Investigator

Chapter 16: Losing It

Mort was getting tired, he felt like he was walking down an endless hallway. No rooms had a window, except for a few that had bars on them. The same pattern on the ground repeated as the tiles swapped between white and light blue, lightly hidden by the fog on the ground. Mort staggered with every step, his legs being heavy and his eyelids feeling the same way. His stomach growled and he felt completely weak as he had zero energy. Mort's exhaustion session was interrupted by a noise.

It sounded like someone exhaling, very very loudly. Mort moved his camera to see in the direction of the noise and saw a room with its door wide open. He thought about calling out, but he didn't want to take the risk of one of the people to hear him, so instead he just walked over to the room and looked inside. It was empty, there wasn't a thing in the room aside from the bed and a vent with more fog lightly seeping out. Mort walked over and sat down on the bed and just took a moment to catch his breath.

He rolled up his sleeve and looked at his wrist. It had several barley healed cuts, cuts from last night. It felt like a first world problem now. Everything felt like a first world problem now, his fights, his moods, his problems. The only thing that mattered was getting out alive. He couldn't wait to see Susie again, he felt like such an asshole the way he treated her last night. Maybe he just wasn't right for her. It was while he was taking a break that the door to the room slammed shut.

Mort jumped up and ran over to the door. He pulled and pushed on it but it didn't budge, he stood there in complete darkness. Mort closed and eyes and took calming breaths. He was reassuring himself, but that reassurance was soon gone when he felt a hand wrap around his throat.

Mort was being choked and he flailed his arms out to try to hit his attacker but he couldn't feel anyone. He mustered up the strength and pulled away from whatever grasped him. He turned and began running but he soon ran into something and he fell to the floor.

When he opened his eyes, Mort looked up to see that he had hit a tree. He looked around confused and found that he was outside in the woods. It was morning, the sun was on the horizon but it was bright enough for him to see around. Mort saw in the distance a cabin with a car out front. It took him a second but he realized the car was his car. He lumbered over to the cabin and walked up on the porch. Mort walked over to the window and peeked inside, he was shocked by what he saw.

It was him! And Susie and Kevin! They were sitting on a couch with filming equipment sitting around them, they were talking but Mort couldn't make out what they were saying. He was so confused, he didn't understand what the hell was happening. Mort backed up and rubbed his eyes in a desperate way to end this but instead he found himself falling backwards over the porch railing, darkness surrounding him entirely. He felt like he was falling, falling in an endless void. It only stopped when Mort found himself crashing into a pool of water.

Mort swam to the top and caught his breath. The water was freezing cold and he was surrounded, Mort couldn't even see shore. Not wanting to die of hyperthermia, he began paddling in a random direction in hopes of reaching safety. He had been swimming for many minutes when he finally saw what he hoped was land.

He paddled over and climbed onto the grass, laying down to catch his breath. He looked up at the stars as the night sky loomed above. Mort was confused as hell, he didn't know what was going on, what was real, or if he was even alive. His thought process was interrupted by a loud car alarm going off nearby. Still out of breath, Mort got up and stumbled up the hill to see a stationary car with the alarm going off and on the ground next to it was a person. Mort stared at the person lying on the road, after a few seconds he realized it was his girlfriend, Wendy.

Mort ran over to her and kneeled down beside her. She was breathing but had blood all over her chest. Her eyes were wide opened, staring up at the night sky. Mort had a tear streaming down his face as he stared into his girlfriend's lifeless eyes.

"Wendy?" Mort asked in a shaky voice, his hands shook as he caressed her face. "Wendy, please you-" Mort stopped as he soon realized what he was doing. Wendy was dead, this wasn't real, she wasn't real, Mort was here mourning a fake. Mort stood up and wiped the tear out of his eye. "No, your not real. I will not be tricked!" Mort yelled over the car alarm. Mort wiped his nose with his arm and held his head, it ached badly. Mort turned to get in the car and get away from here.

Before Mort could even turn however, Wendy was on her feet and pushed Mort to the ground causing him to hit his head off the road. Now his head hurt like hell, but he had bigger problems in the shape of his dead girlfriend looming over him with a horrifying look in her eyes. Mort tried to get up but when he went to do so he had a jolt of pain shoot up his arms and he cried out in pain. Mort looked at his hands and saw giant gashes going from his wrist to his elbows. Mort looked back up at his girlfriend who was now crouched above him.

"Breathe" She said in a hushed whisper. Wendy began choking up something. It was green and gooey and it fell all over Mort's face and chest. Mort shook trying his hardest to fight back, he closed his eyes as tears formed again in his eyes. He continued to thrash around until his legs hit something hard.

Mort opened his eyes he was back in darkness, only this time he wasn't falling through a void, this time he was back in the room at the hospital. Mort got up and looked at his arms, they were fine. Mort looked around wide eyed, he had lost it hadn't he? He turned and began briskly walking out of the room but stopped at a sound, a crunching sound. He looked down and moved his feet only to see a single orange leaf there on the ground. Mort shook it off, he couldn't think straight, he just ran out of the room without looking back.