The Retribution

CHAPTER THREE- CAUCHEMARS

“HELLO?” I call out as I walk into the dimly lit room. I feel around trying to get my bearings, when suddenly lights flicker on and I’m visually assaulted from all angles.

Jumping slightly and letting out a yelp I’m startled by the sudden applause all around me and shut my ears, my gaze fleets around noticing distorted faces looking at me.

“Rosalie is that you?” I yell over the applause trying to find a familiar face among the distorted ones, and just as the applause began it comes to a halt.

I hear the click-clack of heels on the hard wooden gymnasium floor and look up, I see her in a red silk dress as she walks up to me, I place a hand to my heart and smile finally seeing someone that I know.

“Rosalie, what’s going on? What’s all this about?” I ask and look around noticing that everyone else had disappeared, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

She walks closer to me and moves to my ear, she whispers something in my ear and walks away, a smirk on her face as she does– I watch her walk away as a silent tear slips from my eye as the distorted faces appear once again.

I watch as some of them move in on me, the rest staying behind to start the applause once more. “Stay back,” I yell but to no avail, they move closer as I take a step back, their prying and grooping hands in front of them ready to grab and do whatever they wanted to me.

“Stop please,” I beg as I move further away, tears falling from my eyes. I look around for an escape but find nothing, they move closer and closer with every step I take.

I try to take another step back and almost slip, my foot almost going over an edge, I look behind me and see a dark chasm, I stare at it as it stares back, the heaviness of the darkness weighing me down– threathening to sink me.

I look forward and see the faces looking back at me wondering what choice I'll make– accept my fate and go over to them or jump into the cold abyss.

I smile mirthlessly as another tear rolls down my face, I make the choice and step back, their faces finally becoming clear as I fall and they peer into the chasm.

I close my eyes as I let the faces of those who watched and aided my suffering resonate with me, the one word she whispered to me playing over and over again. “Mourir.” 

I feel the abyss get colder and darker the further I fall, the darkness seeping into every fibre of my almost lifeless body. I open my mouth to say something when I feel my body suddenly hit the ground, a pained gasp leaving my mouth as I do, my body breaking into incoherent fragments.

I gasp as my body rises up from my bed in a cold sweat, panting as I look around my moonlit room.

I wipe the sweat and possibly tears off my face as I look at my nightstand, an orange pill bottle staring back at me. I rush for it, clumsily picking it up, and run to the toilet, I empty the contents haphazardly into the toilet and flush.

I throw the empty bottle into my bathroom trash bin almost full of other empty pill bottles, “Another bottle that couldn’t help.”

I move to walk out and catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I stop and stare– dark circles around my eyes, my skin hyper-pigmented from untreated wounds that healed wrong, my lips chapped, I look down staring at my hands, the skin around my nails picked due to anxiety, my hands rough with calluses from overworking myself, my arms coated in knife burns– cigarette burns scattered across my lap.