Have you ever experienced fear? The kind of fear that makes you feel something is watching you? That specific kind of fear.. That makes you feel like you’re watching, and following yourself in the darkness?
That’s the kind of fear that slowly crept up her spine as she took each step, further down into the maze that was her mind. Each breath she took it crept deeper into her, almost like a rot, eating away at her from the inside out.
Alyssa could breathe in this thick, black fog. She could see even, but not past her own hand. She continued blindly, barely carrying the shovel she gripped with her life, listening to the blade bounce on the stone path she walked, listening to it create a sickening rhythm set to her pace, feeling every thud in her chest, synced with her breathing, synced with her heartbeat. She hummed her favorite song, listening to it echo off the darkness as she pressed on.
Alyssa was never the type to go out wandering alone, or the type to go on a manhunt. She always kept to her small group of friends, ate alone, so absorbed in her music she barely noticed the world go by around her. Mike had pushed her out of her comfort zone by asking her out, but now, in this fog, she couldn’t believe she ever had known him.
She eventually came to a gravestone, in the middle of the path, fresh dirt placed on top, as if someone had hastily spread topsoil on the contents, as if to hide evidence. She drug the shovel to her side, and picked it up, and drove the blade into the dirt, digging and digging for what felt like hours. A pang of a metal box rang out when the blade struck it, and she tossed the shovel aside, knelt, and picked up said box from the hole she’d dug, and she opened it, only to see a half broken, rusted key inside. A toss later, and she was on her way again, walking further and further on this path.
No one ever thought any of this could be possible, not even Alyssa did, and she was walking through it. Before this, she could smile at Mike like nothing, she didn’t know what lay in waiting for her, nor did Mike at the time.
As she approached the gate, she felt a pair of eyes peering into her soul, she turned around, doubletake style, only to be granted no solace, and no answer. She turned back around, grabbing the lock, and with a flick of her wrist, she unlocked it, pulled it off the gate, and stepped inside, she continued on her path, not knowing this was her final moment alive.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Pit. Pat. Pit. Pat.
One final, blood curdling scream, and Alyssa was gone.
Breathe, let us return to the topic of fear. Alyssa here experienced it yes, she felt she understood it by the time she took her final breath, but did she? Did she understand the problem here? No, she didn’t. She missed one key detail. Alyssa didn’t see the eyes in the darkness around her, she didn’t hear the rhythmic beating of his heart, or his thoughts racing around her.
Alyssa may not be with us anymore, but she’s always going to be stuck in her own loop, replaying that same ending moment in his head for eternity.
How fun it is to play with her fear, and to watch her run again, and again, and again, and again…
