Hell Found Me

         Hell found me. But, then again, what would you except from an evil so great that it lurks from every corner and every crevice of this earth, despite our notions of kindness and goodness? Everyone in this world could dedicate every moment of their small lives into making this place friendlier and safer and yet this world would still reek of the evil of times before. Evil will always be the dominant feeling; Hell will always be the dominant after-life. Hell always knows where you are and what you are doing. This was my downfall.

         You know the story. I don’t have to tell you anything because your diagnosis will overcome any amount of truth I tell you. I was a normal girl. I followed the rules and stuck to what my parents said. Or is that not what you want to here? No, I never did drugs, and no, I was not the outcast. The life I lead was completely normal and yet I was still deemed insane. But what you ought to know is that I’m not insane, that I’m hearing anything that isn’t there. The fact is that they sought me out.

         Hell sent its demons to find me, among the rest, for reasons unknown to me. I knew from the second they stuck their tongues into my mind that that’s what was happening. I’ve always known but who would believe a teenager with voices in her head? There are medicines to cure that; there are doctors to watch over you. But no amount of sedation or watchful eyes could stop them from entering me and leaving me tottering on the brink of insanity. They knew how to work you all over. Hell, anyone would know how to take over this world if they would just pay attention, and they have been watching since the dawn of time. These fiends knew I was the one to change it all and they knew how to prevent it. They knew what words had to be spoken to get me locked up. They knew what would make me seen as unfit for society, when, in reality, I was the only one who could save it.

         For years, I was able to keep the voices in my head at bay. I put them in the back of my mind, telling myself that they were just an abnormal teenager thing. But, as I got older, they got worse. At first, it was just a whisper now and then.

         Help us.

         It is never hard to tell yourself that a few words are just your imagination. But, eventually, words turned into phrases, and phrases turned into sentences.

         Let us out of here! Help! I know you can hear me! LET ME OUT!

          Once your own mind is screaming incoherent words at you, there isn’t so much that you can do but grit your teeth together, grab the nearest object, and hold on until it passes but, naturally, this isn’t a normal thing to do when you walking down the street. People began to notice and this only made it worse. Eventually, they found out how to make everything grow distorted faces and scream prayers at me through bloody mouths. Within hours, the whole world had completely changed. Colors drained from every person except the redness in every eye and the blue veins in human flesh; all faces were distorted with madness, and they all cried tears of blood. One after another, they’d yell out You failed us! until it was just a chorus of painful sobs and high pitched voices.

         So, what is it that makes me special? How am I to know, let alone YOU to know, that these voices aren’t just that? Well, that is just what makes me special, and that is just what these demons didn’t see about me. I have learned to look around and see the defects in everything, everyone.

         As we sit here now, I see the defects in you, and I could’ve been the one to make them shrivel up and die. You see, all one has to do is open ones eyes and truly take a look at the world and every person who walks by them. Luckily for me, I developed a greater skill that helped me go beyond that. Take a seat in that chair. What do you see? Nothing out of the ordinary? Well, as I sit in that same exact chair, my face goes pale, my eyes roll back in my head, and I can see every moment that that chair has seen. I can tell what has happened around that chair, what conversations have happened near that chair. I become the eyes of that chair. Of course, sitting in chairs and hearing you talk all day doesn’t make me one that can make an impact on the world, does it? But put me near a person and let me place a hand on them and I can see everything that has ever happened to them, everything that has ever been thought, spoken, or felt. This all happens within a second and it can happen with anyone.

         At first, this is one of the things that helped out the diagnosis of insanity, but only because I couldn’t control my own reactions, but I’ve learned. No longer does this ability take over my body and cause me to lose control; it is simply a part of me now. These visions and sounds can be stored in my mind until I can pay attention to them. And that is how I realized just what needed to be done.

         As I was lying on my bed, going over the thoughts and visions that I had stolen from random souls, I started to notice a strange whisper.

         Diabolus est intus vos, permissum illa everto exsisto solvo.

         At first, it was only in a single set of thoughts, in only one mind but it quickly spread to others and as it spread, it grew louder.

         Diabolus est intus vos, permissum illa everto exsisto solvo.

         At the turn of every new thought, that screaming whisper gained only a tiny bit of volume, but it never lost the raspy tone in which it was recited.

         Diabolus est intus vos, permissum illa everto exsisto solvo.

         As the voice gained speed and volume, all other thoughts started to scramble and fade away. Before long, this prayer was the only thing running through their minds, the only thing they could think.

         That night, a dream crept into being as I slept. Somehow I had found myself in a dark forest, my vision fogged over from a red dust that was sweeping through the area. Following a small trail, I soon came upon a large circle that was cleared of any trees. As I walked upon the circle, I was knocked to my knees by an amazing force that looked like some sort of shadow. Every time I turned to look at the being, it darted past my vision, letting me only see a small hint of what it was. Coming at me at full force again, it knocked my head into the ground. As I stumbled to regain my footing, it grabbed my head and yanked it backwards. The heat from the beings gaze was so strong that I thought a hole would be burned into the very depths of my soul. Just as I felt I couldn’t take it anymore, the being whispered the devil is within you, let these demons be free.

          As I jerked awake, I realized that the being had the same raspy voice as that whisper that had baffled me only hours before. Every possible solution ran through my mind, but as I finally started to narrow down my options, my demons took hold again. They knew exactly what I was planning on doing and they knew that if I wasn’t eliminated soon, I wouldn’t be at all. And that is when they decided exactly what to do with me.

         I set out to see just how many minds this whisper had invaded, but I soon found out that things were different. As I bumped into my first victim, the whole world froze around us and she grabbed my arm. Before I could realize what was happening, her other hand grabbed my face and pulled it towards her just as her soul ripped from her body, tore her lips apart and erupted with a blood-curdling scream. No matter how hard I tried, there was no loosening her grip. Violently, she pulled my face next to her mouth, and whispered there is no escaping now and exposed a lizard-like tongue to snake across my right cheek. Almost immediately, the world snapped back into place and everyone was moving as if nothing had happened.

         My feet carried me faster than they ever have, but naturally, anything supernatural can catch up to the power of the human body. Everywhere I turned, people’s souls were ripping away from them and staring at me with big, black holes where their eyes should’ve been. Nothing could conceal their screams of hatred and pain. With my hands pressed firmly to my ears, I ran blindly away from the crowd until I thought I was safe. I ended up in a dark alley where I crawled into the smallest corner and rocked myself until everything seemed normal again. Unfortunately, it never was quite normal enough.

         A young man was walking past the alleyway when he stopped and turned towards me. He had a look of utter confusion on his face when he saw me scrunched up in the corner, but that soon turned to pain as his soul ripped from him and lunged himself straight through my heart. The feeling of emptiness was overwhelming until I felt my soul being ripped away. I shrieked a high-pitched cry and slumped over in that alleyway for you to find me.

         When I woke up, I was trapped in this hell-hole asylum, strapped to a bed in my own padded room. You say it is for my own good, that I need to get my demons out and find a better life. You have no idea how true that statement is but the demons are still here. They constantly tell me how I’ve failed and they are just counting down the days before this filth-ridden hole is finally theirs. This world will soon be theirs and you will finally learn what true pain is. So, as you sit here and listen to my story, you might as well start believing because hell found me and it will find you, too.