Windows

Darkness, it begins with darkness. Seems the end is the same. He didn't recall where he was or
what had happened. He only knew darkness. It wasn't cold as he expected it to be, it wasn't hot
like the Christians said it would be in the end; nothing but darkness is all he felt or knew in his
present state of hearing his own heavy heartbeat thumping in his ears.
Why did he have self awareness? That didn't make any sense to him. He thought for sure he
was dead, considering he didn't seem to have any of his senses in full tact. He also noticed he
couldn't move any limbs, did he even have limbs?
He decided to try and move his face muscles and to his surprise it worked. He slowly began to
open his eyes; nothing but blurry, dim light was all he could see at first. The haze eventually started to pull away like a morning fog, revealing the grime on the floor and the dingy corners of a storage room. Judging from the metal walls and ceiling, he must be in a warehouse somewhere.
His eyes darted across the room, looking to the left and then the right. On the left side of the
room, there was a long metal table with a metal sink. To the right there was a shelf full of jars
with heads of other people, floating in some sort of greenish liquid he didn't recognize. He shut
his eyes for a brief second and opened them again, slowly one at a time. Unfortunately, the
heads on the shelf were still there and very real.
He darted his gaze back to the middle of the room, ahead of him was a single metal door. It
slowly opened and a figure in a dark robe came passing through it, gliding across the floor as
though it were still water.
He watched as the figure shuffled from the shelves with the heads and over to the
sink. He could hear metal clanking in her hands, but could not see what she was pacing back
and forth with. The figure then went through the metal door and propped it open with a waste bucket.
He could see the figure dragging what looked to be a body across the floor, to the metal rolling
table in the middle of the room. He watched as it strapped the man down and gagged him with a
washcloth.
The figure moved to the left of the room and he could hear a lot of clanking metal. After a few
minutes, it walked back over to the man. It leaned down and whispered something into his ear.
The man began to thrash with a desperate intensity, his wrists straining against the cold metal until the skin began to raw and split, but the heavy straps didn't even budge under his weight.
Then the figure proceeded to saw off the man's right hand, the man screamed a muffled
scream; tears running down his cheeks like a waterfall. The salt from his tears began to sting the raw wounds on his face where he had been struggling, and the moisture blurred his vision until the figure was nothing but a dark, hazy shape. The figure took the arm and threw it into the metal sink.

the metal sink. It turned around with a smaller metal instrument in her left hand and glided
across the floor to the left side of the man. The figure leaned down and whispered again into the
man's ear. Again, the man tried to fight, but once again to no avail.
He watched as the figure used the metal instrument to remove the man's left eye. Blood flowed
down from the socket, the man left crying in agony. The figure went to the shelf and grabbed an
empty jar. It took it to the metal sink and proceeded to clean it. The whole time, the man was
crying out in agony, which had gotten louder since he managed to get rid of his gag.
The figure came back to the man and whispered again into his ear. This time the man looked as
though he had given up; the figure took a bone saw and proceeded to saw off the man's head.
At this point, he could not bear to watch anymore and he felt himself slip off into a deep sleep;
back to the darkness, where it all began. Darkness was better than the horror he had just
witnessed. He hoped when he awoke again; that horror would be nothing more than a
nightmare.
He awoke to a gurgling sound to the left of him. He moved his eyes to the left and saw the head
of the man inside a jar full of greenish liquid; just like the ones on the shelf. He realized the head
was trying to breathe; but nothing but gurgling sounds would come out. "Settle down man, we're
going to be here a long time". He said inside his head. Suddenly, the gurgling sounds stopped;
as though the man's head had heard what he said.
He thought that was crazy; how could he hear what he said inside his head? So he thought, let's
try this again. "What's your name?" The head swiveled toward him, then he heard inside his
head; "Travis, what's yours?" This completely shocked him, he couldn't believe he just found out
telepathy is a real thing.
"Samuel", he answered inside his head. "Why are we here?" Travis asked him with a hint of
sadness in his tone. "I have no idea, Travis; what's the last thing you remember?" For a space of
5 minutes, there was nothing but silence.
"I was with a woman, we were on a date. I was driving her back home, or so she thought. I
stopped at a gas station and got her a Pepsi, roofed it and then I buried her alive. Then I went
back to my apartment. After that, everything is a blur."; Travis ended with a sad tone.
"I was in my family's mountain cabin, I had just discovered my grandmother dead that morning.
The Police came and instructed me to not go anywhere; they were considering me a suspect in
my grandma's murder and several others that had been happening over the last few months. I
remember hearing a loud banshee like cry outside after everyone left: I went outside and saw
that creature in the black gown. Next everything is black and I wake up here." Travis nodded his
head and said, calmly; "I think we can establish we were drugged somehow. I'm just wondering
who and what it wants besides our heads?" Samuel shook his head and responded; "I am not
sure, it already killed us, not sure why it's keeping our souls intact for though."; Samuel finished
in exasperation.

They both fell silent and watched as the figure in the black robe glided across the floor to the
metal door in the center of the room. It opened the door and disappeared into the light that
poured through. Then it swung the door shut and Travis and Samuel were left alone in the
darkness once again. Samuel felt drowsy and suggested to Travis they both rest for a bit before
the thing in the black robe came back. There was really no predicting what was to happen next.