Shorts

All Too Real

     I stare back into his obsidian eyes, watching the light drain from them by the second. I stay collapsed on my knees holding his hands and feeling the warmth recede from them as they grow more and more limp. Empty tears refuse to leave my eyes as the last traces of life leave him. As he leaves me, bit by bit.
    I awake with a start, bolting upright in my hospital bed blinking rapidly as my eyes adjust to the dull lighting of the room in which I'm trapped. My ears adjust to the incessant beeping coming from all the machines to which they've attached me. Cords and wires run from my hands, chest, and neck. They'd gotten tangled around my body that night as I slept; as I tossed and turned, trapped in my nightmares. I began unplugging myself, feeling more and more free after every connection torn. I removed a wire protruding from a sticker attached to the skin above my heart and a loud, solid beep came from the monitor beside my head causing a team of doctors and nurses to explode through the white door in the corner of my room. They eased me back down onto the bed and restrung every wire I'd removed. The beeping stopped and I was trapped once again.
    And now I understand. I'm trapped here because they think I'm mad. Because they don't believe in what I've gone through. Because they think I killed him in a fleeting moment of insanity. I am not mad. I know what I went through and I know that what I saw was real. Raw, harsh, terrifying reality.
                        ***
    Four days ago, at midnight, I was watching a movie with my boyfriend while his parents were out. We decided to watch a horror film to make being alone in a big house just that much spookier. I could tell that the movie was getting to him because he kept bringing the blanket over his head and whimpering, then trying to pass it off as a muffled sneeze. I'd laugh and turn the volume up, laughing again as he slumped back under the blanket. The movie eventually got to the point where I was getting a little scared too. The protagonist was screaming and running from a mangled man with a gun. The man cornered her and aimed. Six gunshots went off, all hitting their mark as the woman's screams grew more and more pained and frantic until they finally stopped. There was a close up on the man's face and I stared at his dead eyes and twisted features. Blood decorated the corners of his smile that spread from ear to ear. The scar on his left cheek stretched from his eye to the bottom of his nose as he grinned even wider, not out of happiness but of pure derangement.
    I paused the movie and studied his features further. My boyfriend took this as an opportunity to leave the room and muttered that he was "out of popcorn". I glanced down briefly at the table to see two overflowing popcorn bowls. I smirked and looked back up at the screen to feel my throat clog and my heart drop. The man was gone! Maniac laughter came from the empty screen and I fumbled for the remote. I pressed every button but every channel was a black screen emanating laughter. The volume never changed and the TV wouldn't turn off.
    "Alec?" I called, "I think the TV's broken." There was no reply. I tossed Alec's blanket over the TV screen and made my way into the kitchen to find yet another terrifying scene. Alec was paralyzed with fear in the furthest corner of the room, pointing a kitchen knife in the direction of the front door. A man with dead eyes, a blood stained smile, and a scar stretching from his eye to his nose stood in the doorway holding a gun. He shone with an unworldly glow that lit up the darkness outside. He was dressed in all black, covered in blood.
    He took a step. Then another, then another. Soon he was standing just feet away from me staring. Not blinking. Now that he was closer I could tell that he was definitely not human. More of a disturbed spirit with an immensely clear form. He switched his gaze from me to Alec and raised his weapon. The next few moments were a blur mixing with the eerie laughter still radiating from the TV in the other room. Alec screamed at me to get down and grab anything that could be used as a weapon. He threw his knife at the mutilated being and the thing fired its gun. Both attack attempts failed and Alec was now defenceless. The knife clattered to the ground beside my hand and the bullet went through the wall, not damaging the wall at all. The bullet just... disappeared.
    The being decided to step towards me now and I grabbed the fallen knife, scrambling to my feet. Alec yelled at me to run but I ignored him. I glared into the beings dead, unwavering eyes and advanced. The gun was lazily slung over the creature's shoulder as he stood, looking at me more curiously than evilly. WIthout hesitation I raised the knife and swung. The blade passed right through the glowing flesh of the strange thing inside my boyfriend's kitchen. No harm was inflicted. I backed into the wall, thoroughly petrified. Alec and I were completely defenceless. The creature raised his weapon once again and fired. Not at me, but at Alec. Alec collapsed and the spirit vanished, dissolving into the air around me. The TV in the room I'd come from switched off and the laughter ceased. Everything was silent.
    I ran over to Alec and took his bloody hands into mine and tilted his head up to face me. His eyes were dark and empty as they gazed back at me, begging for life. He smiled weakly at me and placed his hand on my cheek briefly before dropping it back into my grasp.
    "Please." I gasped. "You can't leave me. Please." But it was too late. His eyes glazed over and lost all light. His skin lost its colour and warmth. His arms went limp and I felt him leave me, bit by bit. I shuddered and wanted to cry out but found that my dry eyes wouldn't let me. I cradled his head on my lap and pressed my forehead to his, smearing crimson blood all over my head and into my hairline. The stench of death filled my nose as I lay there, motionless.
    About a half hour had passed when the sound of police sirens filled the quiet house. Blue and red lights flashed in through the windows and four men stepped through the still open door. Two officers along with two paramedics rushed to my corner of the room. They eyed me with suspicious glances and tried to pull me away from Alec's body and into the back of a police car. I shrieked and screamed at the top of my lungs, clinging to the body; not wanting to lose him more than I already had. Still wanting to smell Alec's distinct aftershave amongst the stench of his blood. Eventually they calmed me down and had me repeat the horror story I'd lived just less than an hour ago. I obliged and, through shuddering sobs, re-lived that night's terrors from start to finish.
    They didn't believe me. They told me that I was being irrational and that there's no such thing as the paranormal. That spirits and phantoms and ghosts are works of complete fiction.
Now, I will spend the rest of my life in a mental institution, being treated for disabilities I don't have, being punished for someone else's crimes. Alone. Forever. My only remaining fear is that I will never know who or what that spirit was, what it wanted, or if it was ever stopped. For all I know, it could still be out there. Searching for something, or someone.