Paranoiac

by Attikus Absconder

  My foot slipped underneath and I looked down to see a long, dark red smear that led to the back of the cellar. The buzzing, humming, sound was getting louder whilst I wearily followed the bloody trail. I couldn’t help but wonder whose blood marked the floor. My face crumpled sadly as everyone’s faces flashed in my mind’s eye. I pulled up my head slowly, clearing my mind and peered into the dim, dark cellar. Something shiny was glaring in the corner of the room. The buzzing hum was growing louder and the appalling smell of death was getting stronger.

  Rounding the corner, I followed the bloody path then quickly stumbled back, dropping the notebook onto the floor. I was startled by dozens of reflections of myself and then I saw it. Heaped in the shallow corner of the brick and concrete cellar floor were piles of trash, the missing oriental rugs, and black garbage bags. The mirrors were also littered amongst the trash. All of them were different sizes, piled and leaning against the walls.

  Then the horror faded into view. There were dark viscous smears on the floor, rugs and mirrors. Bloated gnats and flies buzzed in swarms around the bags. I covered my mouth in disgust trying not to gag at the maggots pouring from the slimy garbage bags and grease-stained rugs. I wanted to run, to hide, but it was far too late for that. My friends were inside these bags, chopped and folded into bits. Worst of all was Molly, her corpse was rolled into a rug stained with black grease. Her hair was hanging out of the end, dripping with dark fluids. The second I tried to look away I heard his voice, “Don’t be shy Isaac, be proud!” My eyes darted up and I saw my pallid twin in all of the mirrors, replacing my reflection. I tried to back away but I couldn’t move. “This is the end, Isaac,” He said cheerfully. Every mirror was off synch, moving and speaking independently from each other.

  Distressingly, the bags started moving and shifting, knocking handfuls of maggots onto the floor. The demon in the mirror chuckled his off-synch appalling laugh and the putrid, rotten smell amplified. “Isaac…” Moaned several hoarse voices as the bags continued to twist and writhe.

  “No, no!” I bumbled out incoherently, terrified by the impossible repugnance in front of me. A blackened, pale, bruised, and greasy hand reached out from of the bags. Maggots spilled out with it as it contorted itself free.

  “Isaac… Why?” Bemoaned several creatures from the abhorrent trash pile. Another disgusting, rotting arm plopped out of the bag and started reaching for me. My whole body was quivering with fear. With my heart pounding painfully in my chest, I still couldn’t budge an inch. My haunting, spectral brother continued laughing maniacally. Every mirror sounded off at disorienting intervals.

  “No, get away! Stop!” I cried helplessly as all of the bags and rugs starting shifting and falling. All of them were moaning from the gory piles of disgust.

  “Oh, Izzy! It hurts!” Cried Amy’s gargling voice as she wrenched herself from the bag. Her bones ground and popped underneath her syphilitic, sagging, nasty skin.

  “Why Isaac?” Vince wailed alongside Amy. He crawled his way out of the rancid bag, half covered in plastic sheeting. Water was dribbling from his mouth and his bloated, puckered face was teeming with bloat flies and maggots.

  “Looks like everyone’s here for the party,” Mocked my monster, happily clapping his hands as my other victims wriggled and squirmed their way out of the bags I put them in. They were all re-attaching their limbs that I heartlessly sawed off.

  “Isa-” Breathed Josie airily, trying to crawl over to the broken wood and glass beneath her. Her eyes were intently locked on mine and her blackened, featureless face was trying to moan my name only to come out as a gagging, airy gargle. Rosanna, Senter and Hanna all ripped their way in my direction. All of them were heavily decomposed and chanting my name, questioning why I killed them.

  “I’m sorry! I didn’t want to! He made me!” I shouted desperately, jabbing my finger at the largest mirror.

  “No Isaac! It was all you!” Senter cried, crawling over to Hanna. He leered at me with bitter anguish with his eye still dangling out of its socket, shriveled and buzzing with bloated flies. The demon clone in the mirrors chortled, still out of synch with all of his counterparts. Senter’s hand sunk into Hanna’s already crushed skull and slimy maggots spilled out.

  “You enjoyed it! We know you did,” Hanna wheezed pulling Senter’s wet, bloody hand from her hollow, misshapen head.

  “I loved you Izzy,” Amy cried as she helped her brother crawl out of the muck. His face was sunken in and unrecognizable.

  “Stop! It was… I had to!” I howled, blubbering pathetically. My feet were still fused to the ground and they were all crawling, inching towards me.

  “Isaac! You lying monster!” A muffled voice mumbled from within one of the rugs. Davis shifted and contorted his dislocated body out of the rug. He plopped greasily on top of the garbage pile and scowled at me furiously. “You betrayed everyone!” Davis lamented, popping his joints nastily back into place. “But most of all you betrayed Molly!” He limped over to the other rug and reached into it, grabbing Molly’s head.

  “No! Please!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t bear to see her again. To see her rotted and brutalized would be the death of me.

  “I thought you were going to face your fears?” The mirrors echoed, synchronized in their mocking for the first time. Davis continued to yank at Molly’s corpse as the others started to get dangerously close to me. The abhorrent shade in the mirror was laughing insanely as he watched the culmination of my sins come to a close.

  “Oh, Izzy. How could you do this to me?” Whimpered the one voice I was praying not to hear. Davis hunched and fell to the ground disjointed as Molly pulled herself out of the disgusting rug. Her once gorgeous face was rotted, swollen and revolting. Amy and James were crawling at my feet as Molly finally pulled herself free. “You raped me Izzy! You choked the life out of me!”

  I was frozen in place and my victims were gaining on me fast. The imposter was cackling his velvet chuckle, louder and louder as Molly limped and grasped towards me. Her dress was ripped, stained and a dark fluid was dripping from between her legs. The flies were humming and buzzing ferociously around the living carcasses. “Izzy?” They all began to cry, reaching out for me.

  “No! Get away!” I shouted trying to push them away. Their arms were wet and cold against my skin. My twin was snorting with amusement. “Stop laughing at me!” I yelled as they pulled me down to the chilled, concrete floor of the cellar, closing my eyes and covering my ears tightly. The vengeful remnants clawed at me chanting my name and ripping at my limbs. “No!” I yelped in excruciating pain. The mirrors continued to laugh with a preternatural boom. It seeped passed my hands and burrowed into my ears. I could feel the dead scratching and striking my body.

  Then, abruptly it all went quiet. The buzzing, the laughing, the chanting. It was all silent and still. I opened my eyes with caution only to see the rotten, rancid, remnants encircled around me. They were all grinning ear-to-ear. Black blood seeping from their orifices and maggots dropping from their disgusting, oily clothing and saggy skin. They all looked down at me for minutes, just breathing airily. Very slowly they all parted on either side making room for Molly.

  “This is it, Izzy,” She said gently, walking slowly over to me, her soiled dress hanging off of her shoulders. “This is how it ends,” Molly choked, rasping as she crouched eerily in front of me. Grabbing my both sides of my head with her cold dead hands, she smiled sharply. Maggots were digging into her gums, gnawing on its grey flesh.

  “Please don’t,” I begged, echoing the same pleas for mercy that she fought for. My undead audience chuckled and clapped at my words. My face was pulled closer to hers and my monstrous, sallow double started to laugh again. Molly smelled so terrible but I was too afraid to pull away. She began to kiss me harshly, forcing her bloated, maggot eaten tongue into my mouth. I started gagging uncontrollably as her cold, slimy, sour tongue writhed in my mouth.

  “What’s wrong, isn’t this what you always wanted
?” She said pulling away from me. I instantaneously dribbled vomit down my shirt and began to coughing. “Don’t you think I’m beautiful Izzy?” Molly responded, feigning sadness. I tried to retreat but my rotting onlookers stepped forward and held me down. A scream came from my throat but it was lost in my spectral demon’s velvet snickering. Molly sauntered creepily over to me and removed her dress while crawling on top of me. Her skin was cold, grey and bruised. Maggots were hanging and spilling from her crotch as she crawled up my body. My foul victims held me down even tighter and finally I gave in.

  As her icy hand wrapped around my neck, my body went limp. I peered up at what was once the love of my life and said the last words I would ever speak, “I’m so sorry.”