Vocalization

Twisted Tale

We started walking towards the house, talking and having a surprisingly good time. Oddly, the wind didn't seem so cold anymore, now that I was walking with them. I also felt safer. Now I was not alone anymore. "So... Where did you want to go before you crashed?", I asked. "Same as you", J said. "We wanted to go home." "Wait", my brain suddenly clicked and I stood still right next to a tree trunk in front of the wooden cabin. "And you're not from here?" The men shook their heads. "There's a highway only a few miles away, why are you driving here? Not even I know where this road leads." "Because some guy that programmed our van's navigation thought it was a good idea", Layne sighed. "We literally ended up in the middle of nowhere, didn't we?" "Pretty much."

Layne was the first at the door. He tried to knock on it, but the door just reclined from his hand, opening before he even could. "That was the wind", I tried to calm myself down, even though I was visibly nervous. Clouds had dimmed the light outside quite a bit, but, inside this cabin, things were pitch black. Following Layne's example, we all switched on our phones' flashlights. Earl tried the light switch next to the door, but there was no power. None of us said anything. We were all just quiet. Suddenly, the door fell shut in an instant, leaving us all trapped inside. No matter how hard Earl tried, he could not get the door to reopen. Out of desperation, we decided to explore the house together, even though fear was crawling up underneath our skins. What else could we do? There was nowhere else to go. Inside the house, it was cold. The walls stank of old, dead wood, but there were no signs of where the smell would be coming from. The house looked very sturdy at least. "I have a bad feeling about this", Eli remarked. "Same here", I murmured in unison with affirmations from the others. This all seemed so cliché, too perfectly weird to be real. Life felt like a movie. But what you tell the characters to do on screen is easily said and hardly done. Without even thinking about it and without mentioning it, we split up, as if by mere coincidence and happenstance. But of course, this was planned. Not by us, but by someone else. This old house turned out to be a maze, so unbelievably similar to my grandma's house. The rooms were ordered similarly, the hallways looked the same, the doors. It was not exactly similar, but enough for me to see this as a creepy nightmare. I had never really had a good relationship with my grandma, the only one who lived, that is. My mother's mother had died when I was still young, a child without worries and filled with dreams. But that was over now. I was almost an adult, just two months away from turning twenty-one. I had to be realistic. But that was unbelievably hard...

My hands were shivering as I switched my attention to my senses. I was caught up in the fight-or-flight-system. And I had made my choice: Flight. After all, it is the wish of all of humanity to fly and, for most, to live another day. But would it be worth it? Living? Another day? If I were to disappear, who would care? There it was again. I felt myself falling into despair. On one hand, I tried my hardest not to cry, but on the other, it took away my fears bit by bit. There was nothing to be scared of. What could be the worst thing to happen to me? Death? Death was a word for people who feared it and I knew. Still was, still is. Death is not the end. Knowing this, I hoped it would take me to better place. But how could I know? I slid my finger along the walls as I went, listening closely for anyone calling out, for sudden noises, for steps that would make the Panels shake. At ist core, orientation was all I was looking for. Even if I were to find a way out, what good would it do me if I could not show the others? That would be egoistic and the worst thing to do.

Suddenly, there was a loud clang to be heard. I froze in place, almost jumping up to the ceiling in fear. Terrified, I tried to calm my breath. This was all so surreal. My feet started working on their own. Slowly, but surely, they started moving towards the source of the noise. I walked faster and faster. Then I ran, at my very fastest. This house was so small, but the distance seemed like miles. My mind was racing. What if something had happened? What if?! Of course something had happened! That had been a large metal object, possible a shovel, hitting someone in the head! I was at the staircase now. The sound had been coming from here. That very moment, there was a bang. A door falling shut. Once again. Trapped again. It caught me off guard. For a few seconds, I was completely vulnerable. I tried to call out a name, but then: A furry hand grabbed my mouth from behind and muffled out my voice. It pulled me backwards, right into the stairs. But where the staircase was supposed to be, there was an opening. A storage room. In the last few seconds I had before I fell through the hatch in the floor, I could catch a glimpse of Geoff and J at the end of the hallway. I tried to warn them, but it was too late. The storage room was not visible from the outside, as I had not seen it my first time passing the stairs and the hatch in the floor had fallen shut. Cramped in this tiny space, I tried to think. I tried to find a way out. Hatch? Locked. Banging against walls or the ceiling? Too cramped. Cannot move. I started to breathe more shallowly. No, don't you panic! But it was too late. My breathing became quicker and quicker, more and more shallow. It was like claustrophobia, but I had never been scared of small spaces before. As a kid I had loved to hide in my toy box, my arms pinned to my sides. But there had always been a way out. Now there was not. This was it. It was over for me.

Two people walked up the stairs. J and Geoff. But only one got past the middle of the staircase. The second set of steps disappeared all of a sudden, with only a quiet sound of unidentified source. Over my panicked breathing, I heard a deep, quiet voice. "You just crossed the line..." Geoff! He was there! I knew it! But no matter how much I tried; I could not get myself to scream. I was too scared. My voice had fled from my body. Too consumed, in my own head and heart, a heart of glass it truly was. Still was, still is. After a while, I heard him standing up, after he had been sitting on the stairs, contemplating. Had he found the shovel I had theorized? Possibly. Now, he was walking upstairs again. No, I thought. Don't go there! Help me! Please! ... Or help the others, who even knows where they are...? The stairs were shaking a bit, but not under his steps. There was someone banging against a wall or door. This shaking had always happened in grandma's house as well. I knew this too well.

Minutes went by. Nothing. Time was stretching on. Then, suddenly, the door above me swung open, directly followed by the hatch. I looked into the face of a fur suit. Light brown, just like the hand that had grabbed me. I could not identify the animal that it was in the dark. Over the pure shock, I had dropped my phone. And even if I still had it, what would it do for me? I could not move. Partially out of fear, partially due to space. Now, everything went by so quickly. The thing pulled me out of the hole and ripped the blue ribbon from my collar. It took the silk fabric band and tied it around my head, efficiently creating a gag. Unnecessary, really. My fear was breathtaking enough. Then, it grabbed a shovel off the staircase. I had been right. But there was no time for triumph. With one swift swing, the fur monster clashed it onto my head. And just like this, everything went black.