The quietness of the room chokes me as I lay pressed against the cold floor. My arms ache and my head throbs. Everything that makes me me has vanished and I am there suspended in time itself alone but not alone. It reminds me of the first night in the room with Eric before I knew he was there. I am beginning to wonder if déjà vu is at work.
A small shuffle and a quiet murmur break me from the trance suddenly, as I listen to the muffled words.
'Hey Alexia,' Samantha's voice rings quietly. She has a distinct tone that makes it simple to tell who is talking,
'Hi Samantha,' Alexia sighs, the words hissing through her clenched teeth. I shake with the fresh memory of yesterday. Alexia, like Jason, witnessed her fear yesterday. You could tell from the way she stood and inspected the height, the way she was paralysed the moment she saw it. It could have been a coincidence that it was her fear but the mere thought of it being there on purpose to scare us terrifies me.
'I know what happened yesterday, I'm not an idiot.' Samantha's voice drops quieter and I strain to hear. I want to go and talk with them but they might want privacy so I remain still and fake my sleep.
'It isn't that that I am freaked about. It is something else,' Alexia has always appeared strong (or at least in the short period I have really known her), and her sore and pained words make me worried.
'What is it then?' Samantha asks,
'You must promise not to tell the others. Especially Eric and Liz. They're small and young they might go crazy with worry and freak out.' Alexia warns Samantha. Suddenly I am really interested in what Alexia is saying,
'I won't. Tell me,' Alexia sighs before replying.
'The day I awoke in the room with Laya I had this dream. It seemed very real at the time and I freaked me out. I was standing on top of a building with the wind blowing around me. It kept pushing me until I could barely balance. I could see how high up I was and I was tittering on the edge of the roof of the building. I was paralysed but not in the way I was yesterday. I couldn't move no matter how much I wanted to, where as yesterday I couldn't think enough to move. The wind kept pushing me until I fell off. Yesterday I remembered that dream and now I don't know whether it was a warning or a coincidence.' Alexia stops talking and I hear the ruffle as she gets up and walks away to the other end of the room and lays down. I listen carefully as Samantha lays down beside me and closes her eyes both of the girls leaving their conversation brief.
My heart pounds ferociously against my tightening rib cage. I have never understood properly why you call it a rib cage but the battering of my heart against my ribs gave me an epiphany. The rib cage locked away your heart and trapped it in its mists. I don't like the feeling but I don't know how to stop it so I lay in silence staring at the ceiling until my eyes flutter closed and darkness embraces me.
I open my eyes and look up. It must be morning already as the room is lighter than it was last night. I hadn't noticed until seconds ago that the lighting changed at the different times of the day but it does. It gets lighter and lighter from midnight to noon then darker and darker from noon until midnight.
I try to sit up and check the time but I haven't got an ounce of strength left in me for me to do so. I try and remember why I don't but nothing happened that would drain my energy. My muscles ache and my heart beats rhythmically like a thumping drum.
I focus on the weakness I feel spreading within my heart. I can feel some kind of force inside of me pushing against something else. The force within me clashes against the outer force like a invisible force field but I am too weak. The inner force shrinks away until the outer force touches my skin, the chill of it sinking within me and spreading through my body like a disease. I gasp and sit up, clenching my chest and tearing pathetically at the area around my heart. Suddenly my brain drifts off, disconnected from my body and my senses. My vision blurs and my hearing muffles but I can still hear and see in a way.
Something makes me crouch, my ragged brown hair falling in front of my face. I can feel the dirt clinging to my face and the grease smothering my thick hair and matting it. In an animalistic fashion I crawl towards Alexia who is day dreaming in the corner of the room. I try to stop myself but whatever is inside me is in control and has rendered my brain useless and stupid. I grab ahold of Alexia and pull her towards me. I press my dry, dirty lips next to her ear, whispering something I have no understanding of.
'93.' I whisper it right into her ear, my voice hissing and screeching quietly. She pushes me away harshly, scared of what I might do.
The others approach me and attempt to restrain me but I twist round and bite the nearest hand, pulling the skin tight and digging my teeth into the skin until I taste the metallic taste of their blood. I release their arm and stare wildly at my victim. Maggie draws her hand up to her chest and wipes her wound on her shirt. Eric approaches me and I hiss frantically pushing him away and baring my teeth.
Laya runs to Maggie and guides her away, moving her to sit next to Darren who is huddled in the corner. Eric, Samantha and Astra surround me. I want to apologise to them and tell them that something is making me do it but I have no control over any part of my body whatsoever. I crouch again, like an animal ready to pounce, my teeth bared and my dirty hair covering my eyes. With my already blurred vision the hair blocks my vision from my right eye rendering it useless. I watch my prey beadily with my left eye and size them up, preparing for the attack.
The hunger for blood drives the thing within me and I tremble at the weakness that overwhelms me. I have never had an obsession with anything but whatever I have become certainly has one. An obsession for blood. It drives it mad. It waits for days between victims and is trapped in an everlasting cycle that never goes fast enough. Without the blood that it is obsessed by it goes mad and animalistic like it is making me. It attacks violently and without mercy. I can feel these thoughts going through me so quickly I can hardly believe it but still I miss most of the crazy images spinning within me. Emotions of the darkest kind stir beneath my surface and thoughts and cravings fill my lifeless dirty eyes. I want the images of death to stop now. I can't bare them. They don't stop though. Not until I have seen them all. When they do stop though I feel an emptiness whirl around me, cold and stiff. The deaths aren't just past I realise. They are also future.
My legs bend and I crash into Eric, pulling at his hair rabidly. Samantha tears at my blue dress and Astra pulls me backwards from my hair but I hit them away with the flick of my hand. I need to tell Eric something urgently. I don't know why but the beast within me knows. I move my mouth near to his ear and whisper the last thought in my mind.
'Wait one count and then wait four more,
And on the fifth count your blood stains my shore.'
YOU ARE READING
Room 93 (FIRST DRAFT)
Mystery / Thriller'Mr. Moore, what would you do if I told you that I spent one month trapped in a room with nine people. Out of those nine people two made it back.' When journalist Harry Newman interviews a 57 year Elizabeth Moore he gets more than he expected. Whils...
