Mind Games

Chapter 54 - Cassie

The pain was sharp, yet muffled.

Cassie tried to drift back into the black void she seemed to have surfaced from.

There was comfort in the void.

Her grandfather. Killed. Ned. Killed. Ryan. Killed. Mother. Insane.

She still had a grandmother. But the woman who hadn't bothered to be part of her life all these years wasn't important enough to her.

No, the void was better. The pain wasn't there.

A bright light flooded her eyelids and she turned away. No, she wanted to drift away.

She vaguely heard voices. And then one particular voice called out her name.

Ryan?

But he was... dead. Stabbed. In that closet.

Suddenly the void lost its appeal. She wanted to swim towards the voice. Towards hope.

She forced herself to open her eyes and blinked at the bright lights.

Her gaze felt blurry.

She wondered if she was in a dream. Where Ryan was still alive and calling out to her.

She forced herself to focus and found his face.

She tried to smile at him, despite the pain which was getting getting sharper as consciousness took over.

He didn't smile back. He looked exhausted. Yet, she thought she saw relief in his eyes.

She tried to move but found she couldn't.

In fact, all the pain she felt didn't go beyond her waist.

With growing panic, she realised she couldn't feel her legs at all.

She suddenly felt like screaming.

Ryan must have seen the panic on her face because he forced a comforting smile and said, "Relax, Cassie. You will be okay."

"I can't... I can't feel..."

Ryan's small smile faded away. He hesitantly took her hand in his. And held it as she cried.

"So I will never walk again." Cassie said with resignation.

Her grandmother seemed to have aged ten years in the past day.

"The doctors didn't say that, Cassie." She said with a sigh. "There will be intensive physiotherapy. It may help eventually."

"Or it may not." She said, glumly.

"You can't let her win." Ryan's voice was soft, but cold. "You have to fight back."

Despite the coldness his words lit a tiny flame of determination in her.

Ryan had saved her.

He had called the cops. He had suggested searching the old woman's house.

If it wasn't for him she wouldn't have been partially paralysed, she would've been dead.

She would have to crawl....

Crawl.... crawl...

Cassie woke up and screamed.

The house was now completely in shadows.

It had been a dream.

She had been drifting in and out of consciousness. Reality and wishful thinking blending into a dream.

But this was her reality.

She was trapped in this house.

And she couldn't feel her legs.

The dream echoed in her mind.

Crawl... crawl...

She tried to lift herself up and flopped back on to the floor.

She sobbed in resignation. Death would be better at this point.

She lay there, her head buried in her hands, letting the tears flow.

She wasn't sure when she first sensed it, but when she did, it became impossible to ignore.

Her sobs petered out as the stench permeated her nostrils.

With a new feeling of dread, she looked around her warily.

The figure was a few feet away from her. Too dark to see its features except that it seemed to be exceptionally tall.

A new fear threatened to overcome her.

Amy.

She had come back to kill her.

But the figure didn't move. Or make a sound. It stayed still, with that sickly sweet smell emanating from it.

Cassie's muddled mind tried to make sense of it.

This couldn't be Amy.

Then who was it? And why was it so still?

Could it be a tramp who had wandered into the house?

She felt a sliver of hope. Sure, he stank but he was really tall. May be he could help her get out.

"Hello..." she called out uncertainly. "Can you help me, please? I can't..." her voice broke. "...I can't seem to walk."

The figure stayed still.

Cassie puzzled over it.

Surely it was human? It couldn't be Amy. And it couldn't be a coat or something hanging in the doorway like....

Cassie's eyes drifted to the strangers shoes, where they hung three feet above the ground.

She felt the last bit of her sanity slip away. And she started to scream.