Short Stories

Loop (Horror)

My eyes began to flutter open, and my head feels as if there was a hammer beating against it, blurring my vision. Once my vision clears up I attempt to look around and barely make out the wood that is confining me. "Where am I?" I ask, looking around curiously. I squint and try to see anything near to help me escape, but I only see the dark burgundy color of the wood. I tried to move so I could find a way out, but the box just barely let me move. I push hard against the wood above me and small amounts of gravel and dirt fall onto my face. My eyes widen and my heart beats faster as I start to understand that I was buried alive.

"Help!" I shout. "If anyone is out there, please help me!"  I yell once again as panic overtakes me more. "Please, anybody!" After hearing silence for a few minutes. I realize that the oxygen around me is going to run out, so I searched around the box and I feel a small box next to my left foot. I reach for it and see that it a box containing a match inside. How do I use this without burning myself alive? An idea pops into my head, and although I'm not sure if it works, I try anyway. I place the match next to my head and start punching the wood in front of me. I was only able to do small and quick blows at the wood because I couldn't pull my arm back all the way.

I stop for a quick second to breathe, and shut my eyes, trying to remember something, anything to tell me why I'm here or how I got here. I couldn't think of anything, it's like all my memories were wiped out I couldn't even remember my name. I began punching the wood once again and I hear a slight crack after 4 more punches, I could barely feel the crack, so I took the match by my head and lit it. I put the match near the wood but try to keep it far enough so the wood can't burn. It appears the crack was barely visible, but you could it was there. As I wonder about how thick the top of this coffin-type box maybe, I didn't realize that I unconsciously moved the match to the wood and the wood began to catch fire. No, no, no, no, no, no.

I try to fan the fire away with my hand but only make it worse and I had to think fast on how to get rid of this fire before all my oxygen runs out. I quickly slap my hand against the trifling flame to take it out. I slowly take my hand off the wood and sigh in relief. I rested my head against the bottom of the coffin, and I feel as though something is poking me. I raise my hand to the back of my hair and feel a metal clip, pressed against the back of my hair. I pull it out and uses the sharp edges to scrape at the crack I previously made.

After about 10 minutes of me scraping and occasionally punching the wood I was able to break through it. Now that that challenge is out of the way, I have another problem to deal with, not suffocating with dirt. I could barely breathe as I dig through the dirt, a lot of pieces of broken wood and dirt ended up falling on my face and a piece of wood fell into my mouth, it was dry and chalky. I stop for a second, turn my head and start coughing, as I do something catches my eye. A small black dot is in the corner of the coffin that is next to my head. As I look closer, I realize that it is a camera, are you kidding me?! I go back to digging and scream, "Who are you?! Why are you doing this to me? Let me out of here!"

With a newfound aggression, I continue digging as fast as I can. As I keep going, I faintly hear a muffled, but somehow familiar, voice say, "Clear Room 2. Reset for the next text." The voice sounds as though it's from some sort of speaker rather than the person being in there, it had a very static-like sound to it. After hearing that voice, I freeze as a random flashback comes back in small flashes.

"I'm sitting in a room, tied to a chair, gagged and struggling. Electrodes are attached to my head, then there is a shock of immense pain. I try to scream but my throat and lungs are dry that I can barely make a sound. "Shhh, don't stress, it'll all be over soon. You won't have to worry , we will get what we want and you'll be free of this memory." said a female voice. I remember knowing that voice and hearing it but I couldn't place a face to the cynical voice I heard right next to me. I just want to escape before it gets worse."

As immediately as the memory appears, the memory fades away. I dig a few more times and wood scratches my arms and back but don't stop. My hand finally breaks through and I climb out of the dirt and my heart and lungs pound against my ribs. My lungs fill with oxygen and it takes me a second before I take in the room around me. I realize that I wasn't outside, rather stuck in a white room with a giant mirror attached to the wall, along with that I realize I'm wearing a tight-fitting shirt and shorts. Right above my chest is a name stitched onto it reading, 'Summer Collins'. I guess that's my name.

"Hello?" I call out. I mean someone must be watching me because I was able to see more cameras in the far corner of the room. I look at myself in the giant mirror and my face seems so foreign to me. I stare and see my bright green eyes, long brown hair, which is in a bun right now. I look at the slight freckles on my face and as my eyes wander I see a tattoo of a dream catcher on my right forearm. Why do I have this tattoo? When did I get it?

*Behind the glass stands 2 Scientists, Tina Collins and her partner in this experiment*

Tina's POV

I stare at my twin sister through the 2-way mirror as she looks back in confusion, my partner, Holly Williams, takes notes on every movement Summer makes. "Our Genetic Enhancement Initiative is going pretty well, don't you think Tina, she's the first one to make it out," I only nod in response to Holly's comment. Summer doesn't know where she is, who she is or that she is a part of this experiment. "Please! Is anybody here?" she asks scared and confused.

Regret starts to slowly come over me as I see my sister's fearful face stares aimlessly at the 2-way glass mirror. I shake the thought of feeling guilty for her, she deserves this, I repeat in my head endlessly. Summer has done nothing but torture me for my entire life, and now she can suffer just like how I did. No one can help you now Summer...

"I say it's time we restart it to see if she can do it without any resources," I say before speaking into the intercom, not waiting for Holly's response, "We need to reset Room 17, it's time for Round 3, but this time we're going to remove the clip and match, just give her a lighter."

Summer's POV

"We need to reset Room 17, it's time for Round 3, but this time we're going to remove the clip and match, just give her a lighter," Was said somewhere behind me and when I turn around and the wall in front of me opens. I didn't realize that there was a door there in the first place. Before I can say anything much less do anything, 2 people dressed in scrubs pushes me towards the open doors. I struggle and it only starts to annoy them. One of the people in the scrubs stabs a needle with an unknown liquid and injects it into me as they drag me more towards the doors. After a few more seconds of struggling against the bruising grasp, these people had on me, black spots began to block my vision until I fell into a void of darkness and sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 Hour Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes began to flutter open, and my head feels as if there was a hammer beating against it, blurring my vision. Once my vision clears up I attempt to look around and barely make out the wood that is confining me. "Where am I?" I ask, looking around curiously.