General Inspection (Novel To Be) As Sierra sat there in that dark room that she called her living room, living room, as if she lived there. Staring at the flickering monitor, watching him grab, stab, bite, suck and run. What the fuck was this thing, was it a thing or a man? As she rewound the tape, she paused it on him, that image echoed in her head again. A hooded, dark, gaunt figure, that pendant on its neck, that dark room. The other beasts like it, looking in anticipation. As the hooded character was bound, and water was dripped slowly upon his hood. They soon took off the hood, sliding it back, revealing its head, its face in the shadows and dripped water on his flesh. It singed and burned, and as she looked around she saw the bodies hanging from the ceiling, as she had every time. What was this memory, this vision, this horrible dream? She shuddered and looked away from the screen, as the image slowly erased itself from her mind, ever so slowly, so that it left his face burned in her eyes. As she played the tape at a lower speed, she saw the things eyes. It was him, the creature from the dream, the vision, the memory. She jumped and dropped the remote on the ground, and as it smashed on the tiles, the buttons jammed and the tape replayed. �I have got you, again, again and again, another one, are you going to stop me? I know you are there, Ariel? Ariel?� �I have got you, again, again and again, another one, are you going to stop me? I know you are there, Ariel? Ariel?� �Ariel? Ariel?� �Ariel? Ariel?� She began to cry and threw her coffee at the television. �Fuck off! Just Fuck off and leave me alone!� �My name isn�t Ariel!!!� �Who the hell are you god damn it? Who are you?� As these words echoed through her head, she decided bed was a good idea. As she walked over to the television, it wouldn�t turn off. �Well� It�s well and truly fucked this time�� She kicked the stand it was on, and it fell to the ground. Imploding and divulging glass and dust over the ground. If only that were him she thought. She ripped the cord out of the wall. Her rib pulled and she wept again, �Jesus Christ, not again.� She put her hand up her shirt to the wound. The gauze over the bullet hole was coming loose again, and pulling at the stitches. �Where�s the damn paracetamol?� She went over and grabbed the box. �Shit its empty�� She sighed as she threw the empty box into the bin. She slowly walked over across the ice cold tiles to her room, cutting her foot on the pieces of monitor from the television. �Oh fuck this is great� By now she was not in the best of moods. As Sierra pulled the piece of glass from her cragged foot and threw it at the chair, she looked out the window at the moon. It was almost down, it was almost morning, and she was back to work tomorrow. As she opened her door, it creaked and moaned, as if loathing her entry. She pulled back the sheets on her make-shift bed, and striped down to her tank top and underpants, laid on the bed and removed her watch. �I�ll be needing this in the morning, this and a bloody big coffee.� She set the watch for five am, and rolled over, looking at her childhood items on the dresser, why her mother insisted on her taking them seven years ago, she didn�t understand. She tossed and turned and couldn�t get to sleep. Her eyes felt like they had bricks in the bottom of them, they were so red and sore. She had not slept for 2 weeks straight. She murmured all sorts of things to herself, her eyes were spiraling out of her head. She looked at the pink ballerina, the teddy bear Rufus, the rabbit Bill, she sighed and put her hands to her heart, then got up off the bed. She placed her hands around the ballerina, and caressed the chrome handle that made her dance, a puppet to a tune. She twisted it, and as the cogs moved she ticked with it, her body so tired and injured. The bruises that lined her body, the bullet holes, the scars, the cuts, they were all visible and opened in the cool night air. She placed the ballerina on the dresser and it played its tune. {As you look, Into the moon, You know my face, Is starring back, And as the stars, They shoot from sight, Know that they are messages, I love you, I�ll hold you, My princess in pink, As�} As the continual tinkering bells were hit by metal inside the figurine, she murmured the words to the tune. But as she started to fall asleep, they were lost in her mind. Sierra woke violently, stabbing at thin air, her whole body covered in sweat. She put her hand under the pillow and felt it there, its polished steel, and chrome latches. It was gone, he was gone. She began shaking and laid back down, looking at the ballerina, still playing its tune, as all that had passed was 3 minutes. As she starred at her, she thought she saw Rufus wink, Rufus blink and Rufus smile, a devilish smile, one she knew too well. As she shook this from her head she looked at Bill, his cute beady eyes starred lovingly back. And then blinked, he opened his mouth, and spoke, her toys spoke. �Sierra? Sierra? Honey, its time for school. Your going to be late.� �You don�t want to be late again, do you?� �Your lunch is on the table, ill see you later honey, and we�ll finally go out for those cups of coffee and biscuits you keep talking about.� �I have the table booked, just ring and ask to check on the table reserved for Sauficha. Ok hun? Bye!� His beady eyes blinked again, and he started to move, his mouth repeating what was previously said. She began to cry, so confused and scared. �What the fuck is going on, what are you talking about?� �Get the fuck away from me, GET AWAY!!!� She was screaming now so loud that her mirror shook. Bill rolled off the dresser and onto the floor. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rufus, his eyes were red and hollow yet they went for ever, boundless. He looked right into her eyes and jumped off the dresser, onto the floor and then began moving over to the bed. �Sierra honey, your going to miss the bus.� �Sierra, the bus.� His voice began to deepen and reverberate, �Honey, you are going. You are going. You are going. You are going. You are going.� He began to smile, razors for teeth, and no tongue. �You are going to see me die!� �Die, and you could save me, but you don�t even know its me.� She spat at him, �FUCK OFF!� She was crying so hard now that she was wet, �Mum, mum, Is that you? What is going on?� She held her head. �Go away, just go away!� As she looked at them, they were on the dresser where they had always been. She blinked, and they re appeared on the floor, grinning hollow. She looked over at her graceful, beautiful ballerina. But she wasn�t graceful any more. Her eyes were bleeding, and her flesh was cut. Every inch of her was bloodied, and her eyes were stitched, oozing blood, like a waterfall She waved at Sierra, and blew her a kiss. But when her mouth opened, maggots, crawling and decomposing, poured out all over the dresser. She opened her mouth again, spewing maggots, �Honey, what�s wrong? You look like you saw a ghost. You can tell me, you know you can tell me, what ever it is. Did Jordan break up with you again?� She began to laugh, �You dirty whore, take a look at yourself. Sierra starred transfixed on the ballerina. �Look at the fucking mirror damn you girl!� Sierra jumped out of her flesh and turned to her mirror. As the corpses swung from the ceiling, dripping god knows what onto her, she spewed, and jumped off the bed, straight on top of Rufus and Bill, She screamed again so loud. Ran to the other side of the room and threw a chair at them. �Now that�s no way to play with your family.� Rufus looked raged, and blood bellowed from his mouth. �No it isn�t darling, that�s not very nice at all.� Bill adding to the conversation. The ballerina once again screamed, and tore at her flesh with her finger nails. �Look into the mirror again, or who knows what they will do honey, I think they are upset.� Sierra turned towards the mirror, once more, so hesitant. Her flesh was blue, it was dead, she was bleeding from her neck. Her eyes were bleeding and her stomach was opened up. She fell to the ground and closed her eyes. As she awoke moments later, she opened her eyes and Rufus was on her chest. �Hello honey. Sleep well?� He began chuckling and pulled a razor from his mouth, dragging it across her face, across her eyes, her throat. She passed out, blood all over her body. As she slipped away she heard the Ballerina. �See you tomorrow darling, love you.� �See you� �See you� �No I won�t� �Because I�LL BE DEAD!� She slipped away, into the darkness. *** Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Sierra convulsed in fear. �Holy shit, what the hell was that?� She pulled the pistol from under her pillow. �RUFUS� She screamed on the top of her lungs, and lunged around towards the stuffed animals. Stuffed animals, that�s all they were. �She grabbed her head and dropped the pistol. As it hit the bed it clinked on something else metallic. Sierra looked down at the pistol, and picked it back up. As she looked at the object underneath, she saw it was a razorblade. She picked it up and looked at it. It was covered in blood and inscribed in its side were the words: �Who loves you baby?� She stopped, heart and all. She froze for a good minute. Screamed then threw it out the opened window. THE OPENED WINDOW �What the hell?� �Why is this opened?� She closed the window muttering about how she could have swore she closed it. Then looked over at Rufus, Bill and the ballerina. What the hell happened in here. She could smell stale vomit, sweat and most distinct, old blood.
Copyright © 2005 Josh Anderson |