Drew Hoffman “Black Out”
The gravestones stood silently, dimly lit by the streetlights, row upon row, people who were once loved but are now out of mind. I began to think about how my parents would be forgotten eventually. A loud crash shatters the silence interrupting my thought process. My head jolted to the direction of the sound. I saw a girl with blonde hair and glasses on the sidewalk who had fallen off her bike. It was stuck on top of her. As I ran over to help her, I recognized her. Sammi Parker from Ms. Watson’s CP Biology class. I debated walking away but she already saw me. I lifted the heavy green and black bike off of her.
“Thank you,” she said. Then I could tell she recognized me from the surprised look on her face. This is why I should’ve minded my own business and walked away.
“Wyatt Ryder?” she said, with a slight laugh. “You’re the kid who went crazy during your presentation and ran away?!” she started laughing.
“Yeah…” I said, with an annoyed gaze. It was a week after my parents passed and my first day back in school when that happened. But she didn’t know that.
My parents passed away because of me. If I didn’t ask them to take me to the movies then they wouldn’t have gotten shot in the alley that night. I will never forget how they looked when their lifeless bodies hit the floor.
As I turned to walk away she grabbed me by the shoulder and said,“Wait!”
“Thank you for helping me,” she said.
“My pleasure,” I said sarcastically then turned to walk away. Suddenly, I got the same embarrassing feeling I had gotten the day of the presentation. The sudden chill up my spine, the nasty taste in my mouth, everything started to smell and feel horrible. It felt like walls were closing in on me. It was happening again.
I try to ignore it as I return to my parents’ graves but that just makes it worse. The wind began to blow against my short hair. The smell overcame me. Everything went black.
I wake up in a hospital with a headache and a straitjacket around me. I have no memory of anything except for the screams of Sammi Parker. The beeping noise of the heart monitor annoys me. This hospital doesn’t seem very familiar. I start to think before the nurse barges in. She has red-orange hair and a red uniform on. It doesn’t look like the usual nurse scrubs I see in my local hospital. I try to ask what happened but nothing is coming out. I begin to panic.
The nurse gives me an angry look then says, “Go back to sleep. Murderer.” Then she turns and reaches around in her cabinet.
Murderer? Did I kill Sammi? I begin to think and try to piece together what happened but all I can remember are the sounds of Sammi screaming. I thought that the screams I heard were just from her falling off her bike. I thought harder about what had happened. I realized, she didn’t even make a noise when the bike toppled on top of her, it was the crash I had heard. I killed Sammi.
My blackouts have never been so serious that I’ve killed someone…
I try to ask what’s going on and where I am but once again nothing comes out. My voice is gone. She pulls a big silver needle out of her cabinet. I hate needles. A chill runs down my spine. I start to shake. My mouth begins to taste like rotten milk. I try to yell to stop. All I can smell is the disgusting scent that I can’t even describe. I stop trying to fight it and I give into the feeling.
As the nurse takes a step closer to me, I feel a sudden surge of strength. I burst out of my straitjacket and fling her to the wall, knocking off the abstract painting that had been hanging there. She had the most terrified look on her face. As she cowers in the corner in fear, I peer into the mirror hanging over the sink. My eyes are dilated to the point where I can’t see my own bright blue eyes. Just blackness. My head is more slouched. My hair is now long, all the way down to the top of my thighs. It feels wrong.
I swing open the door into what I think is the hallway. Everything looks strange. It’s almost pitch black. I look around to understand my surroundings but there isn’t anything I can make out. I begin to hyperventilate and the taste and smell in my mouth and nose get a thousand times worse. Where am I? I begin to lose sight of the door I came from. Its gone. As I move down the hall everything gets darker and harder to make out. I reach the end of the hall and I can’t see anything at all anymore.
An icy hand grips my arm in the darkness.
“Come with me,” The Thing says, “I can explain everything.”
I follow The Thing through the darkness, hanging onto its cold hand as if it were a leash. The Thing opens a door that was not there previously, it just appeared out of nowhere. We enter the room and I can finally see what The Thing looks like. It looked kinda like me.
“Who are you?” I ask The Thing.
“I am you,” The Thing replies. “I am the chill in your spine and the nasty taste in your mouth and nose.”
“Where are we and what are you talking about?!” I reply with angered confusion
“We are in your head, and I am what becomes in control when you black out,” The Thing replies.
My body goes into shock and I can no longer move. The Thing moves closer to me.
“But now it’s my turn to be completely in control. You’re pathetic,” it says.
It moves closer and closer to me. With each tread, the horrible smell, taste and chill down my spine increases.
“Stop being so dramatic, Wyatt. Your misery will be put to an end soon.”
Then he walks into me, almost as if he were a ghost possessing my body.
I’ve blacked out.
