ThE vOiCeS mAdE mE Do iT

Chapter One

Light flooded through my eyelids, melting away the darkness in my mind. A scream echoed in the distance, but I couldn’t trust my senses right now. I was feeling unstable and I knew that my sanity was especially vulnerable at times like this. You know those times when you can’t be completely sure whether you are awake or dreaming?

 My eyes snapped open and I found myself staring up at a high ceiling, a ceiling that was splattered with something that looked like blood and was reflecting the glow of whatever was illuminating the room. I cursed responsively under my breath, I wasn’t sure what situation I had gotten myself into, but it sure as hell wasn’t a good one. Scrunching up my face against the light, I sat up, wondering why I felt so cold. Then I saw the bloodbath that surrounded me and I forgot about my temperature.

 Something had happened here, something so catastrophic that you could still feel the presence of it in the room. But whatever had happened was finished now. All that was left of the violence that had transpired was the scattering of dead bodies and blood splatter on the walls. What was worse than that was that the room was partially immersed in flames. Fires lit up the room, roasting the piles of corpses and threatening to spread throughout the entire room. The smell of burning flesh filled my nose and I gagged, almost throwing up the contents of my stomach before I composed myself.

Questions filled my mind, buzzing around like angry bees, my eyes were wide and unable to stop taking in the horrific images of this bloodbath, messing up my broken sanity even more. How had I gotten here? I had spaced out plenty times in the past, but never to wake up in a situation like this. Could it be possible that I was dreaming?

“I don’t know. Do dreams ever feel this real?” The little girl with dark hair sitting next to me asked absently.  She wasn’t fazed by what was going on around her; it wasn’t something she had control over. I didn’t acknowledge her. I couldn’t speak even if I wanted to; any words I could have said to respond to her were choked up with the rotten stench of death that clung to the air.

I was in the middle of all the gore, and looking down I saw my hands were dripping in blood that was not my own. I was shaking, unable to think straight or comprehend the situation that I had somehow managed to get myself in. I rubbed my hands on my scorched jeans, breathing deeply and telling myself that I had to think about this all logically. This couldn’t be real, there was no way this was possible in any sense. A quick check over confirmed my suspicions that I wasn’t hurt at all. I couldn’t have survived any sort of massacre unscathed, especially looking at the carnage of the other people around me. God there must have been more than thirty of them, all lying stiff on a ground that was red with their blood.

 The sound of a police siren snapped me back from the brink of hysteria.  Slowly, on unstable legs, I stood up.

“It’s going to be okay. There are adults here now; they’re going to fix everything. It’s going to be okay. There are adults here now; they’re going to fix everything. It’s going to be-” I repeated to myself in soft, frantic whispers as I attempted to walk towards the exit of the building.

“Do you really believe in that?” The little girl asked, standing in front of me, her eyebrow raised and hands on her hips. She would have looked comical to me if I didn’t feel like bursting into tears. Instead I shook my head and scrunched up my eyes. “It’s going to be okay. There are adults here now; they’re going to fix everything. It’s going to be okay.” I told myself louder than before, hearing the hysteria in my voice just brought me closer to the brink of madness.

“MACKENZIE ADAMS. WE HAVE THE BUILDING SURROUNDED. COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP,” said a loud speakerphone voice from outside the building. I stumbled back in shock at my name, the sound hurting my ears. I placed my hands tightly them trying to block out all noise as I became more aware of the small sounds in the warehouse. The noises, the smells, the brightness of the flames, it was all too much. My senses felt like they were shutting down as darkness seeped across my vision. I fell to the ground trying to shut it out, trying to get away from the deep tunnel of despair I was falling into.

“COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP” The speakerphone voice said again. The sound seaming to echo more than it had previously.

My head hit the stone floor with a bang; I curled in on my self as things began to fade out. Just before I slipped away, I stared at the flames and dead bodies. I was fixated with the sight of them and was unable to look away. Perhaps…maybe… maybe I had done this?

“Maybe you did.” The little girl said with a defeated sigh, standing over me.

Then it was complete darkness.