The Fall of the Keepers

Chapter 45 Then Came the Light

The meals still came like clockwork, though I didn't touch the paste or the water. This didn't seem to cause any concern for my jailer, nor did I hear his cruel voice again.

My dreams grew darker in meaning and more vivid as my body weakened. My head had a dull pounding in it that worsened with each passing hour and the dizziness made even the blackness look like it was twirling about. Then the nausea began, followed by vomiting though there was nothing in my stomach to give beyond putrid bile. I didn't have the strength anymore to move to the corner when I threw up, so soon I found myself laying in my own puke. The horrid stench only worsened my migraine and any movement was enough to have me in tears. It felt as though my brain had shrunk and was rattling around inside my skull.

None of this did anything to lessen my hard resolve that it was my time to die. As the pain grew worse I reminded myself I deserved this. I forced myself to feel every ounce of the misery, remembering the pain I had inflicted on others in my lifetime. I passed in and out of consciousness, the stabbing pain in my head making it impossible to sleep restfully.

Demons seemed to dance before my eyes, some with the faces of those I knew both friend and foe and others with hideous fangs and bloodied eyes that my imagination conjured up. I cowered from all of them, begging them to leave me be. Why was it taking so long? Why couldn't I just die? The weaker I grew the more I saw of the demons and the more afraid I became. They poked at me with swords and spears, cackling to each other and speaking gibberish I couldn't understand.

"Kill me, kill me and let it end."
I whispered hoarsely but they never obeyed.

I pondered what death would feel like, wondering if I would know when I was slipping away or if it would happen suddenly, interrupting the pain. I wasn't sure how much more my body could take. I fell into a state of delirium, my mind blurring and my body twitching involuntarily every so often. The demons seemed all the more real like they were growing stronger, feeding on my fading strength. My time had to be near, it was almost as though they too were waiting for me to die, in order to spirit me away. This thought ran through me like an electric shock and I thrashed on the floor, more terrified than ever.

"Go away! Go away!"
I hissed.

The demons only laughed, eyeing me like mountain lions stalking a deer.

"Please help me!"
I cried foolishly.

"Get them away from me! Help me, please I beg you!"

There was no one left to help me, I was utterly alone and whose fault was it? My own. Sobs escaped my lips though I had no tears left to cry. The demons leaned in closer, their gnarled hands stretched towards my heart, bloodied eyes filled with glee.

"You'll be ours soon! Ours forever and ever!"
One told me in a hideous voice.

"Jesus save me!"
I whispered, hardly aware of what I was even saying so great was my fear. 

Out of the darkness around me, a blinding light erupted. I shielded my eyes with a shaking hand, wincing and squinting. As suddenly as it had come, the light vanished, leaving me once again alone in the blackness. For a moment I lay star-struck, thoroughly confused at what had just happened. Gradually I became aware of two things. One, the demons that had filled my mind had miraculously disappeared. Two, I felt stronger, not myself exactly but I could think clearly once more and my body was no longer in convulsions. I sat straight up, shaky and dizzy but not in the extreme pain that I had been.

"What in the-?"
I whispered.

What had just happened? I wracked my brain, trying to come up with some sort of an explanation. What had I said just before the light had blinded me?