I open my eyes, confronted by the type of darkness that suffocates you and makes you wonder about what’s hiding in the darkness. The impenetrable darkness. They say you shouldn’t be afraid of the dark, but, rather, what hides in it.

    Where am I? I’m on a hospital bed covered in thin, scratchy blankets and dressed in a hospital gown. A feeble machine beeps in the corner, tracking my heartbeat. I tear off all the tubes and wires and gasp as the IV needle comes out. I don’t know where I am. I shouldn’t be here.

   I make my way towards the door, bumping into a tray of sharp instruments that make me tremble. A few have blood on them. Behind me, I hear a high pitched beeping and realize that the heart monitor is showing that I have flatlined. Stupid machine.

    I open the door and peer out. Nothing. The hallway is dark except for a few flickering ceiling lights that turn shadows into possible monsters. Carefully, I step outside.

    “Nurse! I need a nurse!” I call into the darkness. I need answers. I need to know why I’m here.

    I pass another room, the door is wide open. In the corner is a chair. Sitting in the chair is a woman. She leans her head back and cries as I pass her. I hear her whispering about her baby, asking where her baby is.

    I walk faster, trying to ignore her. I hear a scream as I pass another room. I need a phone. I need a phone. I need a phone.

    I open the door of a room that appears to be some type of office. In it is a desk, a cabinet, and an empty chair. The phone, I discover, is broken: the cord has been cut. The cabinet is locked.

    “Hey!” Someone shouts.

    I turn around, catching a glimpse of a figure in the empty chair. Nothing.

    The phone rings shrilly. I grab it off the hook, realizing with a start that it shouldn’t be ringing. I drop it and the wires wind themselves around my arm, squeezing my wrist like a snake. My screams don’t sound like me, they sound so far away. Terror and panic grip my heart in an iron-like clench.

    I blink and the phone is silent and its wires dead. I back out of the room and run, glancing over my shoulder as I run. Suddenly, I slip and fall on my back. The wind is knocked out of me and I gasp painfully for air. I try to stand and slide, in what I notice is a puddle of blood. I’ve left streaks and smears all across the floor as a result of my fall.

    I scream and backpedal, wiping my hands on the floor. Worms wriggle in the blood and on the floor where I wiped my hands and they climb up my hands and legs. I scream and thrash my legs, smacking my hands against them. I’ve hated worms for as long as I can remember. A worm, black, thin, and long, bites my skin and burrows into me. I grasp at it in an attempt to pull it out. My bloody hands slip and it disappears. So does the blood. However, my gown and skin remain bloodied.

    I run, searching for a phone or a nurse or someone. One room yields a woman standing by her window, begging to be able to jump. Anything but this, she begs. Another yields a man so disfigured I gag and dry heave. His arms have been sewn into his chest, his feet have been sewn into his knees, huge black stitches keep him together. They keep his mouth sewn shut. His eyes reveal a look of absolute terror. And a cry for death.

    Before I look away, I spot a tray full of sharp, bloody instruments and a spool of black thread next to his hospital bed.

    I stumble down a stairwell, searching for an exit or help or a phone.

     “You looking for someone, sweetheart?”

     I stop dead in my tracks. “Hello?” My voice wavers. “Can you help me?”

    “I can help you. I can take you somewhere better than here.” The voice, thin and raspy answers me.

    “Where am I?”

    “I can help you. Come in here, darling.” A layer of malice and evil lies just beneath the voice. My heart drops. The cross around my neck burns against my chest, smoldering against my skin.

    “Shut up, you monster!” Another voice yells. “Shut up! Don’t make me give you your medicine again.”

    “No, no that.” The raspy voice pleads. “I’ll be quiet.”

    “I can’t believe you, trying to lead that innocent creature in here.” The voice says angrily. “Maybe I should give you your medicine early.”

    I hear the sound of machinery whirring and the crack of electricity and the raspy voiced man screams. The screams beg for mercy and relief, but also promise death and revenge.

    “Run.” The man looks at me from the doorway and slams the door. His gloves leave bloody smears on the door.

    “Run!” He screams from the other side of the door.

    I run. I run and run and run. The flickering lights do little to penetrate the evil darkness that hides the horrors. A melody of screams, curses, and cries fill my ears. I can’t outrun this. Suddenly, a figure steps out into the hallway in front of me. Under a light, my eyes strain to see what it is. The shape is bent and twisted with long, thin blackened limbs and a crooked back. It almost seems faceless.

    “I see you are one of us!” It shrieks, laughing shrilly. “One of us. One of us. One of us. They’ll fix you up real well. Look what they did to me!”

   “Get away from me, you monster!” I shout. This can’t be real, I’m in a nightmare.

    “No, you aren’t dreaming. There’s no nightmares here. Only us. And you can’t wake up from us.” The monster replies, cocking its head. “No waking up.”

    I shake my head and feel my eyes brimming with tears. “No. Get away. Get away.”

    “It doesn’t matter if I leave, others will come. Others, others, others.” It shrieks. “

    I start to remember why I’m here. I remember flipping my car, the curving, rain-slicked road too much for my car to handle. Fading in and out of consciousness, the rain pelting my car, a soft, yet sinister sound. They must’ve taken me to a hospital when they found me on the road. Whoever “they” is, I don’t know.

    “This must be some type of prank or gimmick or maybe an effect of the drugs they put me on.” I say. Maybe this will get me an answer. Still, I’m scared. I don’t like not knowing things.

    “How rude!” I turn around, startled. “How dare you call my life’s work ‘a prank’!” The doctor from before stands a couple feet away from me. His glasses prevent me from looking into his eyes, though, I don’t think I want to.

    “I’m sorry...I just” I turn back around and realize the figure is gone. “Where’d he go?”

    “Where did who go, my dear?” He speaks with a slight British accent.

    “The thing that I was just talking to!” I search the gloom, desperately trying to find it.

    “There was nothing there, you were just talking to yourself just now. What are these ‘others’ you were talking about? I would also like to apologize for that little mishap with my newest addition to the family. He’s still learning not to mess with the others.”

    “No, no” I shake my head. “It was right there. I saw it. And, that thing was evil!”

    “You shouldn’t refer to things as ‘it’, that’s quite rude. He is evil, I suppose.”

    “But, it wasn’t human! Evil?”

    “That’s a preposterous idea! Are you sure that car crash didn’t affect your head? I’ve been wanting to take a look inside that brain of yours. Yes, evil, what else?”

    I back away. “No, I’m fine.” I was so relieved to find someone, but I don’t trust anyone who wants to poke around in my brain. “Get away!”

    “After all, they say it’s usually all in your head.” He takes off his glasses and meets my eyes. My jaw drops. He has no eyes. No eye sockets. Just a blank space where they should be. I stumble backwards and turn around and run.

    He staggers after me, reaching out his arms to guide him. A long, blood red tongue snakes out of his mouth, smelling the air. He shrieks and my head pounds, the pitch is like a dagger being twisted in my eardrums. My run becomes a limp, as my body remembers that it is injured. I drag myself to a room and lock the door behind me. I grab a chair and a stool and prop them up against the door.

    I grab my head and another fragment of my memory comes back. I remember something running into the road and causing me to brake, which spun my car around and caused me to flip.

    They made me wreck. I wasn’t rescued after my accident. I was abducted. I start panicking, realizing no one knows where I am. I run over to the window and tear open the blinds. There’s nothing put a cement wall behind the wood and glass.

    I fumble with the bathroom door and manage to open it. A girl sits, propped up against the wall, only she looks exactly like me. I rush over to her and shake her, trying to wake her up. Nothing. I check for a pulse. She’s dead. I push up her sleeve. She has the same tattoo of a rose wilting. She has the same scar at the base of her neck. Her injuries match mine.

    “What will it take for you to realize that’s you? Or was you, I should say.” I whirl around. The doctor stands in the bathroom doorway.

    I scream. “You’re crazy! This can’t be me! Get away from me!” I stand up and press myself against the bathroom wall.

    “You’re dead. Everyone here is dead.” He explains. “You died this morning from the car crash. So, you ended up here. This is what remains of the hospital where I did all my work when I was alive.”

    “You made me crash!” I shout.

    “No, I can’t leave here. Neither can you. My friend takes care of all the dirty work.”

    He throws his head back and screams. His scream echoes off the walls. I hear crashing and realize that he is calling something. Three monsters, like the one from before, tear into the room.

    “Take her to the operating room. I have something new I want to try on her. Be gentle, she’s fresh.” The doctor commands.

   The monsters grab me and haul me away, my screams do nothing. A fresh wave of terror washes over me and I struggle, struggles which prove to be pointless.

    “Stop fighting it!” One hisses.

    “You will serve a greater purpose soon!” Another shrieks.

    “The Greater Purpose.” The third adds. “Nothing that’s dead stays dead.”

    The cold, hard metal of the operating table gives me a fresh wave of adrenaline. However, the strength of the monsters and the restraints holding me down prove too strong.

    “Don’t scream too much or he’ll sew your mouth shut!” A monster shrieks.

    My vision starts to turn black at the edges, like a piece of burning paper blackening at the corners. The last thing I see before I go under is the doctor’s leering smile. The last thing I hear is him ordering his monsters to send word to the father explaining that they have another one of his children who will serve him well.

   Yes, I will serve you. Everything disappears into blackness: the paper has been consumed by fire. I will serve you.

    Outside the remains of an old, abandoned hospital, rows of swaying pines whisper about the darkness that’s approaching. One that will block out the sun and reduce the world to ash. A new king will be crowned, a king of darkness and ash. The song whispered in their boughs will not be heeded. Their warning will go ignored, corrupt souls don’t make enemies with similar evils.