More Fractured Tales stories!
They’re here again…they’ve come for her once more… just as they do every night… without fail… tugging on her clothing…dragging her from the bed… onto the cold, bare floor.
She cringes as she tries to pull back… to elude the outstretched hands… hard, grasping hands.
Bedtime terrifies her now… because somehow…she knows they will be there… waiting for her… and she knows she cannot escape them… she has tried, but all to no avail.
She is afraid to sleep… tries hard to stay awake… but cannot… and she suspects she is being drugged.
It feels like months have passed… since she gave up drinking coffee… or even tea… preferring to fill her own glass with water from the tap.
She suspects it’s in the food also… but she must eat to keep up her strength… or else she will never be able to escape these walls… walls that watch her with invisible eyes.
Where do they come from… those hands that claw at her with their hard fingernails,,, and clutch her limbs with impossible strength.
They are cold hands… like they’ve been in cold storage… they are hard and rough… and their grip is firm; hands that do not feel… warm… gentle… or even human.
For some reason, they’re never around when she’s awake… they always wait until she is in bed… trying to get comfortable.
Then, they pull her from the bed… and drag her across the floor… as if they do not want her to rest.
But she knows nothing beyond that… except that when she wakes up… she is on the floor.
She doesn’t know where they take her… or IF they take her anywhere… or if they do what they came for… and then just leave her there.
She feels as it she has become a human lab rat… that they experiment on her… with new drugs… and maybe draw blood to check how her body reacts.
Is she the only one being used this way? Or are others also receiving this cruel treatment?
But, they only come at night… when she is alone… so, where do they go in the daylight?
Do they hide beneath the bed… waiting… until she falls asleep…do they slither in through the keyholes… or do they just walk through walls…
Come to think of it… do they walk or do they just float in the air… she never sees or hears them approach.
She knows nothing about them… whoever – or whatever – they are… except that they only come at night… when the world is silent… and she is trying to rest.
Is it possible that she is dreaming… or hallucinating… she isn’t sure anymore.
She cannot see them… they are invisible… and yet she can feel them… cold, clammy, rubbery hands… crawling towards her… reaching out for her… every night.
And every day… she is getting weaker… as their experiments sap her strength and energy.
Tonight it will end… she is done with trying to fight them… it’s time to end this… her way!
She slips from the bed… sliding across the cool, smooth floor tiles on her belly… every movement excruciatingly slow.
Finally… somehow, she reaches the half-open closet door… and wriggles inside, pulling the door shut behind her… feeling her way in the dark.
Escape is within reach now… down through the trap door… and out through the cellar door… but, she knows she must work silently… and quickly.
The closet door is suddenly flung wide open… warm, gentle hands grasp her arms… pulling her to her feet… coaxing her back to the soft, warm bed… it feels so nice… perhaps she should wait until tomorrow night to make her escape…
