The Pen is Mightier then the Sword

Part 1

         

Troy didn't know what to do, he loved her, needed her, so much so that he was in pain. He wanted to talk to her, but felt that if he did she would just laugh at him and walk away, or worse think he is some sort of weirdo. He had spent all of the summer trying to figure out a way to talk to her without looking like a loser.

He lives in a small town in Oregon called Milleville. He was born there, raised there, and if his mother had her way, he would stay there. He however, wanted to get of his small town and see the world. Milleville was too small to keep him interested. The only thing there worth staying for is Melissa, a girl in his school who was amazingly beautiful. He had first noticed her when they first started high school; she was the captain of the girl's softball team. He needed a way to win her away from her jerk of a boyfriend, Greg.

His hatred for Greg started when he started high school. He went to school the first day thinking it would be the start of a new time in his life, a time when he wouldn't be picked on. A time when he could give himself a new image, how stupid was that. The first five minutes of school he ran into Greg in the halls by accident, and he over reacted and picked Troy up by his arms and shoved him against the wall. Luckily, a teacher saw it and stopped him from hurting Troy, but ever since that day Greg constantly tormented Troy.

He finally figured it out three days ago. He had been in his room; playing video games, when he realized he had forgotten to clean up his mom's room. She had asked him yesterday because she works late and sleeps when she gets home. He walked into the hall and passed the wall of pictures of relatives and friends that always hung there. When he looked in his mom's room he saw that there wasn't a whole lot to clean up. He opened up the closet and something fell on his head and was heavy enough to make him rub his head in pain, it was an old, leather-bound, black book. When he opened it dust flew into the air, causing him to sputter and wheeze.

After the dust settled he flipped through the first few pages of the book, and noticed all of the words were in Latin. He figured out that it was his mother's old Wicca spell book, from when she was in high school. She had told him about how she had gone through a rebellious phase and went Goth. Curious; he flipped through it a little and found a spell to give the caster telepathy. Deciding he had nothing to lose, he used the spell.

         He went into the kitchen, passing his room and the bathroom across the hall from his, and brewed a potion containing: lavender, vanilla, chamomile, and thyme. He then created a pentagram, with points being blue candles as specified, in the living room. Then, he read the spell itself and drank the potion. Suddenly the lights in the house went out, the windows all slammed themselves open, and the candles blew themselves out one by one. Scared, he left the pentagram, and backed away from it. As he stared at it, he felt that something was not quite right, and he felt like he was being watched.

         Then as suddenly as everything started, it went back to normal. The only proof that Troy had, that anything had happened was the candles had stayed unlit. He felt no different, he didn't hear anything. Thinking that the spell failed he sighed and began cleaning everything up so his mom didn't have a cow.

However, when he tried to clean the pentagram off the floor, it wouldn't come off. He tried bleach, orange clean, and pine-sol. Nothing would get out the stains; all he had used was red erasable marker. He wet his finger and reached down and touched the marker, but when he brought it up to his lips and tasted it he was stunned it tasted like blood.

He backed away, now scared stiff. What was going on, he needed to get out of the house for a while. He left a note on the fridge and left his house. He went where he usually did when he needed solitude for thought, the large hill near the limits of the town. He passed the neighborhood crack-house on the way, there was a young women there who looked like she hadn't seen the sun in months, and probably hadn't. He arrived at the hill about twenty minutes later, after passing through the town dump; luckily the hill was upwind from it.

As he looked out at the city he thought, unsuccessfully, as to how marker had become blood. Then he started to hear voices, soft at first, but they grew, louder and louder, until he couldn't stand it. He covered his ears, his head was throbbing, and he thought it would explode. He heard kids praying, adults cursing at traffic, druggies tweaking, and keys tapping on a typewriter.

Then the voices disappeared, all of them but one. The voice came from behind him. He turned around and saw Melissa, surprised he turned back around so she didn't see him blush. He didn't know what to say to her, he knew anything he said would just make him seem weird so he just started out with a hello.

"Hey, what's up," he said.

"I didn't know you like to come up here," she responded. "I love this place; you can see the whole town up here. It's the best place to think. I come here whenever I can manage to escape my parents, and Greg."

Troy hated Greg not just because he loved Melissa, but because he was a grade A jerk, the only A he ever got. He was evil to everybody; nerds, jocks, even his own girl. It made Troy furious enough to hurt him, but Troy was too small to do anything about him. He wasn't sure, but he suspected that Greg hit Melissa too.

"Yeah, I like this place too; you can join me if you want. There's plenty of room."

"I probably shouldn't, Greg would get pissed off if he saw me here sitting with you. He gets jealous easy."

"So I've heard, can I ask you a question?"

"You just did," she said.

"Very funny," he retorted. "Seriously though, why do you date him? He is a huge tool, he is mean to everybody, he treats you like garbage, and he has the personality of a retarded mule."

"Well when we met he was a lot different, he was sensitive, smart, funny, and much nicer. I don't really know when he started changing, I guess that's because I tried to ignore it. I've been thinking of leaving him, but I'm afraid of what he might do to me."

I got an image of Greg punching her in the face and it caused me to flare up with rage. I imagined myself beating him into submission. 

"Yeah, I get that, you should still leave him though, he doesn't treat you the way you deserve."

"So you're not just saying that because you have a huge crush on me?"

"Wait, what? Uh, who told you that I had a crush on you? What I mean is, um, how did you know about that?"

"I didn't say anything. I thought that though, how did you know that?"

"Um, just a lucky guess you know?"

"You're a strange kid, you know that?"

"I've been told that before"

"Been told what before," she said with a sly smile on her face.

"That I'm a weird kid," he responded confused. I'm just agreeing with what you said."

"I didn't say that either, I thought it! You can hear my thoughts. How is that possible?!"

"Oh, this isn't good, um, I don't really know. Earlier I tried to do a spell I found in my mom's old book that gave me the power to read thoughts, I didn't think it worked, but I guess I was wrong. You tricked me you said that in your head to test me."

"That's right, what of it?"

"Well, I really wasn't planning on telling anyone, so keep it to yourself will you?"

"Okay, but on one condition."

"What is it?"

"Tell me why you like me so much."

"That obvious huh, well just for the record that's not the only reason you should leave him so, don't think of me as some sort of pervert. I just see the way he is toward you and it makes me mad that's all. I like you for a lot of reasons; you're pretty, smart, good sense of humor, though that seems to get you into trouble."

"You know what; I think I will sit with you for a bit. I don't care what Greg thinks, he blew it a long time ago, and I was just too stubborn to see it."

As she sat he studied a hawk flying in circles over his house, it started to dive and then suddenly zoomed back up and left the area as fast as it could flap. He thought this was odd but unimportant; he was more worried about saying anything stupid.

"Oh, well glad to see you came around," he said. So what do you usually think about here?"

"Everything; school, work, the future, Greg, whatever. I just feel so trapped in my life, you know. It's like I am here but I am not living my life. I have no control over anything, my parents decided what I was going to do the rest of my life, and I just assumed I would be stuck with Greg the rest of my life. We would be bitter old people and never talk or do anything together."

What did you want to do with your life?"

"I wanted to be a poet, that's it, just a poet. Sounds stupid, I know, but I love poetry. Unfortunately, my dad said that women aren't allowed jobs, and that my place would be in my husband's kitchen. I can't believe how narrow-minded men are."

"Hey, I am part of men! But you know what, you shouldn't care what anyone says, if you want to be a poet, then do it, period."

         "It's not that easy, I can't just abandon everything and everyone. My parents would cut me off financially, and so I'm just kind of stuck."

"Why can't it be that easy, as far as I can see even if you do as your parents say you won't be able to go to college, so you should just do what you want? Get a job somewhere, save up, and pay your own way to college. If you live your life for everyone else, you will never be happy." As he said this he moved closer to her so that they were only a few inches apart.

"You know what; you're a lot smarter than you look. I think I will tell my parents what I'm going to do, even if they don't like it. As for Greg, I am going to tell him we're through. It's time I take the driver seat in my life. I'm really glad I met you here today, Troy. I think I would like to talk to you some more, can you meet me here tomorrow?"

"Absolutely, what time?"

"Right after school tomorrow, after I get my life sorted properly."

"You got it."

She got up and walked a few steps away leaving, then turned back and leaned down and kissed Troy on the cheek. Then she left him with that moment. He sat there for a long while after she left, just thinking about his own life.

He left the hill at about eight, passing the dump and the now riotous crack house again. He wondered how much trouble he was in for the mess. When he got home his mom was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. He looked over at the floor where the drawing had been, his mom must have cleaned it though, because it was gone. He hoped she hadn't noticed it had been blood.

"Sorry about the mess mom. I tried to clean it but it wouldn't come out."

"What mess, sweetie," she said as she put the paper down.

"The drawing on the floor that you had to clean ma," he responded, confused.

"I didn't find any drawing on the floor; you must have cleaned it up and forgot. Lucky for you too, I would have killed you if I had found it."

Now he was scared, he walked over to the place where the drawing was. There was no trace that it was ever there, confused and tired after the days events, he went up to his room before he fainted out of stress.

As he lay on his bed and dozed on and off for about twenty minutes, until he caught something out of the corner of his eye. It looked like a gargoyle or something similar, it was outside his window. He hadn't noticed it appear. As fear took hold of his body and he began to feel adrenaline course through him, he looked out the window. There it was, not even attempting to hide. It had horrible illuminated, crimson eyes and it was too dark outside to see the rest of him.

It stared at him menacingly, waiting for him patiently. Troy couldn't move because he was so scared what the hell was it, a monster, a demon, or just a gargoyle? Deciding to find out he went downstairs in search of the spell book. He began looking in his mother's room and when he couldn't find it, he had no other option, he asked his mom.

"Hey mom, where is your old spell book filled with all your Wicca knowledge?"

"Why, I thought you don't believe in Wicca? It's on the bookshelf; I found it on the floor in here when I got home. Why do you need it?"

"I just need to look up a demon, that's all."

"Okay honey, have fun."

He found the book and ran back upstairs, searching through it as he went. When he got back to his room he took a long look at the thing, it didn't try to stop him. The book called it a shadow, a type of demon that is tasked with bringing living souls back to hell, usually to take their place. Then it spoke to him, in a cold, deadly voice.

"I am here for you; if you come with me willingly then nobody else will be hurt. I don't have time to play games with you, come outside and give yourself up. You have brought this on yourself; humans really shouldn't mess with things they don't understand."

"What did I do to deserve a demon trying to kill me?"

"You opened the gate to my world, you started this for yourself, don't bring anyone down along with you."

"Damn, the telepathy spell. That's hardly worth an eternity in hell."

"I don't make the rules, nor did I open the gate, now come along."

"I don't think that's going to happen, not today, not ever. It says here that all I have to do is outrun you for three days and you go straight back to hell."

"Why do you humans all insist on doing things the hard way, it wears on my patience."

Troy walked out of his room, trying desperately to control his fear and not lose his mind. He grabbed his coat off of the stand in the living room and told his mom that he was going to his friends for the night and he would be back tomorrow after school. She never checked on him so he would be fine the first day, after that he wasn't sure what he would do.

He left out the back door, and as soon as he was out he bolted to his car, a blue, 1998, Chevrolet, Corsica, and slammed the door shut, put the key in ignition and took off down the road. He didn't no where to go so he just headed for the limits. He planned on leaving the town and just drive until the three days were up.

He passed the dump and rounded the corner to the limits he heard a huge scraping sound from above as the roof of his car was ripped off. He pushed harder on the gas, but the demon hit the side of his car launching it into the railing. It rolled and finally stopped upside down.

He clambered out, his equilibrium gone. He stumbled around for a minute, and then felt his feet leave the ground when demon plucked him off the ground. He heard a voice, which wasn't the demon, yelling at him.

Suddenly, he was falling. He hit the ground hard, breaking his nose. Better a broken nose than an eternity in hell. He got up and looked around; it was Melissa who had saved him. She was running up to him, smiling.

"Why on earth are you smiling, you just hurt a demon, now he is going to be trying to kill us both? Why are you here for that matter?"

"Hey, don't tell me what to do; I'm in control of my life now. Anyway, I couldn't let it take you wherever it was going. I left my house because my parents kicked me out of the house saying, no daughter of ours will be a poet."

"I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to get you kicked out. We need to move he won't be distracted for long."

"It's okay, I'm actually glad they kicked me out. I don't feel bad about disappointing them now," she said as they started running as fast as their legs could carry them.

They ran for a while before they had to stop and catch their breath, passing not only the city limits, but six McDonalds and a strange group of houses that looked like they were from a Dr. Seuss book. They didn't see the shadow, but that was no indication of anything. They ended up in a small town called Hansburg to the east of theirs. There was a used car dealer ship right at the entrance into the town.

"Come on, we need to get some wheels, and fast. Let's stop there and get one."

"Are you gonna steal it," she asked. "Aren't you the bad boy?"

"No, I'm going to buy one," he answered. "If you're looking for a bad boy you should have stayed with Greg," he added sarcastically.

"How are you just gonna waltz in there and buy a car? What are you, made of money?"

"No, before my father left my mom he told he put some money in an account for me and to only use it in an emergency. I think this qualifies, don't you?"

"Yeah, I would say so. So where are we going after we get the car?"

"I am going to drive as long as I can, as fast as I can. You are going to stay here in this town until morning and then head back to Milleville. I can't let you die because of something stupid I did."

"NO I am already involved in this, and I can't let you do this by yourself. Besides, I gotta start taking responsibility for what my good looks do to guys."

He laughed as they walked into the car dealership. The interior was a boring, flat grey. Cars were everywhere, red, blue, green ones; the grey walls made the cars look Technicolor. The dealers must have done this on purpose so that they looked nicer, good trick. Troy immediately started looking for the owner. He must have looked for five minutes, getting increasingly agitated as he looked. He finally found him in the office at the back.

"Sir, I need a car, now. I can pay the whole car off right here, right now. I need a car that gets good mileage and that can go fairly fast."

"We have just the car for you, but I don't know if I can sell you a car. I don't want any parents coming to sue me for having their kid waste his trust fund on a car."

"My parents are dead, do you really care about that, you're just a sleazy car dealer, and I have money. So, let's just get a car and we will be on our way."

"Fair enough," he replied, not the least bit insulted.

Once they had their car they were on the road again and driving. Melissa had the Wicca book in her lap and was running through it, looking for something.

"I don't want anymore spells, I just want to survive the next three days and then be rid of this thing forever. Put that thing out of the car."

"I'm looking up the demon, just hold on... here we go. It says that you have to stay away for three days in order to survive."

"Duh, I already read that."

"Wait there is more that you didn't look over. It says that if, however, the demon has bonded itself to a human medium, then the only way to stop the shadow is to destroy the gateway. The gateway will be something near enough to a human medium to use their life energy as a power source."

"Crap, how do we know where the gateway and medium are?"

"It doesn't say... oh wait, here it is, whoever owned the book put in their own side-notes. It says there is a connection between the one who freed it and the shadow itself. You will be able to feel when we get near the gateway."



Part 2

Nora sat back in her chair, tired and creatively spent for the moment. She stared for a long while at the great story that had struck her the day before. Her writing had always been like that, long periods of writers block followed by short periods of mad typing. Somehow she always managed to make her deadlines.

Yesterday, one of those times had hit her and she couldn't think until she wrote down the idea, but the idea had become a full blown story. She had started off with her main character, Troy, in a small town in Oregon, casting a spell for telepathy, which released a demon named the shadow. Troy then is chased by the demon, out of town, and runs into the girl along the way. They leave in search of the gateway to save his life and banish the demon back to hell.

She only stopped because she hit a road block in the story, she couldn't figure out where, or what the gateway would be. She had thought long and hard about what it would be but couldn't think of anything. She hated not being able to think of something, it made her anxious. She got up and went to eat something because she hadn't had anything since inspiration had hit her.

She made her way into the kitchen, stomach growling along the way. She reheated the eggs and bacon she had been working on the day before, then sat down to her meal. After her food, she felt exhausted, so she went up to her bedroom and laid down. She fell asleep immediately falling into the strange dreams that always took her after she had written.

Her dream involved the boy she had been writing about, he was searching for something, for someone. He was in the same car that he had bought in the story, and with the same girl. He was on his way to Frallington, North Carolina. Nora realized there that he was in search of her, the one who had put him into this horrible nightmare. As she stared at him she noticed a black figure following them, the shadow. It suddenly rushed at her, like it knew she was watching. She heard a loud crash as the shadow hit her, then she awoke in her bedroom confused and scared.

She heard the loud crash again and now she was worried, someone was in her house, a burglar, murderer, or a rapist? It didn't matter; she would show them that they had broken into the wrong women's house. She reached into her nightstand drawer and pulled out the .45 that she always had there, just in case.

Quickly, quietly, she tip-toed downstairs and, her gun ready, she sneaked into her living room. When she found nobody, she continued through her house. She found them in her study looking through her papers and stories.

"Stop right there, back away from my things, turn around, and tell me your names."

They turned around and she discovered that they were the two kids she had just dreamt about. They did as she had commanded them, they had there hands up, revealing that they were unarmed. She had expected as much, she kept her weapon aimed, despite her bewilderment.

"My name is Troy, I'm not here to steal anything, and she is with me. Please don't shoot; we are unarmed and not dangerous."

"Explain what you are doing here in the middle of the night, riffling through my things."

"If we told you, you wouldn't believe us."

"Try me; I am having a very strange day, so my tolerance for weird is at an unusual high right now."

"Okay, well, we are here to look for a gateway into hell because I am being chased by a demon known as the shadow. She is here because she got dragged into the whole incident by accident and she is stubborn. The gateway is an object to bind the demon in our world so that he can hunt me endlessly and take me to hell to take its place. The gateway is in your house because it requires a human life force as an energy source, you."

"Well, that tops off the weird, for the day."

"I told you, you wouldn't believe us even if we told you."

"That's just it, I do believe you. Any other circumstance and I would think you were nuts, but I do believe you."

"Just out of curiosity, why do you believe us?"

"I am writing a story about your current situation. It struck me yesterday, and I couldn't think about anything else until I wrote it out."

"Did you figure out what the gateway was, because everything that you have been writing is actually happening to me?"

"I couldn't get that far, I don't know what the gateway is, I'm sorry. Wait, can you actually read thoughts?"

"Yes, right now you're thinking of having me search your mind for a clue as to what they gateway is. One second, I think I might be able to do that. Nope, there is nothing in there."

"Crap sometimes the best ideas are just beneath the conscious mind. I thought if I had an idea of what it was, we could find it here."

"I think the demon knows what we are doing, because it's using you as a energy source, which means that the gate has to be here somewhere, it has to be close enough to its energy source to work.  Where have you been spending your time the past few days?"

"I have spent the last day and a half writing out your story, so it has to be something close to where I write."

They began searching like mad, as Troy felt the demon get ever closer. He felt the gate was close, but he wasn't sure how close. He began looking through her desk, found nothing but pencils, paper, a couple of nice pens, and other stationary. He got frustrated and threw one of the pens across the room. Right after he felt strange, tempting powers leave his body.

He practically leapt across the twenty feet by twenty feet room and took the pen off of the floor. This is it, he thought, the gateway, I'm sure of it. He felt its evil powers threaten to take control over his body, so he set it back down and stared at it for a moment. Then across a few miles he felt a huge wave of anger and frustration hit him like a jet engine flying at a speed of mach three.

"This is what we've been looking for, I'm positive. I felt the shadow's anger at us finding it."

"I did too; it was so powerful I felt three inches tall," said Nora.

"Now we just need to figure out how to destroy it, any ideas," said Troy.

"Well," answered Melissa, "it is a pen, we could try melting it. Or we could drain the ink and dilute it so that it can't write anymore."

"Hey I like that pen, don't I get a say," said Nora.

"No, unless you would rather we destroyed the power source," Troy responded bluntly.

"Troy!" Melissa gave him the most menacing look he had ever seen, and he had stared directly at the shadow demon.

"Sorry," he said to Nora. "I'm just not in the mood to die anymore, now that I actually have something to live for."

"What would that be," Nora asked.

"I think you already know, after all, you were the one who wrote this story."

Nora gave him a knowing smile and then motioned them to follow her. She led them to the basement of the house, where it smelled like old corned-beef and cabbage. Troy and Melissa couldn't help but crinkle their noses. Nora took them to a room filled with red intrusive light. It was one of those rooms used for developing photographs. She took the pen apart and set it down on the table, then went to a shelf with assorted liquids, acids, by the look of them.

That turned out to be true, as she poured the hydrochloric acid into the long trough that was used for developing pictures. The acid fizzed and protested the removal from its plastic home, then settled and went still. Nora took the pen in one hand and held it over the bin. Troy and Melissa held their breath, waiting for her to drop it and for this whole ordeal to be over. Nora stood there frozen for almost a minute, like a statue.

"What's wrong, go ahead and drop it."

"I can't, I don't know why; I want to drop it with all my heart. I want to rid the world of this monstrosity that I unleashed across the world, but I literally can't let go of the pen. It seems to have part of the demon's will in it strengthening it so it can't be destroyed. Maybe one of you two should..."

The ceiling was suddenly gone, leaving a gaping whole above. Then they saw the demon, hovering in the sky. It was there for Troy and he knew it. Troy jumped forward to take the pen from Nora and drop it the acid. Unfortunately, the shadow was faster, reaching Nora first and taking her into the sky. He took her about thirty feet in the air then ripped her in half with claws made from the shadows of hell. Her body hit the ground with a loud crunch, leaving a hollow space in the pit of Troy's stomach.

The pen was in its transparent hand, just out of reach. The demon swayed back and forth lazily, which confused Troy, what was it doing. Then he realized that the demon was mocking him, daring him to try and take it back. Troy was furious, he would get that pen back, and then he would watch as the shadow died cursing Troy's name.

"I am going to try and knock that pen from its grip," said Troy, "when I do I want you to drop it in the acid. It won't be easy, the pen will fight back, you have to fight back and win. If you don't I will die, If you love me you won't let that happen."

"I won't let you die I promise," she leaned forward as she said this.

"No don't it will give me something to look forward to, something to fight harder for."

Troy climbed through the broken rubble of the ceiling, to the roof. He gestured to the shadow to come and get him, it obliged. It dived down at him, and Troy didn't stop him from picking him up into the sky. They climbed further and further upward, reaching the clouds. There Troy made his move, he tried to hit the demon in the arm and knock the pen to the ground. However, expectantly, the arm is not physically there, Troy's hand went right through it. Then it made a horrible sound, it was like a laugh, but it was more guttural, more sinister. It sounded like the cries of a thousand dogs howling at the moon, crying children, and empty wind all at once.

Now Troy had no idea what to do, the only thing he could do was wait to reach hell. He would never see Melissa again; never have a chance to see his dream of becoming a musician, or anything else he wanted to do. He felt the crushing burden of despair, and then the feeling disappears, replaced by something else, hope. How did it get there, why did he feel it, he was about to be taken to hell and he feels good?

It hit him like a shovel to the back of his head, he had and idea. He reached into himself looking for the connection that would be his salvation. That connection which had brought him out of hell was also a weakness, it gave Troy, and only Troy the power needed to defeat him.

He found it, the bond was there, and now that he had found it the demon became a physical being. No longer a shadow the demon screamed his surprise and dived down using the speed to try and stop Troy from moving. It didn't work; Troy punched it in the face, which didn't do anything except make the demon angrier. He grabbed at its face and gouged out its eyes. The shadow screamed and started falling from the sky; Troy flipped them around in mid-air. They hit the ground at close to a hundred miles an hour, which should have killed both of them, but Troy was alive because the demon broke his fall and the demon can't die.

Troy barely managed to stand up and make his way back in the direction of the rubble that used to be a house. Melissa ran up to him and helped him the rest of the way to the acid filled trough. The pen in hand, Troy held it over the acid, fighting the demon's will now. He was losing badly, he couldn't drop it. He was losing faith until he saw Melissa's face and remembered everything that he was fighting for. He was fighting for the life he never wanted, until now. That's when he found the will to fight back, he was finally able to let go of the gate and it dropped into the acid and melted instantly into nonexistence. The demon howled an ear-splitting cry, loud and shrill enough to drive someone to insanity.

The shadow rocketed toward Troy, at incredible speed. Troy put himself in front of Melissa and braced for impact. Just as it reached them, it disappeared in flames, called back by its evil master. It would remain down there, in hell, tortured by Satan for its failure.

With the demon gone the two of them slumped down on the floor for a few minutes, catching their breath. Then they pulled themselves up and began the grim task of finding Nora's ruined body. They found half of her on the roof of the house and the other in the back yard. They laid her down on her bed in her room and saved her new story and set the house ablaze, a fitting burial for someone who had sacrificed herself to save them. They watched in a mix of sadness, peace, and hope for the future. When her funeral pyre had finally burnt out Troy and Melissa got back into their car and drove, not knowing where they would go. Knowing only that they had one final thing to do for Nora, they would see hers and their story told.



Part 3

Tiffany woke up in her usual place, surrounded by the never ending padding that covered her room. Her dream had scared her awake, she had been making such good progress here at the Southern New Jersey Mental Institution. Every time she was almost cured, a dream would hit her and she would go back into that state of mental exasperation. Her mind could no longer take the stress of these dreams sent to her by her tormenter, The Shadow. It enjoyed making fun of her, watching her lose her mind as it showed her visions of its past.

She stood up and walked toward the door and started to pound on it. One of the orderlies yelled at her to shut up, but she continued to bang on the door. The orderly came in and pushed her down on the floor, sedated her, and told her once again to shut up, and then he left and closed and locked the door. Suddenly the lights went out, signaling lights out for the night. Even in the dark she could see it sitting against the wall leering at her. She screamed as loud as she could possibly scream but nobody came to help her.

The next morning when breakfast came around, the orderlies found her lying in a pool of her own blood, her wrists open, beneath something she had been writing. It was written in her own blood and it covered every bit of the wall. It was a story she had written, while having a mental breakdown, or so they assumed. Her psychopathic story was about a boy who gets chased by a shadow and meets a writer who had been writing out every bit of his story up to the point where they met. The orderlies cleaned everything up and went about the rest of the day despite all the police and the investigation.

The cops discovered no sign of resistance or a struggle, so they chalked it up as a suicide. The institution vacated the room and, while they mourned her loss, they went on as before. However, even now, any resident who stays in that still speaks of the same thing, an ominous shadow sitting in the corner of the room, edging them closer and closer to the brink of insanity. Everyone who stays in that room never gets better, only worse, until they too are discovered dead. The room now lies empty day after day, they can't rent out the room, nor can it be cleaned because Tiffany's bloody scrawling is still there the next day.