the crimson chamber || luke hemmings

p r o l o g u e

Darkness.

Nothing but darkness.

As I attempt to look around, I only see black engulfing darkness everywhere, with no signs of light. For a second, I had to make sure my eyes were open, fearing I have gone blind. I try to walk forward, yet I don't feel my feet touching the floor. That is, if there even is a floor. The floor is as black as everything around me.

A shiver runs down my spine as I stop moving. I stand there looking at pure darkness. I gather my courage to call out in hope that someway, somehow someone is also here and would answer me. Nobody does. The air is thick and heavy, filling in my lungs as I breath in the intoxicating air that surrounds me.

Panic. Panic suddenly rises in me and I keep calling out to someone, anyone, begging for someone to hear me and respond. Yet, I never hear anything and slowly even my own voice gets swallowed by the silence that comes with the darkness.

I need to take in the silence to counteract the fear that threatens to engulf me. This kind of thick silence would normally calm me down, but this silence is terrifying. No sound of wind hitting against the branches of the trees on a chill autumn day. No sound of a ticking clock counting down the seconds. No sound of small animals noises in the background nor no sound of rain hitting against the window during the night as you lay in bed.

Just silence.

Silence so intense the only thing I can hear is the fastened pace of my breathing as I try to remain calm.

As I stand here, in this dark silent room; only one thought swirls in my mind:

Loneliness.

I'm alone in this place. There's nobody else here. I'm stuck here with nothing but my mind, slipping crazy ideas and thoughts into my head.

"Isn't it fun being all by yourself? There's nobody around to judge you. You can be whoever you want with ease."

The voice is haunting, demonic and distorted. Sounds like three or four different voices combined into one. It keeps on whispering things into my ear as if it was right there beside me, but when I look around; I'm met with nothing but pure darkness.

"Join us, deary. We know you want to."

More panic rises in me aS I hear more and more voices circling around in my head. Join who? There is nobody here!

"Join us in the insane world. Where you can do everything you always wanted. Just let us in, we'll help you."

My head begins throbbing as more and more voices come and go inside my head, saying many different things at the same time, making it barely audible what they are saying.

The pain in my head continues and increases every second. My hands find their way up to my head uncontrollably as I try to get rid of the voices, shaking my head side to side harshly, my hair falling everywhere as my entire body begins to shake.

Once the pain reaches the point where it's unbearable; I let out one loud, terrifying scream on the top of my lungs until my throat is sore.

The voices stop.

I fall to the ground as I bring my knees up to my chest and put my head in my hands. I couldn't control anything that just happened. That wasn't me.

One voice comes back. The distorted voice sending chills down my spine as they say one sentence slowly.

"Nobody escapes insanity, deary."

The air was stifling. It felt as though the air is intoxicating with some kind of poison lurking around. As I look up, expecting to be met with the same darkness, I see a small figure in the corner of the dark, silent room, with their head down, dressed in a while gown. As it looks up at me with a pale face and devious gleaming eyes, it loomed towards me.

"You heard us. You can't escape insanity. This is your one way ticket to the land where madness is your only way out."

It reached out, its manky grimy nails lunging for my throat as I stand there my body being completely paralyzed. I'm unable to do anything but watch as the creature, that I thought only existed in horror movies, tightens its grip around my throat.

And then it all faded to black.

~

Hope you enjoyed. Quick trigger warning, this story deals with a lot of dark shit and mental illness etc. Please don't read if you're uncomfortable with this.

Cover made by the-wallflower-girl.