it's own. I was just holding it, but what I wrote was not my word.

Are you really in control?

"What," I said looking down at the paper, "This doesn't make sense."