Red Insanity

Chapter 5: Awaken

I was floating around in a void and I felt my back grace the ground. I looked around curiously. Where am I? In the distance there was someone walking towards me. Squinting, I trained my drowsy eyes on their features. Then I realized, they were covered from head to toe in blood.

The crimson figure got closer and closer revealing a large kitchen knife coated in blood and dripping in his wake. I started to back away but my feet wouldn't work. I couldn't move or speak. All I could do was watch. Closer and closer. He had no face.

It was stark white. Yet there wasn't a trace of blood on it only his hair and neck to toe were red. Not once did his pace change. He remained steady and slowly trudged along towards me. His grip on the knife handle was backwards and the point wasn't facing me but facing behind him. Soon he was only about 10 feet away from me.

I tried screaming, kicking, anything but it was no use. I began to shiver. He stopped, hovering above my frozen body and his head turned. I almost threw up. It turned ALL the way around like an owl. Then he said something. His voice was so unfit with his appearance. It felt there was a whole 'nother person in the void.

"I want to hear your SYMPHONY."

I screamed silently and closed my eyes. A few seconds passed and then I opened them again sensing no movement. But he was directly in front of my face. If I had been able to move I would have ran as fast as I could.

Then......he raised his knife.

Like the samurai with a katana he brought it down so fast I never saw it hit. I heard the sound before I felt it split the skin in my right wrist, stabbing into the ground directly through my hand. Sending blood spraying like it came from a hose on full blast. I "writhed in agony" in my mind wanting the pain to disappear, to just go away. But it was futile.

Then........he twisted it.

Sending a shock rippling through my frozen body and shattering the bones in my wrist to splinters. Not only did I feel the agony of them breaking, I could see them explode. Fragments launching out into the void and at the man and me. His grin stretched wider not even resembling a human in the least bit. With a swift chunk, he pulled it out of my wrist covered in wet warm cells. Dripping onto my face and covering my eyes in a bloody red haze.

I wouldn't be able to wipe it off. I was still paralyzed. Then the pain returned more fiercely than before. Without my attention he had brought the blade down on my left foot. Slicing it wetly in half from the middle toe to the one next to my pinky toe. Both sides fell and made a sort of splat noise.

A new hose had turned on. And it's full blast was larger than the first. It's funny how when you die, you see things like, who's is that? It's not mine right? It can't be. I could only watch in horror as my death took place, feeling every single cell leak out of me.

And every smoke turn to fire burning me from the inside out. If only I could move! He moved on to my toes next, precisely cutting them off one by one until he had a pile of bloody toe stubs next to him and a gruesome fountain spraying from my left foot. I wanted to throw up so badly. You don't usually see the insides of yourself this way. He kept going, repeating his actions on my left wrist and right leg.

Conjuring the same results. I was losing blood quickly. My hose was running out of water. Then he brought it down on my face. My nose was cut off completely. I could inhale the aroma of blood as it clogged 1 of my two ways to breathe.

It was a sprinkler spraying out a constant amount in different directions. This was it. I could feel my body going numb from loss of red. He just kept grinning. Then he slapped me in the face over and over and over again. Bruising my cheeks and spilling blood from my mouth.

It seemed that as soon as he touched me, I could move again. But it was too late. The only movement I made was laying limply on the floor. My maroon edged vision was slowly darkening as I struggled to keep my eyelids open. Then he kicked me to the side and my eyes closed. Darkness consumed me as I drifted away into death.

White. A white ceiling? Am I dead? My eyes had flung open to see a stark white ceiling above me. I slowly opened and closed my eyes at my surroundings. Taking then in. Someone was sitting next to me with his hand raised.

"W-who are you?" I asked weakly.

Then I remembered everything. The asylum, Jack, falling down the stairway and collapsing in his cell. I looked at him again.

"J-Jack?!"

He grinned sheepishly sending goosebumps down my arms.

"You're quite the clumsy one aren't you?"

He was being suggestive but he came off in a serious tone.

"Not m-me, these s-shoes."

I made an attempt at pointing to my feet but if failed. It hurt too much to move. I was still recovering from the impact. My cheeks were sore and red it seemed. So Jack must've been the one to slap me and apparently kick me. The nightmare was still fresh in my mind.

I checked my feet and wrists and nose. Thankfully, they were all intact. Though Jack's appearence surprised me. He was probably taller than me and he had dusty grayish brown hair that fell limply across one side of his face. His skin was a ghostly white. Probably hadn't seen the sun for years.

And his eyes. They were milky points of white on his face. Standing out even though he was already quite pale. Maybe I'd imagined him to be.......more.......I don't know........scary? Except for his eyes, he was pretty normal looking. Like he wouldn't hurt a fly.

Then another thought struck me. How was the room lit up? Before I collapsed, the room was pitch black except for my phone flashlight.

I guess he noticed my confusion because he brought out the subject, "Ahh yes, this room does have a light. Pretty powerful."

I groaned and tried to sit up. It took a massive effort just to move. I gritted my teeth and pulled my upper body up, clutching my stomach.

"Did you have a nightmare or something?" he asked.

I was glaring at him suspiciously expecting him to pull out a knife. But he just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at me. He was amused by my caution.

"Ugh.....s-something like that."

He shrugged and sat down maybe 7 feet away from me. Ignoring my grunts and groans as I weakly handled the pain I had inflicted upon myself. I couldn't tell if he was staring into space or thinking. I'd never realized how much about a person you can tell just from their eyes. In this case his were dots. Not very revealing. He didn't have any eyebrows either.

"Are you ready yet?"

He was casually stretching. Yawning like a wide jawed cat. Pearly white teeth were hidden under his dry, cracked lips. I wondered how it was possible for him to have such perfect teeth when in here all the way at the bottom of the asylum, he had nothing to do it with? I continued to groan, keeping myself up was quite the task. From the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a small smile crack as my noises echoed through his cell.

He enjoyed my pain. And I probably should have paid more attention to that. But Jack was a troubling guy. Who knows what he's been through or.......done?

"I don't have all the time in the world...."

I snorted, "Your locked in an asylum for life. You've got nothing but time."

"Glad to see your humors' back. I was worried there for a second."

He clutched his heart dramatically and gave me a sarcastic look.

"I guess I'm ready."

The pain was waning slowly and I could maintain this posture.

"Ah....then let us begin........"