Unfathomable

Taylorsville

Her eyes fluttered open. Her head was spinning and felt it felt like hot daggers were poking into her eyes. They burned as fluorescent lighting poured into her cornea's. Her muscles stretched and screamed under her pale skin. She could feel the cold stale air against her, something about it felt too familiar. She could smell faint hints of lavender and lemon. Like a weak air freshener had just been sprayed directly into her face. The cold hard bed she was lying on was rigid enough that she may as well have been sleeping on the floor. Just because of the atmosphere of the room she knew exactly where she was. 

Taylorsville. 

 That damn social worker.   

She thought to herself as she looked at her bruised arm where Melissa stabbed the needle in. Following the vain in her arm to her wrist she saw a green and blue medical bracelet around her wrist. It rubbed on her scars and gave her an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She looked around the room in disgust.

Not much has changed since you were here last has it? The same old grime on the walls and rusty bed frames. The old metal bars guard the window so you don't decide to take a long walk off of a short pier in the middle of the night. Your right back where you were. Aren't you so happy to be home?

Riley ignored her inner practicable sensible part of herself. But she couldn't help but notice how right it was.
Taylorsville was an older hospital made over a hundred years ago. With such little money collecte over the years they haven't had much to renovate the building or any of the rooms really.
It honestly is a wonder where all of the money they get from donations and patients' parents bank accounts goes, but who has the right to ask. No one cares much anyways, they throw the towns crazies here to rot away as their minds go from individual to piles of remains inside the skulls of the unwilling, depressed, and suicidal patients who are trapped here.

She took in a deep breath as she collected her thoughts. She stared at the metal door leading to the outside hall. Nurses and other patients were walking by, off in their own world and routines, not paying attention to the girl who just woke up from a nightmare that would haunt her for weeks.
Her mind swam in an ocean of troubles. She tried to keep her psyche out of the deep end, but it was getting harder with each swell of waves crashing against her. A single tear slid off her cheekbone and layed near her ear. She stared at everything from a slanted view and wished she could go back. 

Back to the last time she saw her dad. Back to before her mom tried drugs. Before she thought nothing of herself. 

She sat there in silence, listening to the sound of electric static in her head. She wished she could change the channel to something new.
Eventually, she grew tired of staring out the window to the door and sat up on the bed. A whiff of sweat and something salty hit her nose. She cringed against it and walked to the door.

She peered out of the stained window into the darkened hallway. No one walked in front of her little slice of hell. She stared out of her escape for a long time until she decided to turn around.

There was a vent by her bed.

Was that there before? What does it lead to?

She stared at the vent for a little while. Something in her was pulling her towards it. Pulling her towards this dark vent in her wall. Taking a deep breath she commanded her feet to move forward. She could feel the muscles in her legs rejecting the idea of movement. Something primitive in her spoke of danger, death, and most of all fear.
With effort she soon was upon the vent. It wasn't as dark as she thought it was, in fact she could see what looked like another room. She could point out a bed and a table next to it. She couldn't see anyone in the room though. Maybe it was just another empty room in this house of suffering.

Maybe it was some hope for her escape. She thought of it  for a long time and hadn't realized that she had been staring into the dark vent for over 2 hours. 

Feeling a cold breeze on the back of her neck awakened her out of her trance. It caused the skin on the back of her neck to tense and her heartbeat to quicken to the opaque of a rabbit in danger. She suddenly felt extremely tired and drained. She tried to stand but she had no control over her legs. She didn't know what was happening so she slumped against the wall behind her.

With her eyes closed she tried to calm herself down. But it felt like she was getting interrogated by her own emotions. Nothing was setting off this onslaught of tiredness and exhaustion but yet, she couldn't do anything about it. 

Her placement gave her a good view of the door. 

She was stuck staring at it. 

It taunted her. Mocking her freedom. She was pinned against the wall by some unseen force. It was different this time; it wasn't exhaustion holding her it was fear. She stared at the metallic door as the well in her chest went deeper. Her very soul was drowning in her panicking body.

She heard the door unlock.

Her heart stopped. Nothing in her body dared to make a sound, not even the faint rhythmic breathing that it needed to survive. 

The door swung open revealing an empty hallway.

"Wh-what the hell?" Riley was able to choke out the words. 

She heard a screeching sound coming towards her. Her heart was in her throat and it made it hard to swallow. The panic was overflowing her mind as the sound came closer to her. 

Screech, thump. Screech, thump. 
Closer
Screech, thump. Screech, thump.
It stopped.

Riley took in a breath as she stared into the empty hallway. There was nothing there.

Something was still holding her in place but she was unable to put her finger on it. All of a sudden she heard something scream. It pierced her ears and made its way into her skull, vibrating in the fluid of her brain. She heard something running towards her. She couldn't move. She couldn't run. She was going to be taken away again but this time she wasn't coming back.

    Listening to the sound of the creature growing closer she closed her eyes and awaited her demise. It got to her room and its screams filled her head. She opened her eyes to face the eyes of death. But instead there was nothing there, the fear was gone. She moved her head up and was met with a cold spot. She felt a presence next to her ear. She held her breath as it whispered in her ear.

"Soon."

She cried silently in her room with her knees pulled close to her chest. She found comfort when she finally fell asleep. Little did she know, the very thing that spoke to her was watching over her as she drifted into vulnerability.