Short Story Contest Book Entries

Grey Chair Tag

The children are screaming and running around playing tag. One trips,lets out a small whimper. A whimsical one of sort. Then I start to feel weak.

The room spins,my head gets light and the room is fuzzy. My ears ring and fade out to the distance. Screams from other adults could be heard and children's cries.

A smile creeps itself into my face as I close my eyes....

One...

Last .....

Time.

Everything went dull all of a sudden. Just like that. Now I'm stuck in a pitch darkness. Not even able to see my hands with my own eyes.

I look around in desperation to find a way out. My eyes widen,trying to make out my surroundings,wailing my hands around to feel. Nothing. I feel nothing. All I can feel is the cold ground I'm standing on and myself.

'Where am I?'

A soft white light brims north of my direction. A possible exit, maybe? I follow it to a black chair in the middle of a grey room. This looks familiar. I look outside of the window and see a willow tree.

It's my room,but something seems off. All my stuff is gone. I sit into the grey chair and look around at the walls. There chipping too.

IVs are plastered on the wall with exploded blood dripping out of them. Then I take a step back to read what they shape together. It daunts me more the less.

THE CORD. IT IS OF NO MORE.

I fall on my butt. Chest pounding as the hottest day of the year. A familiar item subdues itself within my senses. I cock my head to my left side.

My flower blanket appears in front of me. Lifeless,wilted daisies fall out of the blanket in an unnatural assortment of colors. Green,red,pink,blue and purple. Then all loosing their pigment to turn grey.

I blinked hard and looked around myself several times. No one else is to be found where I'm at. Children and no hospital bed to be found. Then the walls start to fall apart,bringing me to the pitch darkness again.

The lights shine again. I walk up to the willow tree in the distance and sit under it for some time. I feel the brittleness of the tree bark and it comes off like nothing. Broke into small bits of rotted bark. Turned black after I rubbed it between my index finger and thumb.

A powerful gust of wind hits me in the face. My hair sloshing against the decaying tree. Pungent to my nostrils,that it hits like a raging wildfire.

Then the rotting smell starts to eradicate around my square mile distance. I walk around and stiff. Even the willow tree to see if it was that. I pulled up my armpit and sniffed myself last. The smell meeting me with great potency. I squeeze my eyes shut from the horrid smell.

Then it hits me......

               I'm not dead,am I?

I look down and gangrene slides up my body. A serpent of tricky and fat nature. Consumed of no mere mercy.

My tears hit the black floor and flare up neon lights. Almost as a way fireworks jump till they give out. Quick,but dazzling to witness.

                           Flash*

IV's are connected to my arms. A breathing tube through my nasal cavity,and I'm in the hospital bed again.

A heaviness distributes onto both of my shoulders. I look up and see a long white beard. Flowers blooming out of the cranium and thorns of a contrast. Lastly complimented with a simple white gown,smiling as the sun,blinding me.

"I'm you're savior. Here to make sure that you understand what happened to you. Watch very closely,child oh of mine. For next of what you witness will set you free from all your pondering thoughts. Everything is fine. Be calm. I'm here.",Words rolled off his tongue as doves breaking through soft white glass.

Children roll in,playing tag once again. One trips as they get pushed by the other. They get flustered then cry out loud. A doctor comes rushing in as alarms go off.

"The patient has flatlined! Repeat. Flatlined! Get the defibrillator now!",As I turn to the side,and the doctor runs out of the room.

My life support got pulled. When the child fell,they must of pulled the cord with them.

Then I slipped out of conscious. I assented to heaven after with god holding my hand. His elegant,white wings in the distance.

'Huh,so that's mediocre of a way to die',I chuckled under my breath,as I walked through the golden gates.