OffSpring | ✎

Chapter LXIII

Chapter Sixty-Three | Nothingness
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M A D D I E

A chest-heaving gasp rises from my throat as I hungrily search for air, clinging to the fabric that laces through my fingers as my body rises from the surface it lied on. The lingering remnants of my dream flicker across my mind's eye, replaying like a broken record —torturing my soul by its horrendous images of razor-like teeth and blood splatter: indescribable sensations followed me to the realm of life, jittering my limbs.

Sweat coats my forehead and collarbone, the cool atmosphere felt upon my skin. With fluttering lids, I slowly gained consciousness and intake my surroundings.

My eyes flicker about the room drinking in its details, while despite poor lighting, the objects that crowd the vicinity were exposed to my naked eye. I become aware of the steel-railed single bed my body lied on top of, thin white sheets encasing the mattress and pooling in a heap at my feet, my eyes then trail to the far side of the room where a wooden chair; chipped at the arms and legs, propped against the wall beside a dresser— a short white lamp lying on its surface, creating a dull glow in the area— which was parallel to a roughed textured door that led to another room.

A dull white paint blankets the four walls that created this confinement, another wooden door, centering the room and aligning with the bed.

I prepare my body to move, the small aches and pains briefly reminding me just how vivid the dream was to me. Swinging both legs around to the side of the bed, to sit upright, I'm halted from any other movements by the sound of metal clacking against metal. Following where the sound aired from, I was greeted with the sight of my right wrist secured by shackles that connect to the wall, the length of the chain creating the noise.

I stare incredulously at them, testing their strength to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Using my free hand, I tug on them once more with all my strength only creating more noise— the structure that they were connected to, creaking with protest at my assault.

Letting go of the retched object, they clinked against the bed frame one last time, silence cocooning me soon after. I search my mind for the events that led me up until this point, coming up with a blank slate of nothingness, a small ache pressuring at my temples, the obvious creation of a headache.

My gaze skirts around the room again, logic taking the reins of my mind as apprehension settle in my bones with the conjuring thoughts to know where I am; I catch movement from my peripheral, lace curtains that hung above a small, squared window flowed with the wind— the object to my attention.

From the parted sill, a breeze caused its arrangement, the scenery just beyond the planes drawing me further where a forest lied before my eyes. The trees stood tall and thin, the vast of the woods bringing to conscious that there could be thousands littered along the land, with no end.

The night sky illuminated an eerie glow to the treetops, their bare bases and fully blossomed leaves playing along with the atmosphere. Even in the unfamiliar landscape, I knew that I was still nowhere near where I wanted to be.

'I'm still in this forsaken dimension,' I thought solemnly, clicking my tongue.

Not long after the thought skips across my mind, my solitude was interrupted as a jiggle from the door's knob brings my attention to its framework, looking straight ahead as it probes open, a silhouette of a man's outline fills the space of the threshold.

My awaiting gaze clashes with dark, twinkling eyes, the strike of familiarity hitting me like a freight train. And with those eyes, a stir of emotion boils over as I glare hotly at the man before me.