NECROPOLIS
Pranav
Reality is shaped
by the forces that destroy it
- D. Harlan Wilson
Fear, the
one strong emotion that everyone knows, the one emotion which helps us survive
yet the one emotion which we want to avoid. Amongst all fears it's the fear of
the unknown which haunts us the most. For us humans, we would rather run from a
guy with a chainsaw than sit in a safe place with something always breathing
behind your back. Imagine being in an art gallery, and you feel that every
picture is looking at you. You feel terrified even though the pictures can't
harm you. They can't... Right?
Walking along an
empty narrow street, Samuel Wikerson was contemplating about the horrors of
real life. His life has been miserable right from childhood. He didn't remember
his parents, or anyone from his family. He has been living on his own as far as
he can remember. It wasn't easy. In fact for him, life got as miserable as it
can get. Some unidentified disease was slowly eating his body. He was
completely broke. Not that he had more than ten dollars in his pocket at some
point in his life. But he always salvaged enough to eat at least once a day.
Now, it has been nearly a week since he last ate. Let alone getting pain
killers to survive the night. He wasn't able to sleep because of the pain. And
when he managed to sleep the nightmares woke him up right away. The Nightmares
were always the same, being tied to a chair and slowly tortured by plucking his
nails. He never usually got to the end of it. But one night when he was so
tired to wake up even from the nightmares, THINGS GOT WORSE.
The end of this
street is usually where Samuel lied down. But today it seemed different.
Something was dragging him to the end. It was dark but the moonlight shining
between the trees was good enough for Samuel to see that this is not the way
his Street used to be. He wanted to turn back and check whether he took a wrong
turn somewhere but something kept pulling him to the end. It was as if someone
else was controlling his body, he was unable to stop. So he kept walking, he
didn't have anything to lose. If something is giving him energy and pushing him
to a new turn in life, he was welcome to take it, because so far his life was
more miserable than death. In fact, what is so miserable about death? Even if it
is painful, it's only going to last for some time. No one is here to miss him
nor anyone he will miss. He might as well die and get it over with. But the
tortures of this life are known. Who knows what after-life is like? It can very
well be his nightmares for eternity! Better a known devil than an unknown angel
right? GOD! We keep hoping that it's an angel.
Suddenly, the
wind blew around him in circles and he started shivering. The cold wind was too
much for his body to take. Others wouldn't call it much of a body anyway it's
was just his skeleton with a layer of skin to cover it. Well, you don't expect
a thick layer of fat on a person who at most ate once a day for the last ten
years. Beyond that he didn't remember. He never really had any memory of how he
got to a place, all that mattered to him was to survive another day for things
might get better someday. More importantly, Death might be worse. The giant
scar on his right cheek started burning. He never really remembered having the
scar but now he did, and it was painful. Though he didn't want to walk, he
struggled to keep walking. His fur coat blew off and he reached a gate frozen
from head to toe. The gate creaked open with a gentle touch and there stood a
mansion black as a raven. He walked on the pathway leading to the doorsteps.
The garden on either side was filled with decaying plants and among those
decaying plants grew black roses. The rotten smell filled the air while his
legs stepped inside.
He felt a weird
sense of Deja vu when he was inside. In fact he felt nostalgic. It felt so
strange to feel nostalgic about such a creepy place. When he looked around the
main hall, he saw a bat hanging from the red chandelier over his head. The
moonlight through the French Windows filled the space. The cold air surrounding
him suddenly left the place and he felt warm and comfortable, yet scared. He walked
a few steps and saw a hallway leading on to the inner chambers. When suddenly
he felt a piercing pain in his heart. He instinctively looked up to see the bat
gazing at him with its blood red eyes. He sat down on a table next to him with
his hand clutching his chest just to feel the table's surface wriggle and try
to pull him inside. He stood up immediately and kneeled to the ground, when
immediately the bat flew past him outside through the door and slammed it shut.
The red chandelier began to burn filling the room with an eerie red glow and
out of nowhere Samuel heard a faint whisper filling the room. He strained his
ears to hear to hear a little boy's voice.
Let the door be
shut,
And the cords be
cut.
Going dark and cold
To the undead
world.
Samuel stood up.
His knees felt weak. Yet, he knew that if he stayed there it's going to be the
end of him. He stumbled across the hall to the hallway. He felt a strange
familiarity about the place. When he went into a room to sit down near a
heater, memories came flooding on to him.
"Samuel, Samuel... "
His mother kept calling.
“Don’t run around in
the backyard after sunset. How many times have I told you this?”
A moment later as if remembering something
important she asked
“Did you go to that mansion today?”
He saw that his mother's eyes were red with anger
and fear
His scar hurt
once again. He just stood near the entrance to the room thinking about his
mother. Up until this day he never remembered her. But now, he heard her voice
clearly in his head. Was it completely inside his head? He wasn't sure of that.
Then he heard the voice again. Now it was not just in his head. It was as if
the entire place was calling out to him
Samuel...
Samuel...
When he turned
back, there was no hallway. Just a black void going on and on. He then looked
around to see the room closing in on him. And something was infecting the walls
of the room and that something definitely didn't like him. The painting of a
young girl on the wall started growing in size until it covered the entire
wall. The girl then started growing old and she died staring into his eyes. The
filth covering the room entered into the picture and he found himself being
sucked by it. He turned around and jumped into the void while he saw the girl's
eyes fall inside into her empty skull.
And the cords be
cut...
And the cords be
cut...
Samuel floated
in the void. The only source of light was from the way he came in and he moved
further and further away from it. He was not sure if he was moving or the house
is trying to shut him up. He had no idea of the passage of time, or distance.
He was there seeing nothing and hearing nothing. He couldn't see his own body.
The only sound he could hear was the sound of his own heart beating. And after
a while it stopped. He didn't know if he was alive anymore. But for the first
time in his life he was sure that others knew that he existed. He had a family
and he had memories of them. Floating in the void, the void in his memory began
to fill up.
He stood there in front of the huge raven black
mansion. Behind him was the Wikerson residence. He could very well hide safely
in there, lead a life laid out to him by his family and fulfil their
expectations. But his curious half was bugging him to go have a look inside the
mansion. It was like an insect in his brain ever since his mom told him that
the mansion is off limits to him and his friends. Today he decided to find out
why it is off limits no matter what the cost. He passed through the beautiful
garden filled with red roses in front of the mansion and climbed the stairs to the door. It was a
huge door with scratch marks all over it clearly contrasting the black color.
The door slammed open and a bat flew out of it when he stepped close to it and
he was pulled inside. Then, he found himself standing in his bedroom. All his
toys in his room was staring at him. He tried to move but his body was frozen
in its place. He stood there trying to figure out what happened. He saw his
toys slowly start crawling to him. They left a trail of blood when they crawled
on the floor. He was puzzled as well as paralyzed with fear. He tried to scream
but he was choking with his own blood in his throat. He felt it, the taste of
blood. When they were about to reach him he heard his mom open the door. She
passed through all of his stuff as if they didn't exist in her life. He
screamed as much as he could. But she could neither hear him nor see him. He
stood there seeing all the things which belonged to him disappear in front of
his eyes. Erasing his presence from their lives. It was no longer his room when
the toys spewed blood all over him.
Samuel opened
his eyes to see himself in the hallway again. He felt different. This place
gave him memories. It didn't matter even if they were all lies. All that
mattered was now he had an identity. A memory of his past. A life he had lived.
His step wasn't weak anymore. He felt a surge of energy flowing inside him. He
now had hope, and 'Hope is a good thing'. He walked along the hallway. He saw a
small boy standing in a corner. He felt a sudden pain in his scar. The pain
blinded him, and fear rushed through him in an instant. He couldn't afford to
be blind in such a place. Then he felt the floor beneath him give away. It felt
like quick sand slowly pulling him inside. He tried to move but it held him firm
and tight in one place. And once again he saw the room being infected with a
strange black fungi. A pungent smelling gas filled the room making him
suffocate. He then heard the scream of a small boy. His vision was back to a
blurry state by now. He looked around and he wasn't sure where the scream came
from. He heard the scream once again, it pained his ears to hear the scream every
time. He then realized that this scream was not from the outside. He heard it
from his mind, from his memories, from his past. Hope is a cruel thing. After
the faint touch of hope, pains are much more horrendous. The fungi grew near
him and when they started growing on his hands. He started losing consciousness
once again. But someone kept screaming inside his head.
Samuel screamed at the top of his voice. Right
after the horrid scene with his toys. It hurt his heart to see his family
forget him in front of his eyes and live their lives as if he never existed. He
was gone from the family photos in their living room. When he walked back to
his room it wasn't there. It just wasn't. There was no door leading to it. And
he ran out of his door just to see himself back in the raven black mansion's
hallway. Now after everything, there were tentacles everywhere trying to catch
him. He ran around screaming, unsure of what to do. When he tried to bolt the
door shut to the room he entered, a tentacle from below captured him and
dragged him away from the door. The skin of the tentacles were transparent and
he could see the blood flowing through the tentacles as they sucked on him. His
entire body started shivering and he frantically started kicking to get out of
this horror. The more he kicked. The more they sucked. He couldn't believe he
was going to die so soon. He had planned so much to do with his life. He wanted
to be an adventurer, ironically his life's adventure was about to end. The
reality of the situation came crashing on his believes. He believed that if you
wanted something with all your heart, the universe will make you get it. This
is not want he wanted. This couldn't be happening. He closed his eyes and hoped
that he would wake up from this horrible dream. The tentacles were choking him.
He opened his eyes once again. Suddenly, all the tentacles popped spewing blood
all over his body. He slowly walked as his entire body shivered and he froze
when the saw a figure at the end of the hallway. It was an old man covered with
ragged cloths and there was something black growing on his hands. Terrified,
Samuel screamed again, and ran.
Samuel woke up.
His childhood fears came back to him once again. He remembered his nightmares,
it was THE OLD MAN. The one who wandered in his dreams torturing him for fun.
He looked around, he was in the same hallway he lost consciousness. This was
the sanest thing that happened to him today. Trying to find the way back he
entered the main hall. The chandelier was out and it was dark. A candle was
burning dim on a table in a corner, filling the room with an eerie glow. He
then saw a black liquid oozing though the doors and windows into the room. But,
he didn't try to resist. He was too tired to resist. He thought he was prepared
for whatever was going to happen to him. The black liquid formed a puddle in
front of him. And out from it rose a boy. The liquid dripping down from him
turned to blood red color. The boy stared at him. And then he slowly started
walking towards him. The boy looked at his eyes and nothing else. He stared at
it so blankly that it creeped Samuel to see such an empty person. Fear took
over his senses.
Samuel ran blindly trusting his instincts. All
around him the walls started cracking and tentacles rushed towards him. He
stumbled on a tentacle rising from the floor and toppled over. He landed in a
pool of a sticky liquid. It was pitch dark. The stickiness was not natural. The
liquid was trying to cover him, Hold him, Take over him, and DROWN HIM. Both
physically and consciously. His consciousness was fading fast. He didn't have
control over his actions anymore. He rose from the puddle. It was pitch black
and he couldn't see his own body. He saw a dim light at a distance. Giving him
something. He couldn't understand what it did to him. But he was staring at the
light and instinctively walked towards it. When he walked towards it he once
again saw the old man appear behind it, and the light turned red. He heard a
shriek all over a place. The shriek turned to a high pitched sound. He covered
his ears and tried to move. But his body froze in its place. The old man stared
at him and his cold blood red eyes sent shivers through Samuel's body. Once
again, tentacles caught hold of him and took him towards the old man. Samuel
was contemplating of what he could've done that made him deserve such cruelty.
Guess some things just happen. He saw the old man levitate towards him.
Samuel tried to
throw his shoe towards the little boy. It froze in midair and fell down never
reaching the boy. Samuel wanted to be brave. It was just a little boy. But
something about this little boy terrorized him to his bones. The liquid around
him grew in density and solidified around him. More liquid rushed from the
cracks on the floor and covered his entire body. The entire blob started moving
towards the little boy and he could see the boy moving towards him. The uncanny
familiarity of the boy terrorized Samuel more than his nightmares. The entire
place was silent and he could hear his heart beating. With a sudden burst of
energy Samuel broke free of his bonds and pushed the boy away from him. His
hands burned when he touched the boy. The boy flew to a corner of the room and
fell crashing.
The old man suddenly pounced towards Samuel.
Samuel fell hard on the table at the corner and it crashed and the broken wood
gave him a deep cut on his cheek. Pain rushed through his body when he saw the
old man moving towards him
With nothing to
lose, and a bit of bravery Samuel rushed towards the boy in the corner. He
suddenly felt a mind numbing pain on his scar. The goo all around him tried to
hold him down as he tried to choke the boy to death. The liquid tightened
around his body and it started breaking his bones and choking him. Filled with
fear and anger he ignored the pain in his body and concentrated on inflicting
pain
Samuel saw a killing intent in the old man’s eyes as he tried to choke him to death. He tried to kick him away
but the tentacles held his feet firm making him immobile. He kept trying to
break free and when he suddenly broke free he knocked the candle towards the Old
man and his rags caught fire. The rags on the old man then fell on his left leg
burning it.
Samuel's rags
suddenly caught fire. He shook them away without letting go of the boy. The
rags fell on the little boy's legs and Samuel felt a raging pain in his leg.
The Burn mark on his left leg started burning once again and Samuel realized
everything. As memories rushed back to him one by one. He saw the deep cut on
the boy's right cheek. He slowly let go of the boy, as goo covered his entire
body blinding him.
Samuel lost consciousness with the old man choking
him. But just before he lost it he felt him let loose. Maybe he thought Samuel
had already passed away.
Samuel woke up on the streets on a cold winter. He
looked around and realized that he was no longer Samuel... Whatever his last
name was. Whatever happened has changed his life completely and he was on his
own from now on.
As Samuel let go
of the boy. He saw him disappear in front of his eyes. The truth was crushing
him. He had never really gotten out of his childhood terror mansion. He never
could. He was stuck in a conundrum here encompassing both the past and the
future. His entire horrible life has just been a part of this terror mansion.
He had lost his life the moment he stepped inside this mansion when he was six.
All these years, everything was just the mansion's way of telling him to give up.
All the hope of life might get better some other day was just a cruel fake
belief. Now he had really given up. He has truly lost everything. He was
prepared to be here.
The mansion
looked normal now. He was prepared for it. He didn't want to leave. He walked
past the halls filled with screams and blood. You know you have changed when
these seem normal to you. As he walked to the balcony on the next floor. He saw
a small boy walk towards the mansion and an Old man at the door. He smiled to
himself thinking about how time flows in this place.
At a distance he
saw a burial. The coffin was open and he saw the corpse starting right at him.
He was not sure. He blinked and when he opened his eyes. He was in the coffin
inside the corpse seeing through its eyes. The corpse was also standing on the
balcony staring at him. Everyone around him started burying him alive. He was
claustrophobic and yet he felt comfortable after what had happened to him
today. He was accustomed to fear, embraced it. He lay there dark and cold, not
sure how much time had passed. He could see his body starting to decay. He could
FEEL his body starting to decay as he lay there waiting to disintegrate, when
he heard a faint whisper.
Going dark and cold
To the undead world
