Darkness

Chapter 13: Bite

My steps became clumsier as the numbness crawled up my legs. I finally fell to my knees in the soft snow. A few minutes later, the crunch of snow under boots drew my attention. I rolled to look up at the trees, the falling snow, and the face of the shadow man.

"Let me go," I whispered hoarsely.

The white light off the snow lit his face. The scars crisscrossed his cheek in straight lines like he'd been marked on purpose. When I finally looked at his eyes, they looked back with knowing sadness.

He silently bent down and scooped me up. My numb fingers couldn't even hang on to him. After twenty minutes, he deposited me back in the huge bed next to the fire.

"You're taking away my choice," I whispered.

"I know, but you're making the wrong one." He went to leave.

"How can I make the right one if you won't tell me what's going on?"

He gave me a tight frown as he turned back. "I can't."

"Then I'm going crazy."

He left for a time. My mind kept circling. I didn't know what was going on. I felt like my mind was falling. On one point in the cycle there was a completely rational reason for all of the things that had happened, but my thoughts would cycle around until there was none. I was losing my mind. I was having a mental break and I was already locked away in a padded room. The only way out of this was clear. I had to get the people around me, the sane people that my mind kept hiding from me to kill me. The only way to do that was to become a danger to them.

I stood from the comfortable bed. My body still shook with cold, but at least it shook now. My wet white T-shirt hung to my frame leaving the pink polka dotted bra showing through. It didn't matter. I was really tied up in a white room, constrained in one of those crazy contraptions. This was all in my mind. If I had any control what-so-ever, then attacking them with enough force would require them to defend themselves and kill me. It was my only option. It was the only way I would keep from forever being trapped in an insane asylum.

I pushed through the door to the living room. The shadow man lay on the couch watching TV. It was one of those survival shows. His eyes landed on my shirt. Surely it was the bra part that was showing through that drew his eye.

I mentally prepared myself. I had to do this. I shrieked and ran towards him. I landed on his stomach with my knees. He released a rush of air in a strangled noise. I must have hit something sensitive. As I screamed with rage, frustration, and probably pure insanity I also wailed on him with one hand after the other. He held his hands up to defend his face. After a few blows, he grasped my wrist. His strength flowed through his fingers as he pried my arms off his face. Blood ran from his lip and nose as he pushed me back.

My lungs still filled with maddened shrieks as I tried my best to be as intimidating as possible. I knew he wasn't real. I must be a f*****g mess in front of the orderlies. I had to be scarier. I had to be beyond saving if I was going to be convincing enough to get murdered. I had to be a danger to myself and others. I had to try harder.

"What is f*****g wrong with you?" He shouted over my high pitched shrieking. He lifted his hands and me with them until he was standing. The pain in my freshly relocated shoulder ached like mad. I could barely hear him.

I continued to scream, letting my lungs release as much noise as I could, filling them and then releasing yet again. I had to do my best. I had to be rid of this hallucination.

Shadow man c****d his head at me as he held my wrists in front of me. I struggled, but to no avail. He was just so much bigger.

"I am real." He said in a normal tone. I barely made it out over my screams. He scrunched his brow. "I'm not a hallucination. Baby, you're hurting yourself."

I didn't relent. This seemed to irritate him. He pushed me back roughly by my hands until he had me against a wall. He shifted both my wrists to one of his hands and pinned them over my head. With the other, he covered my scream.

"I'm real."

My screams died against his palm. There was no point in wasting the energy. I had to try something else. I struggled against him. My leg came up between his. He grunted as I just nearly missed his balls. He spun me around so fast my vertigo threatened to topple me all on its own. He pressed me against the wall with his chest, my hands still pinned above my head in one of his.

"Why are to you doing this?"

"Just f*****g kill me," I pleaded.

"You want me to hurt you?" He sighed. "Fine, I'll f*****g hurt you."

With his free hand, he pulled my T-shirt to the side towards my shoulder. A small ripping sound tore from it. The sane part of my mind lamented the death of another of my shirts. He lowered his mouth down to my neck. After a deep inhale, he sank his teeth down into the tender flesh.

Pain and pleasure exploded through me as his teeth scraped my skin. His tongue licked the newly tender spot just as a moan escaped my lips. The noise seemed to encourage him. He bit my neck lower towards my shoulder. Another embarrassing moan burst from my lungs. His chest pressed into me, but his hips pulled away as he sucked at my skin. He continued down an inch at a time towards my shoulder until I was panting and screaming in a whole different way.

After one last nip to the fleshy part of my shoulder, he stepped back, releasing his grip. I could hear his heavy breath one moment, and the next it was gone. I spun around to an empty room. My hand felt for the fresh bruises at my neck. Excitement thudded in my heart. If he was a hallucination, then maybe I was ready to give myself over to my imagination. What did I have to lose?