Be Okay

Chapter 2

The voices refused to leave Adam alone.

He was curled up into a ball, covering his ears. Not that it helped. The shapes in the endless darkness were screaming, all reminding him of how horribly everything had gone.

The clock was the most ear-piercing of them all. When he needed to feel in touch with something, Adam tried to count its beats. But each tick was another reminder that he was more and more screwed as the seconds passed by.

One, two, three...

His throat was raw from screaming into the eternal abyss in front of him. In the shadows, there were no hidden saviors or ways out. He was increasingly certain of that.

Who would come back for Adam?

Nine, ten, eleven...

He heard faint whispers underneath the messy chorus of shouts, and a sound made him jump. He looked over to the source, near the voices that wouldn't stop. Deep into the dark.

"Nobody's coming for you."

"Not again," Adam cried.

The chain had been hissing at him. It insisted on constantly telling him that his last hope would never come back. That he was completely alone in this.

But Lawrence would come back. He promised he would bring someone.

"And they'll get me outta here. It's okay! They-they're coming. Lawrence said so, and he never lied to me."

"Oh, yeah right. As if anyone would ever care about you."

"Don't worry, Adam. You-you need to stop worrying about it! Lawrence must've gotten out by now! Any second, that door will be kicked down. P-people will flood in and they'll all help—"

"Why would they help you? Why would anyone ever help you? 'People?' You're bold to even assume one person would care enough to come by, you selfish, stupid—"

"Stop it, please!"

The whispers told him what he already knew. Something he had learned a long time ago.

He tried to catch his breath and push the words out of his mind. Not that that ever worked, either.

Nothing was going as he had planned. Nothing.

And even beyond the confines of this place, he had driven the people he loved away. He would try to learn. Every day he would wrack his brain to find out why everyone in this fucked-up world seemed so annoyed. Seemed so tired of him.

But of course, he couldn't figure that one out either.

One, two, three...

Adam looked up at the mirror, and he stared at the only source of light he could find here.

The camera behind the one-way mirror turned back on a bit ago, and the little red light danced along in his vision. The person behind it was surely snickering, taking bets on what Adam would talk to next.

"Let me the fuck out!"

He swore that if he listened hard enough, he could make out the vicious laughter behind it. And the saws hidden away in the corner were inching closer and closer with every tick of the clock.

One, two, three...

The camera needed to go away. It, and the mindless sounds pelting at him from all sides, they were going to drive him fucking crazy.

But the light swayed on, doing some weird dance to the voices' words.

Tears swelled in Adam's eyes as he stared at the little dot. Someone hated him so much that they were more than content with watching him rot away.