Tinted Scars

7. Gun Powder

“Memories are bullets. Some whiz by and only spook you. Others tear you open and leave you in pieces.” – Richard Kadrey.

•••

Blood drizzled out of the water faucet, when Eri twisted the knob and it gushed out with shards of broken glasses, piercing his fingers and scalding him with fresh bruises and scars. He closed his eyes, assuring himself that it was only his pure OCD taking reins of his thoughts, and the sight before him wasn’t real indeed. He opened his eyes to meet his hands, free of scars and dents—and the sink before him, void of pelted skin and fragments of broken glasses.

He stepped out of the bathroom, and moved across the room to his desk to pick up his bag. Bilal also was dressing up and getting ready to head out. He made it a conscious effort to avoid the gaze of his friend, so it didn’t stimulate his vision of hell again, but much to his dismay, Bilal tapped him on his shoulder and asked for an assessment of his appearance.

“So how do I look?” Bilal asked, stepping back and gesturing downwards with his hands. Any other day, Eri would have been thrilled to offer advisory commentary on his friend’s choice of clothes, but today he was finding it hard to keep a straight image of him in his head. He did try to study his appearance, but boulders protruding with steel sharpened edges were raining down on Bilal, bashing him from all angles—causing blood to gush out, until he was drained of all bodily fluids, leaving nothing but a frayed skin.

“Uh, you look great.” Eri swallowed, his nails burrowing into his skin—as if it would render him any sort of control over his hellish thoughts. “Look, I have to go now or else I’d be late for class. I’d see you in the cafeteria or something, during lunch. Later.”

“Um, okay.” He knew Bilal’s expression was something of a dumbfounded, concerned one—when he let himself out of the room—but there was nothing anyone could do to help him, when the demons were awakened.

To be candid, he had been expecting a new episode. His last one had occurred about a month ago, with the mysterious skater when he initially resumed, and he was astonished that it had taken so long for its return. When he was back home, it recurred so regularly, it was almost a daily travail that he had learned how to contend with. But that had been easy, as all he had had to do was lock himself up in his room, isolate from others and wait for the images to subside. Now that he was in school however and wasn’t in control of his schedule, he had no idea how he was going to manage it.

When he stepped outside to the corridor, and joined the batch of students heading out—all he could see was headless people, with blood squirting out of their necks. Eri cursed under his breath, lowering his gaze to the ground—but there was no escape, as the earth cracked open, and spat out ghoulish demons with legs for heads and snakes slithering tongues, that shot to the pillars, and wrung round them—snapping them into shredding. The entire block collapsed on itself, and from the skies came chainsaw equipped drones, drilling into the head of the survivors who escaped the crash.

The hike to college was even more haunting. The clouds were red with fury, and larva was falling, melting everything beneath into paste. The concrete slabs by the sides, rose into the air and began taking people out, like loaded stones in a catapult, as the breeze hurled it from one end to the other, clearing people in its path. Dazed, Eri slapped a palm over his face, leaving a little space through his fingers, so he could peek through and see where he was headed. It didn’t dampen the hell in his head one bit, but it reduced the picture frame.

When he arrived at the faculty, chaos and carnage had infiltrated the premises. A bio weapon—similar to the hazard in the Bird Box movie—had infected everyone, pushing them to make attempts to take their own lives. At the entrance, a boy was continuously banging his head on the edge of a steel paneled door, while blood guzzled out of a huge hole in his forehead. He paused a bit, said “Hi.” To Eri, and continued afterwards. People were climbing to the top floor, and jumping off the steel railings in the corridor—cries of glee ringing out, as they fell to their deaths. A gargantuan sledgehammer was also suspended in the air, pounding people into puddles of blood.