Chapter Darkness

Chapter: Darkness By: Melissa Ann Hardin

It was dark in the hallway running between the cells. There was a heavy scent of dampness mixed with human sweat and fear. Almost as if what had come before had permanently stained the stones to the left and right by the humans dragged behind the cell door. There was an odd energy to be certain. I’m not going to tell you my name cause that might just lead to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control. You, as my reader, do not need to know such mundane details anyway. What good could it possibly do if you could put a face and a name to that terror in the dark? Even a why is beyond the pale to have knowledge of and most certainly how is out of the question. I will tell you that almost on a daily basis I pray to find a crack in the wall I’m pressing myself so tightly into. I try not to breathe when the first strains of John’s lullaby start to quietly creep and wheeze beneath the strong solid cell door with no bars out to the men who wait below that line. Ten paces down and to the left is where you’d find me if you knew to look for me but honestly, I’ve learned to turn into the corner when I hear the few soft tinkling notes begin to play. It’s a love song, an-honest to God I’ll always ******* love you enough to die for you love song and I don’t know who ****** John off and hurt him but I hate them so ******* much as I press my nose into a dank, mildewed, and frankly disgusting wall. It’s all their fault that they had sex and that psycho was born, much less was fed, and you must realize I’ve been here for almost five years now, give or take several months, so he truly has some complex behavioral issues. Every night at 1 am the song begins, and then John comes to whisper at our cells. It’s supposed to be quiet, it’s supposed to be lights out. John is our new Correctional Officer and he has been cleaning up the place nicely. A slip here or there, an unnatural twisting of the ligaments covered by the fall. What could be more logical? So I’ve seen many come and go on these dark nights when his animalistic impulses gather into our perfect storm. So many faces I can correlate to those dark nights, lost beyond that door. The sounds, my god, the sounds that come from the other side. The crunching, splitting, fluid squelching sounds of a human soul ravaged. So many, and when I hear the soft notes begin to play I cower knowing that one day I’ll go through that door next. Are you scared child? Will you make bets on your sanity and just how far it will hold? I can tell you I’ve felt and done the same since John walked through that door. Don’t worry you won’t see it coming. It will be as soft as daylight breaks. I’ll feel his strong hands rip gravity away beneath me and you’ll listen with your heart pounding and your short gasps at the end of my days lost to that soft squelching after the piercing screams are gone. Sadly, child, my days, are truly numbered. The cells have cleared and John has already clocked in for his shift. Here you can have my blanket. A hand reached quickly through and tugged it. Cover yourself now child, and hide in the corner and cover your ears it’s 12:55 am. The next few minutes dragged as I awaited my turn. The soft, whimpering shell of a man I’d just met whimpering in fear in the cell next to me. Clinging to that soft, oh there’s the music starting, blanket pressed against his mouth and heart. It truly is a beautiful song John I thought to myself when out of the darkness I heard the clink of the keys turning in the lock of the cell and John’s voice saying “Oh I know Tommy. It’s a very beautiful song. You ready to go?” Clink. Jangle. Creak and I close my eyes as he pulls me pleading and screaming down the hallway, I hit another cell and bounce off. I plead and shriek and cajole to my last inheld breath until I am on the other side of that door and I’m still screaming as I’m pulled down the tunnel to the darkness on the other side where John suddenly stops and as I listen to his quick breaths from the exertion of his altercation with me he suddenly reaches behind me and opens the door to the other side. The light, oh the light I see at the end of the tunnel as I run hell for leather out towards that light...and what the hell? I slammed the door behind me and I’m at the exit…to the parking lot…and it’s daylight and I don’t know about you, or those poor guys I left behind in there, but…I never want to see John’s ugly *** face ever again!!!

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