Soul Pills

Chapter 16

Hannah crept around the edges of her cell. She had long since come to realize that her prison had no physical walls, the edges were less tangible than that. She pressed against one of the barriers and felt a wave of nausea. In the second before she doubled over she caught a glimpse of the outside world. Through the cracks she could make out flashes of what appeared to be her front lawn, but the grass was dead and everything she knew looked rotten.

Hannah rose and pressed against the edge of the barrier again. She tried to focus on the sounds in the area, but they were muffled and alien. A number of voices chanted and mumbled in a language she couldn't comprehend. The sound drifted away, like a leaf carried on the wind. Hannah tried to scream, but her mouth didn't open, and the sound that was tearing her soul apart refused to leave and fill the air.

Hannah had long since lost track of the number of days she had been in here. For a while she had been able to catch little flickers of the outside world, like Polaroid pictures being passed in through the invisible bars. She could feel herself walking at times, and though nobody ever passed her any food she could feel herself being fed occasionally.

Every day her prison had grown smaller and smaller. She couldn't see the walls but she could feel them pressing inwards. Once she had rushed outwards, pressing with all her might at the barriers that contained her. She still remembered the sweet smell of her room, the faint scent of incense and rose. She didn't remember much of her life before this prison but she remembered that moment of sheer bliss, the feeling of real freedom. Hannah also remembered the feeling of the beast that tore into her and dragged her back to her cell. It clawed and screamed and sunk its claws into her mind, she remembered the feeling of its razor sharp tendrils weaving through her skull and filling her brain with searing ash. She rarely pushed at the edges any more, and when she did it was always gingerly, she didn't want to conjure the wrath of the beast that guarded her.

Hannah remembered her confusion when she had first been brought here. She had been dreaming of her day at school. Joshua had been standing alone in the hallway, his back pressed against a long bank of lockers. He was holding a football, lazily tossing it into the air. He was wearing all black, his hair was slicked back. She had thought it odd to see him dressed like that. Joshua was a denim and t-shirt sort of guy. She had walked, no, not walked... Hannah had been drawn down the hallway towards him. Here in her cell the dream seemed more tangible than when she was awake. The sensation of moving down the hallway was as if she were floating towards Joshua while the hallway was contracting to bring him closer.

Hannah had floated up in front of him. They stood for a long time looking at each other before Joshua spoke. "I need you," he said, his eyes were deep and inviting, a deep brown that drew her in, "I need you to go away for a while, Hannah."

Hannah remembered the next few seconds of the dream with crystal clarity. Before she could even try to respond Joshua had grown larger, his muscles had bulged and twisted while she watched. His jaw had elongated and his teeth turned edgewise in his mouth. Slowly he stepped towards her with a sadistic grin. One of his eyes twitched as he lifted Hannah with one hand. He tore the door off the locker he had been leaning on and behind the door was nothing. Not just an empty locker, but a terrible void. A blackness that flowed out of the locker and clung to the edges of the hallway. Hannah had tried to struggle, but Joshua's grip had a paralyzing effect on her. She gaped blankly as he threw her into the gaping mouth of the void. Down she had spiraled, as she fell she lost the input from her senses. The first thing to go was her sense of touch - then hearing. The darkness was so complete that Hannah wasn't certain if she had lost her ability to see or if nothing else existed in the darkness.

She had been there for at least four hours the first time. She had eventually drifted off completely, when she woke up her parents were by her bedside weeping and holding her hands. She looked at them and asked, "Mom? Dad? What's wrong?"

Her father told her that she had some sort of seizure while she was sleeping, and that they were afraid that they were going to have to take her to the hospital. The seizure had stopped and they had called their family doctor. He had come to see her and said that she seemed okay and that Hannah would probably sleep it off.

Hannah wondered if she was in a coma. She wondered if she had a brain tumor or some sort of exotic disease. She faintly remembered a doctor. What was his name? Doctor Coleman?

A voice came out of the darkness and said, "Doctor Coburn. Doctor Marcus Coburn. That's who was trying to help you."

Hannah didn't know how to react, she had only thought that! She wasn't speaking out loud was she? Nobody had ever spoken to her in her cell before.

"No," the voice said, "you aren't speaking out loud. We are linked. But the link isn't strong."

Who are you? Hannah still couldn't speak, but she tried to form her thoughts as if she were saying them out loud. She wasn't sure if she was going crazy or if someone was actually liked to her.

"My name is Emma Mooney," the voice replied from the darkness, "can you say that for me? Say my name?"

"Emma Mooney," Hannah said. This time the words came out loud, Hannah could feel her throat move, could feel the air pass over her lips. She could almost taste the words as they passed over her tongue. The darkness lightened in her cell, and a single point of light formed in front of Hannah. She wanted to cry, she wanted to reach out and hold onto the light, it had been so long since she had seen anything.

The light grew brighter and brighter and formed into a solid shape the shape of a woman. The woman looked at Hannah and said, "Good, Hannah. Now I want you to try and concentrate on that name, but don't say it out loud again. I want you to think all your questions and answers, do you understand?"

Hannah reflexively started to say her response but quickly changed her mind and thought, "Yes, I understand."

"Good," said the Emma, "I can feel you thinking my name, and as long as you do I can stay here with you. I am going to help you escape, but you are going to have to do exactly as I say, and you are going to have to be very brave."

Hannah thought, "Where am I?"

Emma shook her head and said, "Don't be concerned with that. You won't be here much longer, my friends are already on their way to come get you. We have a plan, but it won't work without you."

"What can I do? I'm stuck in here!" Hannah was afraid, this could be a trick, or it could be her mind slipping away, creating a happy fantasy to soothe her in her final hours.

"Hannah!" The ghostly woman snapped, "Concentrate. You don't have any room to doubt. The creature that has you trapped here can't hold you if you really wish to go. I know. I have been trapped, too, in my own way, maybe today we can escape together."

Hannah focused on repeating Emma's name in her mind as she had been instructed. My friends are on their way, when they get here they will ask you a question, I need you to focus on saying yes. You need to agree to the question, even if it doesn't make any sense to you. Can you do that?

Hannah thought that she could, she wanted to escape this place so badly, she wanted to see her parents again, her friends. She wanted to see herself. Hannah wanted to laugh and cry and touch again.

Emma smiled gently and said, "I can help you with that one, I think, here, take my hands." She held her hands in front of her, palms up. Hannah wanted to touch another human being again so badly, but was unable to move, she had no control over her body in this place.

Emma whispered, "Look," and Hannah felt her hands come up to meet Emma's. It was a miraculous sight, the hands in front of her were definitely her own, she focused and wiggled her fingers. Hannah would have wept if she thought it was possible, she clasped Emma's hands tightly in her own and thought, "Thank you."

"No," thought Hannah, "thank you. Thank you for giving me hope. Do you think I can really be free of this place?"

Emma squeezed Hannah's hands gently and said, "Yes."