A Little Insane: Building A Monster

Chapter Four - An Angel Losing Its Wings

He turned around to look for another exit and felt gravity flip when he didn't see the dark wooden stairs facing the front door, or the hall without any family pictures. Instead he turned around to nothingness. He wasn't in the house anymore, like somehow his body had transferred somewhere else. He didn't understand what was happening, or why he couldn't see anything anymore, except for a strange light seeping through what seemed to be a dark, ominous sky full of emptiness.

In awe, he watched the tiny sparkly particles floating down from the sky. They were brighter and bigger than normal, like diamonds falling from a crack in the night sky. Only it wasn't the night sky, it wasn't anything.

Doubtfully, he stepped forward to stand under the ray of light. He felt warmth on his bare skin, something he'd been yearning for ever since he woke up in Hart's home; coldness always embraced him to the point where he didn't believe in a sun anymore.

But this, this felt like heaven. And then it hit him, was he in heaven? While he was staring out the window with his guard down, did Hart kill him? It actually made perfect sense. After the realization, he just felt a rush of relief, it was over.

As the heavenly ray of light showered him with warmth, he heard a distant laughter of a child. Then a second laughter joined, also deep in the darkness. He looked around, unsure of what he was searching for. The light slowly faded and left him scrambling in the dark. But something began to bloom . . . grass. From the unseen floor, colorless grass began to grow, followed by tiny flowers that looked like sunflowers, only they were gray.

Two small children emerged from the darkness, holding hands and running over the field of grass. They looked like any other normal children, except they had no smiles written on their faces, just a cold stare with lips pressed tightly into a thin line.

Riley had never seen them before, yet they looked familiar to him. They looked sick, with pale skin and worn out eyes. Maybe they were dead like he was.

He tried calling out to them but nothing left his mouth, no voice, no sound, nothing. He tried again, but his attempt was a failure. He . . . couldn't speak. He could hear wind, but no other sound seemed to exist in this place.

Instead of trying to speak to them, he tried walking to them, but every step he took just made the invisible path in front of him stretch longer. The closer he got to them, the farther he felt. It was all confusing and difficult to comprehend.

The two kids sat on the ground as two other figures behind them appeared, walking casually towards them. One was a very tall, slender woman. She had a motherly image, maybe she was their mother. And next to her was a man, shorter than the woman, but also sharing a relative aspect. They all had very dark hair, so dark it almost blended with the background. Their eyes were an eerie blend of blue and gray, similar to the moon.

They were most definitely related. But who were they?

He was about to open his mouth, but then remembered his voice didn't work in this place. Walking wasn't an option, he'd just get dizzy. Was he just supposed to creep on this family?

Just then as his thoughts rambled on, they disappeared, but appeared again in a different position. There was no more grass, they were inside a house now. It was the house, Hart's house. He knew it right away, only this version was different. He couldn't quite put a finger on it. Maybe it was the color that was messing with his brain.

The two kids ran down the stairs and down the hall to the back of the house. They were inseparable. And of course, they were twins. One was a girl with long black hair, and the other was a boy with his hair almost touching his eyes.

When they ran through the backdoor, Riley saw something that made his skin shiver with fright. There was a man standing there watching him. But what frightened him was the empty sockets where his eyes should have been. The man opened his mouth and Riley saw nothing. No teeth, no tongue, just a black hole.