Asylum

He's My Nightmare... But I Think I Love Him

"If you realized who I am, what I am... Then you would realize that what you feel isn't meant to be." Once the words left his mouth I froze. My heart stopped beating for a second and my mind reeled, trying to process what he had just said. I didn't understand, didn't want to, though what he had meant. I was only so intelligent and only knew of so much. I was naïve to a point that made me sick. How could he be hinting at things that I had never thought existed, had been told never existed.

"Who... No, no, no... What are you?" I struggled for the right words to phrase what I wanted to ask. It only came out as a jumbled mess and he laughed at me.

"What I am is something you never wish to see in your nightmares. I am a thing left to guard this place. No one cares about my welfare, just that I get the job done. So you shouldn't worry yourself with me." As he spoke I could almost detect a hint of sorrow in his words but he masked his words with an emotionless voice.

"How can you say that about yourself? Honestly no one could be as repulsive as what you are suggesting at. I want to see you for myself to prove this point."

"I only speak the truth, and when I say you do not want to see what lies behind the shadows... I mean it. I don't belong here with you, with your kind... But I was cast out of the place I came from and sent here. I'm exiled to a life of servitude in this place." While he spoke, it was obvious he left out a major detail. I didn't know if it was for my benefit or his own.

"I-I... I was only curious. What I feel for you-"

"What you feel for me is an illusion. Your mind has its own idea of what I am and that is what your body is reacting to. Not what I actually am. I understand the concepts of human love, lust, and desire. Yet I cannot reciprocate what you feel. My kind doesn't have those feelings..."

"But there is such a thing as true love. It doesn't matter who or what you are... It will find you." I was desperately trying to understand what he meant by his kind but I was stuck. I needed him to show himself to me so I could understand.

"You and your kind with that. Maybe someday you will realize there is no such thing.... Or maybe not. Compared to the other races your kind is still very primitive."

"What other kinds?" Once he said other kinds I became confused. Did he mean other kinds as in aliens?

"I have said to much now. I can't tell you what I mean. I have to leave but I will be back soon."

"Wait! Don't leave me here by myself!" I called out to him as he turned and started walking towards the door. I tried to get up and go after him but I was tangled in the bed sheets.

"I will return and when I do we can talk some more." As he said those words he didn't stop or look at me, but rather kept walking towards the door and left.

° ° ° °

Since I was left in the strange room alone I decide against exploring. With my bad sense of direction and how my luck was fairing me so far, I would probably get lost. That left me with only one option, sleep.

When I awoke I felt like I hadn't slept at all. The alarm clock on the stand said that it was 8:45 A.M. I had slept for a little over six hours, but they were a terrible six. I had had dreams filled of torture experiments performed by the dreaded doctors. Another dream had also given me the frights.

In the dream I was in one of the asylum's hallways. I was running from someone, but I didn't know who. I wanted to escape the person, but I was stuck with them inside the asylum. My only option was to run around the halls until I found an escape. I turned left down a hall, then a right, then another right. I could hear a muffled shuffling behind me. I quickened my pace but then the hall came to an end. The only thing that was different about this one was it had a window. I ran up to it and looked out.