Complex - Part 4
#4 of Complex
C omplex - Part 4
D efinition : Psychological problem
S ynonyms : anxiety, exaggerated reaction, fear, fixation, fixed idea, hang-up, idéefixe, insanity, mania, neurosis, obsession, phobia, preoccupation, repression
I packed my backpack with necessities. A couple bag's of potato chips, a flashlight, a few water bottles, a notepad and pen, and an umbrella. Alex's hot dog shirt was still in there from before. From the kitchen, I filled Bones' food bowl and replaced his water dropping a single ice cube in it for his pleasure.
"Dad, I'm going out!" no answer. But I wasn't expecting one. Out the front door, took a left and opened the garage using the four digit keypad that malfunctioned from time to time.
It stopped raining...
Grabbed my dark blue bike and felt the tires for air. Fortunately, they were pumped up recently. I stopped before I got on the bike to collect my thoughts. I was fixated on that dark blue color of the bike. In the right light (or lack there of) it almost looked black. The white bold faced letters on the side read "Mountain Monster". The name itself told you that the contraption was a mountain bike and was used for mountain related activities. I didn't ride the bike much because I never had to walk far to get anywhere in the first place.
After realizing I was losing my train of thought on the objective, I propped up the bike, took a seat and rode off.
The treads on the tires made a nice sound on the wet gravel of a street, riding through puddles for my own entertainment. I could hear the crinkling of the chips in my bag as I had ridden over bumps and turned sharp curves. It made me hungry just thinking about it. But I knew I wasn't hungry. It takes a while for me to starting feeling the affects of hunger.
In not too short a time at all, I was at the corner of 0463 east pilgrim lane and 7400 south park drive like Alex had told me in the previous text. "11:42 am." I put away my phone and parked my bike up against the wall of the pizza place. He's got to be here somewhere. I thought to myself. I took a rest sitting down on the floor propped up against the cold wet building. "11:48". I pressed some buttons on my phone to get to the recent voice message list. I called my voicemail a second time to recap what I had heard back at home. *Riiiing*... *Riiiing*... *Riiiing*... "You have reached the voicemail of, Jace Hawthorn." "To listen to your newest message, press one." The phone made an abrupt beep as I hit the one key. "Please hold..."
The voice on the speaker definitely wasn't Alex's. "204." Then static started for a little bit before the voice spoke again..."204." Static... the message continued to repeat itself over and over again. The voice didn't really have great sounding tone to it. In fact, there was hardly a tone at all. It reminded me more of someone gasping for air. Like the words were being breathed out, harshly.
I sat on the wet sidewalk pondering what the message could be talking about. It was then that I heard a peculiar sound coming from inside of the pizza place. It sounded like metal scraping on the floor, then a crash. The pots and pans must have fallen from the sound of it. "It's a Sunday. Nobody in town works on a Sunday." I said to myself. Our town has a deep culture from when it was founded that nobody is to work on a Sunday, just how it is. But I haven't seen anyone besides my dad since Friday. No cars, nobody playing in High Peak Park, and not to mention Josh didn't answer his door yesterday. Sure, it has been raining recently but to not see anybody is just strange. I focused my weight and balance to easily pull myself up off the wet ground, grasped my backpack peeked into the glass of the pizza shop. I couldn't see much. There seemed to be a lot of dust floating angrily in the air. Something had disturbed it. The place had been closed for months after Mrs. Jefferies sued the company for putting pepperoni on her pizza after she specifically asked for no pepperoni. She is allergic to those round circles. Her face gets all red and puffs up like a balloon. I saw this the next day at school. I don't think anybody has gone inside since it closed down. I heard a faint ringing in my ears, very subtle.
Do I go in? Should I leave and look for Alex somewhere else? I'm not usually brave enough to think of walking into a mysterious building that has been closed for a time after hearing such a disturbing tone but curiosity is getting the better of me on this one.
Still peeping into the glass, I stretched my hand out toward the handle of the door. I grasped the handle in my dominant right hand and attempted to pull. It wasn't that I wasn't strong enough or anything, my nerves just seemed to be shocked. I was actually scared of what I might be walking in too. Out of all the feelings that have been going through my brain these past two days, fear was not one of them, confusion, yes. But not fear. I'm not an easy person to scare. Those scary movies in the theater bore me; haunted houses during Halloween make me tired and scary stories? Forget about them. That's why I picked up Stephen Kings - The Shining. I heard it was the scariest of his book collection. I decided to give it a try but so far, no dice.
I managed to let go of the door handle and calm myself down a bit. I cupped my hands on the glass to get a better inside view with no glare. I could only see about ten feet in front of me. I saw two tables parallel from each other and a soda machine on the right against the wall. The counter straight ahead wasn't visible from here.
I grabbed the handle again and started to pull the door open ever so slightly to try to hear something... It was quiet. I pulled the door open just a little more till I heard that sound that made me fear for my life. *Ding*... They hadn't bothered to take down the bell hanging above the door when they closed. I froze. The sound was loud. I could hear it ringing again and again in my head. If someone was in there they had definitely heard it. It wasn't a second after that from the kitchen, every possible thing, pots and pans and utensils, the works, had fallen after a deep (roar?) and a pound that I could almost feel. A different ringing was in my head at this time, similar to the one back at home when my dad had disappeared from the kitchen. I could feel the pain in my ears. I slammed the door shut and ran down the sidewalk alongside the brick wall that was the conjoined building of stores. The brick wall was ending just up ahead. I took the first right down the back alley along side of the pet store. I then heard that stupid bell from the pizza place go off, then a crash of what sounded like shattered glass. "My gosh that thing must have taken the whole door off!" I continued running till I took another sharp right that led me to the back of the buildings. I checked the back door of the pet shop. "Suck! Locked." I tried the next one leading to the beauty boutique. Locked again. I passed the door I knew was the pizza place and headed for the next one. To my surprise, it was open. Without thinking I lunged myself into the darkness, shut the door and shut up to listen. I could feel the pounding of what sounded like footsteps running around chaotically outside. They stopped. The pitch black made it easy to listen without distraction. The footsteps continued but quieter. Then, for what seemed like a minute, they stopped. That minute turned into a minute and a half, then two minutes, then three. "Oh my gosh, ok, I think I'm in the clear now. What was that? What's happened to this place?" I asked myself these questions knowing they wouldn't be answered. I took off my backpack and undid the zipper. I felt around for the flashlight for a little bit until I felt that cold steel against my fingers. I pulled it out of the bag and flicked the switch.
"What the"..... This was not the small private pre-school I remember. I tried to hold myself back from letting everything I had left in me loose. The smell was putrid of rotting flesh. I shined the light on the tile floor that was stained a dark red. (Blood) I knew where I was. I was in the boy's bathroom. The stalls, the urinals, and even the sinks were all really short. I never knew that door led outside. But I didn't think much of it when I was a kid.
The sound of a clean drip. It was coming from one of the stalls. All the paint had been scraped off of the stalls to reveal its rusted metal form. The first stall door was locked, flashed my light on the next one, and proceeded with the same procedure. Locked again. I took a step toward the next stall when I heard the splash of a puddle. I looked down and saw a puddle of blood spreading beneath the stall that I had stepped in. The drain must be plugged. I thought to myself. I relocated myself directly in front of the stall but out of the pool of blood. I tried to reach for the door without getting my feet wet but it was too far away. *Drip* I looked around to find what looked like a mop suspended above the stall being held up by the stalls side wall. I was able to reach, grab, and reel it in with little difficulty. The mop drenched with the red stuff. Using the mop, I was slowly pushing the stall door open when, at an angle, seemed to get caught by something behind the door. I stopped immediately. I really hope someone isn't behind this door. I started to freak a little and let my imagination get ahead of me. After I calmed down I tried to push the door open with a little more force. I was making progress. I seemed to be moving whatever is in the way the more I push. As I continued to push at my slow cautious pace, I could hear the rattling of chains from behind the door with each push. I leaned in closer to get more force. Then the mop slipped and slid past the door, almost making me fall into the puddle on the tile. I caught myself from falling forward with the stall door. The chains clinked together, then the object behind the door gave way to my forceful weight. The door swung right open almost making me lose my balance again. I took a step forward letting my right foot get wet to catch myself and quickly leapt back to the "dry" tile. Somehow I was able to keep hold of my flashlight through that. "few, that was close." I aimed the beam of light at the object that was currently swinging in the stall. It had two bars connecting to each side making a rectangular cage. The iron was rusted and looked as if it was about to fall apart. Chains, along with the cage itself, were dangling from the ceiling.
That was it. I gagged not being able to throw up to the fact that I haven't eaten today. There wasn't anything in my stomach to let loose. Feet were dangling through the bottom of the cage, a torso with no arms attached with a connecting head inside of it. The body was completely naked. Skin seemed to be ripped off at places making it indecipherable to tell what gender this thing was. But it was the lack of lower jaw that made me sick. Skin was just hanging off of the upper mouth where the jaw would have been. I could see its eyes. Bright white reflecting off of the light from my torch. Staring, not at me, but through me. I had never seen anything so disturbing in my life until now. I couldn't even fathom this happening in real life. "I've got to be dreaming. Please wake up, please wake up, please wakeup, WAKEUP!" I shut my eyes as I shouted at the lifeless body caged up in front of me, hoping I would wake up from this nightmare as soon as I open them again. Truth is, I didn't want to open them. I was afraid of the truth.
Suddenly, I heard a sound. It was a low humming coming from far away. I opened my eyes to find myself still in this messed up toddlers bathroom. The humming was getting louder, slowly, but definitely. As the humming grew, the chains hanging from the ceiling started to shake and rattle, next the cage, then the stall doors, and eventually, the ground itself. I could see ripples in the blood as the humming grew louder still. The sound had grown so loud that I swear I could feel the building itself swaying. Ringing started in my ears again. I used my free hand to cover and ear to stop the sound from entering my head, but it was useless. I turned around to find myself standing in the mirror. The image was distorted and I could hardly make out my face in the thing. I looked closely at the mirror. "Is that me moving or is that the mirror"? The humming had died down but the ringing in my ear was getting louder. I tried to ignore it still looking intently behind the mirror. "Something is... moving... behind me? I jerked around to look behind me and find that the monster in the cage had fallen due to the chains that gave way during that, what felt like an earthquake.
Its legs crossed, it started to stand. Slowly, it was making its way to me, clumsily walking forward with incorrect feet positioning. It made the sound of a high pitched blood curdling scream as came toward me, the cage throwing off its balance. I couldn't move. My nerves were shocked. Again, I was scared. The ringing in my ears wasn't going away. I took the courage to turn and run for the door that led outside. I grasped the knob, and tried to turn. It was stuck. It had locked behind me when I entered. That cage monster was now directly in my way toward the next exit, still getting closer with every step it took. What do I do? I'm a trapped rat. Just then, the cage shifted a little throwing off the things balance forcing it slip and fall to the floor. I took my chance to run past it and out of the bathroom door. A pile of 2x4's were laid out in front of me. I grabbed one and wedged it between the wall and the handle of the bathroom door making sure that thing can't get out. The ringing in my ear started to subside. I took a seat on the pile of wood, set my flashlight down in an upright position to illuminate the area around me and grabbed a bottle of water from out of my backpack. Water had never tasted so good in my life.
I only drank half before I put it away to save some for later. I only had three. I grabbed my torch and shined it around the room. It was open spaced with shelves and cubbies along the walls. The windows and double doors had been boarded up making the boy's bathroom my only escape. I had lain on the carpet to rest, relieved, and tried to take a nap. That didn't seem possible after what I had just been through but somehow; I had drifted off to sleep.
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