Friday, October 29, 2010

Short Story - The Hole

Foreword - Something I wrote, hopefully you enjoy it. Be sure to leave me a comment. :) 

http://tinyurl.com/278y757


    The air that I was breathing was not pure. It was intolerable, disgusting and sickening... but I needed it to survive. I'm not exactly sure how or why I was in there; how long I have been there or my location. The only thing I do know is that I was underground, Below me, the ground is soil. The walls were lined with dirt. Above me is a pale artificial light that was around 40 feet above me that never seemed to dim or go out. The sound of a constant ticking, like a clock rang through the pit that contained me. Using those ticks, I had the idea of measuring time, in between my cries for help. "HELLO!?" I would scream. "IS ANYONE AROUND?!" I would yell. "CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!?" I would say to myself. But nothing replied to me, except for the ticking. The dirt and gravel became my family, the pebbles became my friends, the light above became my God and the ticking... The ticking was the devil.



  During the span of time that I was in the hole, I had not once taken a full breath of air. It was as if I held my breath till the very moment I needed to breath in order to retain sustenance, in order to hear footsteps. But I didn't. For every tick that passed I scraped a line on the wall, it was a good opportunity to remain focused, while doing this tedious task I reached into my memories. My school friends, and the good times we had. My beloved Mother, and all of my love for her. My Sister... at this point I broke my nail, I was lost in my memories and paid no attention to the force I was putting into the ticks. My nail was no longer attached to my finger, rather it had landed somewhere in the dirt floor which had now been splattered with my blood. My mind was still on my Sister, so I had no care for the pain and continued my task in carving notches. Rocking back and forth, my anger towards my sister had began to build up. I loathed her, what she had done to me could not be forgiven.



Although what it was at the time that made me angry, I do not remember. Nor could I remember my name. I couldn't remember how to tell time, or to form a coherent sentence. I grunted back at every tick, in order to exercise my voice. This was my primary objective from then on. I did it until my head was ringing like a pair of symbols splashed inside of both of my ear drums. To help calm myself I took a break from my grunting, and sat in the corner of the pit holding both of my ears. I then took the time to check the heavenly light above me, it was still shining. There was hope that I would be found. I felt that I was going insane, I had been grunting and shouting involuntarily for what seemed to be days without any rest. I stripped off my clothes and then slouched back into my corner, I then, for reasons that I could not remember slammed the back of my head into the dirt wall behind me. Even though my eyes where already opened, they felt as if they opened again.



I was in a rocking chair, looking out of a window. The floors where tiled linoleum, the ceilings and walls were coated in a cheap plaster. I had a hospital gown on, and I was shaking. The temperature changed drastically, as I was sweating as well. I saw a reflection in the mirror, it was a nurse carrying a tray. "Take these," she forced the pills down my throat and said. "You have a visitor."I stared back into my window and saw my Sister sauntering behind the nurse. My face turned red, she could see this. She asked me "Are you still mad at me, David?" I could not respond, my mouth could not move. I then noticed my reflection, my head was completely covered in gauze. "It was an accident, you know..." she shed a single tear and continued "I was drunk, I'm never drinking again" I wanted to grab her by the collar and throw her on the floor, and scream "WHY?!?". But I couldn't, my arms or any other part of my body except my eyes could move. She insisted "You are still mad at me, I can see it in your eyes... I want you to forgive me!" I continued to stare into the reflection. "Don't you remember I came here yesterday, and after everything I said to you you just wouldn't stop screaming"



She touched my arm, I could see this, but not feel; but as she did my memories came racing back to me. I was walking home from a party with a friend, but no shorter than one block away I could hear tires screeching. The highbeams of the car disoriented me and I stared as the car advanced, I was slightly tipsy and asked my friend "Anthony, what is tha-" Before I could finish he shouted "David! WATCH OUT!" and pushed me out of the way, though it did no good. The car hit me and killed Anthony, I rolled into a ditch by the side of the road. The car continued speeding away and in the silence I could hear my watch ticking slowly.



The End


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