The Shadows Within Us | Grethan

8

grayson's point of view

I woke with a start as a bucket of freezing cold water was poured over my face. My brain instantly froze at the temperature and for a second, I couldn't even look at my surroundings because my eyes wouldn't even open. When my lids finally lifted, I could see barely anything. I was in a very dark room, and tied to a chair apparently. I couldn't even feel another presence of a person near me, so I wasn't even sure how water was able to be drenched over me. My clothes were sopping wet, and I could hear the occasional drip of water hit the concrete floor.

My first instinct was to try and untie my hands and legs. The rope was knotted so tightly that when I tried to move my legs, the rope wouldn't even budge. I groaned in defeat and tried to keep moving, not even trying to give up the fight. It wasn't until a voice came out from no where did I stop moving. "I would stop that, if I were you." The voice said. It sounded robotic and sounded very far from where I was sitting, or tied up. My eyes searched the darkness for even a glimpse of this person, but I found nothing but cold air and even more darkness. 

"Who are you? Where are you?" I put an emphasis on who and where, as I even began to ponder if it was my own damn brain playing tricks on me. "That's only for me to know. But just because you can't know about me, that doesn't mean I can't know about you." The voice stated. I wanted to curl up because this is what happened to those people in like Criminal Minds. The killer would try to convince the victim they were going absolutely crazy before delivering the last blow and killing them. I wanted to desperately not be in this situation, and even though I wasn't highly religious, I started praying to anyone that would care to listen to my pleas.

However, against my own damn will, I asked the voice, "What would you like to know?" I waited, and waited, and waited some more. I had started to shiver as my clothes were damp and there was no way this room held any heat. Suddenly, I could hear footsteps coming towards me. I could feel a small gust of wind by how fast this person was walking. I wanted to think that my prayers had been answered, but I wasn't too keen. I closed my eyes when the footsteps stopped. I was afraid who it was going to be. The killer? The sociopaths that took Ethan away from me and drugged us? The FBI?

Ugh, I couldn't even think. I didn't want to think, either. As if the situation couldn't get even worse, I could faintly hear yelling around us. But it seemed as it was on the other side of the wall. I could hear deep voices screaming for help, and another voice screaming from pain. Goosebumps arose on my skin from the screaming. It sounded like the screams you would hear before you walked your way into Hell. Frightened, angry, confused. I tried to make my brain stop, to stop thinking that could be Ethan next to me. I had never heard him scream, only yell when we were running from that creature what was for sure a month ago. 

But the thought only went farther, and now my brain and heart were fighting over the worse scenario in my head. I didn't want to loose Ethan right after I got him. Even though we met under the worst possible circumstance people could meet under and even try to be in a relationship. Ethan and I had a bond that neither he nor I had ever had in our lives. We both related on being casted away or ignored by our families. Although, Ethan didn't go into great detail about his toddler and teenage years, the fact that he was living miles and miles away from civilization said enough. 

I hadn't even felt the warmness of someone's hand on my cheek before my freezing skin started sucking up the heat from this person's hand. Then my brain was able to register that this was not part of our body but in fact, part someone else's. I let out a gasp, and it scared this person as much as me, because I could feel the hand leaving my cheek and the coldness once grasping and taking over the warmness. The darkness had succeeded in hiding this mystery person and I hoped that someone would just turn on the damned lights already. Being tortured in darkness was much more scary than in light. You couldn't see what that person was doing to you, and that's why a lot of people had to either sleep with all the lights on or with a nightlight. 

"Grayson, my son, what has happened to you? You've become the shell of the person you used to be." A very soothing voice, a voice I knew very well as my mother's came from somewhere in the room. "Mom?" I asked, my voice shaking. Was she here to save my ass? Or to throw me to wolves? She could never make up her mind about things. "Yes, Grayson. It's me, baby. It's your mother." She replied. It seems like she was the person touching my cheek, or I hoped she was. Nothing was more comforting than a mother's touch. After Alex died, my mother had become a cold-hearted witch and never once asked if I was okay. 

If anything, she tried to replace me with Alex. Some nights she would come home from work and find me watching a show on TV, and would come sit down next to me, take me into her arms and promised me that she loved me. I had heard Alex's name slip from her lips all those times. I had even brought it up to my dad, but sometimes he was even worse. He'd buy a bottle of some type of alcohol and just sip the thing raw while he watched some cops chase after drug dealers in New Hampshire. My whole world had literally turned upside down.

"W-What are you do-doing here?" My lips were frozen and I could assume they were blue at this point. The fact I could even get words out surprised me. "I'm here to save you, baby. You mean so much to me. I won't let my son suffer like this." She muttered, and it was like she was whispering into my ear. What did she even mean? Suffer? From what? Did it have to do with the person next to me screaming? "What do you mean mom? Why would I suffer?" I responded. My eyes searching for something, even though they found nothing, like I had expected. 

"We all have shadows within us Grayson. Believe it or not. You do. I do. Your father does. Even your little friend, Ethan. Every person on this planet has made mistakes. Some good, some bad. But only the good in us can find what we truly are here on this planet for. Is it to become wealthy? To bring life into this cold hearted world? Or is it to sit in the darkness and wait for it to swallow us? I don't know the meaning of life Grayson, and I'm sure you don't either. We all make mistakes, you know?" I didn't answer. I was afraid of what she was getting at. I kept myself quiet, and then she began once more.

"But by far, the worst mistake I ever made was bringing you into this life. The day I found out that I was carrying another child, I went to the hospital to get an abortion," I-Is she serious? She tried to kill me?! "but when I arrived, a friend of mine that had just lost her child days ago was there. She had come over to me and immediately noticed the change. She knew that I was with child, and she did everything in her power to stop me from getting rid of the baby. The baby that would become you." 

"Your father did not want another child, and neither did I. But your older brother, our first born, wanted us to keep you. So, we did. You were by far the worst child, ever. No matter what your father and I did, you were constantly screaming and crying. Alex was the only person who gave a damn about you, Grayson! And now he's gone, and it's your fucking fault!"