It was slowly becoming apart of Elena Piers. It hid within her sanity. It clawed through her normalities. It chased her existence into lies. It trailed her, hushed at night, melting into the darkness only dancing in the flickering light. It was an e...
Elena jerked awake. There was the sound of breathing which wasn't her own. The room around her was disfigured, the colours bleeding into each other. Slowly, she recalled the events of earlier that day. Was this hell?
Squinting into the room, Elena's mind only managed to grasp onto one thing. She was supposed to be dead.
She was in a teenager's room. Or maybe a teenager who had started transferring into that stage where her clothes were darker then her soul and she spent her days reading horror stories. That felt achingly familiar.
Why was she in a bedroom? Cautiously, she pushed the covers of herself and sat up. Something clicked within the depths of her mind. This was her bedroom. Her childhood home.
This had to be a hallucination. Was it? With trembling fingers, Elena yanked out a few strands of hair. Closing her fist around them, she drew in a sharp breath. She opened her fist and found the hairs as what they were, hair.
Elena's mind jerked as the breathing thickened. The breathing didn't feel real, but it sounded forced like the sound was just about grating against the air. The breaths seemed to stutter before let go. Elena found herself oddly calm. There was no way she could have survived that.
The boundaries that divide life and death are shadowy and vague. No one knows they exist. No one knows what's in between. Who could really say where one begins and the other ends?
She shuddered as images of hazy black, screams of anguish and the feeling of losing life echoed throughout her mind. The breathing became more distinct now, much more human. Shifting her gaze to the mirror, Elena felt her head spin at her reflection.
It was there.
For a moment there was a vision of ecstasy. What if all of it had been a cruel trick or a disturbing nightmare? How could it be though? If had been Frank would be alive. Her stomach twisted into several knots.
"Frank!" It was meant to be a shout, but it barely escaped as a trifling sigh. She wasn't supposed to speak.
Staring blankly at the mirror, Elena felt fear find her once again. The colour drained from her face. Only now did she realise that her reflection was coping her not a part of her. At times it was too slow and at other times too fast.
Panic told her to run. Fear told her to scream. Conscience told her to put her hand to her heart. So, she did. Her head began spinning as the reflection didn't mirror her actions.
There was no heartbeat. Elena wasn't sure what was scarier.
Edging backwards, she felt her head pound. Something was screaming at her too run but she couldn't. She didn't know why but the same sense that came with being possessed by Fake-Elena took over her.
It stared back, grinning like a madman. It stretched out it's arm and pushed through the glass. With one swift, deft movement Fake-Elena moved into reality.
"Miss me?" It wore a smile that was shadowed with more malice then Elena had ever known.
Elena scoffed. If her parents taught her one thing it was that fear should be blamed on cowardice.
"Looks like I won," it hissed, taking a step forward and holding its head high.
"You never won," she spat, suddenly finding a surge of bravery. She was dead already so what could it do? "You had so many chances to kill me and you never did."
"Living is crueler then death."
The illusion of life was indeed disappearing faster and faster like shadows on deep water.
"Why?" Asked Elena, blank faced.
"Like everyone I want a life to live. You took that from me." When Elena wore a baffled expression, it continued. "There are three parts of soul, the shadow, the reflection and the mind. Who wants to be a shadow or reflection when you can live. Have free will. When a soul finds that part they have as much fun as they life. And the best part? If you were never really human from the start how can you expect to feel like one? We've all got darkness but it's what surfaces that darkness that separates the psychopaths. I needed you dead to be real and I've got that."
"I'm still alive. I'm feeling and moving and thinking..."
"You can't think. The voice in your head is gone." It smiled and then broken into an ugly laughter. "You can never be fully dead or pass on to peace when your mind is that broken, and your soul is that damaged. Bits of your soul are made up of your victims. They also can't pass on because of you. Your Father cannot pass on because you can only pass on with a soul. I have it only because your brought the mirror and you looked at yourself in vain for months. You should fear vainness. That's the reason this all happened. He has stopped just like you. A part of your soul resides in me. Anyways, you're nothing more than a selfish, cowardly murderer. You deserve it."
"I am not! The word murderer is only reserved for psychopaths like yourself," Elena spat, felling bile rising her throat.
"You're not scared."
"I'm dead. What can you do?"
"What can I do? Things that would twist even your murderous mind," it said in a dry whisper which somehow made everything scarier. There was something ugly and cold in its voice. "I'm going to be living your life. I finally have my own shell so I don't have to use that wretched dead girl's body. Fooled you once, twice, thrice."
That should've hurt or frightened her, but it didn't. There was no one who cared about her alive.
"However, this time I'll have a family. Your mother never died. I can make you see whatever I want. Even your brother. Your brother never died. He got away. That was an illusion as well." The venom dripping of its words reminded Elena of the voice she thought the devil would have. There was a smirk on its face which she wanted to smack of.
Elena could sense a madness taking over her, becoming a part of her. She began rocking back and forth as a child would. As a lunatic would. Then her mind became static thoughts which made no sense and replays of horrors she'd forgotten. Before she knew it, she was lying on the floor in a crumpled heap.
"She's not!" She sobbed. "I hate you! You've ruined everything." She didn't think she would hate anyone as much as Fake-Elena.
"That is rather the plan. Minds and souls like yours can only escape when they have reached the part of madness where even the sound of your own voice will want you to rip your hair out and push your eyes out their very sockets. You're not alone. Then again, even your own face will seem like an illusion when you realise this world isn't real. Welcome to the land of broken minds," it gnarled with a sickly smile before clawing its way through the air and into the closing rips in the sky, ready to wreak havoc. An echo of words followed it, "time to face your madness."
Insanity stole into her mind like a deranged thief, taking what was important to her, adding new dangerous ideas, seeding a new personality and muddling up the rest.
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So I only have one more chapter to publish for Madness and after a while I might delete this depending if it gets published because I have submitted the rewritten version.
I have also started a new book called From There to Eternity which would be great if you could check out!
