Chains

Chapter One

"Mommy, I'm shweepy!" my small, innocent toddler, Bryce, squealed in a miniature tone.
I hoisted him up onto my left hip as he went to grip the right pant leg of my spotted blue pajama pants and carried him through our contemporary white kitchen. He still shrieked and begged to go to his mahogany wooden crib in the bedroom before us, though I was taking him there already.
So much complaining.
Setting him gently into his violet bedding, I hand him his preciously sentimental baby-blue blanket. In seconds he falls into a deep sleep while his eyelids twitch like his lips do.
"My precious doll," I say as I caress the side of his face with a kind smile. Bryce breathes in deeply as he dreams peacefully, then lets the breath out slowly through his nose. The smile plastered on my face slowly fades into a hard frown as the faint buzzing of hushed voices replaces the silence in my head. I cover my ears and squat down close to the floor as the voices get louder, the voices already yelling incoherent words. I struggle to stand up from my low position, deciding that the voices should go away if I went to sleep. I keep my hands tightly clamped over my ears as I stagger out of Bryce's room, to the beige carpeted stairs. I lean up against the wall as I crawl up the stairwell, my hands pressing harder against my already bright red ears. Suddenly my hands fly off of my ears as I lose my balance, falling down the steps. I land hard on my back, causing me to release a cry of pain. I hear shuffling in my parents room as my mother and father rush out to the hallway.

"Rain?" My mother calls out, peering down the stairwell as she ties her robe tightly around her waist. She shrieks as she sees me lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. "Cameron! Help her!" She yells as she runs down the stairs to see if I am breathing, my father following close behind. I take a shaky breath as I continue to try to block out the screaming voices in my head.

"Rain honey, what happened?" My dad asks as he swiftly lifts me up.

He starts walking upstairs as I mumble too quietly for him to hear, "I fell..so loud.." I scrunch my eyes closed and cover my ears again, still trying to silence the screeching voices in my head. My father makes it up the stairwell, then walks through the hallway, past his bedroom, my older brother Adam's bedroom, and finally he walks into my shared bedroom with my younger sister Lilly.

"Lilly! Clear off Rain's bed!" My father shouts loud enough for Lilly to hear over her music blaring through her headphones, which was so loud that I could hear faint traces of it through the screeches, and the new sound added, which sounds like nails on a chalkboard, magnified by a microphone that's wailing and screaming.

Lilly looks up at my father, then up to me, and a panicked look appears on her face. She jumps up and pushes off the stray books and papers on my bed, then steps aside for Father to put me on the soft light pink bed. As Father lays me down on my bed, I cry out in pain as the pressure on my back is too much. Father instantly rolls me onto my stomach, which still hurts, but less than it did on my back.
"Lilly, leave." Father commands, giving Lilly a hard stare.
"No I want to stay with my sister!" Lilly protests with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Lilly..." Father says as he gives Lilly a harder glare.
Lilly sighs, giving up. She walks out of our room, slamming the door shut behind her, releasing a small cloud of dust.
My father sighs, turning to face me. He carefully sits down near my hip, causing me to moan in pain. "What... ened?...Ra...?R...!" His voice slowly fades into darkness as I fall unconscious.

"Rain. My name is Madness." A voice said in a voice that reverberated throughout my head.  

"W..where am I?" I ask with a worried tone.

"You, my sweet flower, are in your consciousness, thanks to me, along with the two other voices you heard. Their names are Anxiety and Depression. We are about to be very good friends...understood?"

"But why? What if I don't want to?" I retort. 

I feel a claw swipe at my face through the pitch black darkness, blood instantly welling up at the three deep gashes left behind. "Because I am stronger, and will destroy you if you do not obey. We are going to be great friends...right?"

I touch my hand to my face, feeling the fresh blood flowing easily down my right cheek. "R-right." I mumbled, not sounding very confident in my reply. 

A cold, soft hand touches my cheek, instantly scarring the wounds left behind by the claw. "There, now that you're not wounded, the three of us have a mission for you." Madness says as another voice starts speaking. 

"Anxiety here, Depression'll tell you the mission we're giving you, for now, I'll explain what we're doing in your head." Anxiety says extremely quickly, stumbling over his words. He laughs nervously. "Just kidding. You get no explanation."

I groan mentally, ignoring the fact that all three of the voices can hear me, and what I'm thinking or what sounds I make in my head. 

"Getting annoyed?" A new voice laughs. After introducing itself as Depression, it starts explaining the mission the three of them are giving me. "Your mission, is to kill your entire family." 

"W-What? Why?" I stutter. "Even...even Bryce?" I add quietly. 

"Every last member of the family living in your house. Including Bryce, yes. They are in the way of our plan, and need to be eradicated. You will complete this mission, or may your life be a living hell, for a while at least. Complete the mission by Monday morning, or there will be consequences." Madness says as a bright white light flashes, blinding me momentarily.