Shawn P. Madison

In the Shadows of Your Mind

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Carol was scared, so scared. She sat on the bed, arms cradled tightly around her shoulders, rocking back and forth in the dark facing the window. Only a brief touch of blue moonlight filtered into the room through the trees outside the large window despite the fact that the curtains were wide open. She had been crying for what seemed like hours, afraid to move, too terrified to get up and look at herself in the mirror.

 

She couldn’t exactly remember all that had happened. She couldn’t recall many of the events which took place once she and Kenny had actually gotten inside the hotel room. All she remembered was the pain, the terror, the feeling that she was going to die and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

 

There was blood, so much blood, on her beautiful prom dress, in her hair, on her hands. She didn’t know where it was coming from and she was way too scared to try and find out. Although the liquid looked almost black in the feeble light seeping in from outside, she knew it was blood and she knew it was hers.

 

Her mother had tried to warn her about Kenny, had pleaded with her not to go out with a boy like him. But something about Kenny had drawn her to him, had made her want to be with him, had singled him out to be her first.

 

The prom had been great, the single most fantastic night of her life and filled with the promise of something so much more special to follow. Kenny had danced with her, held her close, caressed her hair, whispered in her ear about tonight and what would happen once they got to the hotel. She was absolutely aching for it by the time they closed the door behind them. 

 

That was when it had gone bad. Her memories were fuzzy but she knew that she had been beaten, that they had forced themselves on her, that there had been more than one of them. She had been utterly helpless as they took their turns. For hours this went on, her screams muffled by the sock they had stuffed in her mouth. Her futile attempts at escape dashed by the strong hands that had held her down to the bed, her breath being cut by a tight grip around her throat.

 

And then suddenly it was over. Her world had gone black, a deep empty nothingness where the pain had stopped and her anguish had gone away. Until she opened her eyes and found herself still on the bed, covered in blood and too scared to move from that very spot. What if they came back? What if they were still there, waiting for her to turn around so that they could come back for more? What if they were just outside the door or waiting to grab her in the parking lot? What if this never ends?

 

Carol didn’t know how long she had been here on the bed, rocking back and forth with tears streaming from her eyes. She didn’t know how much blood she had lost or how long it would take her to bleed to death. She didn’t know why Kenny had done this to her, why this had happened to her on the most important night of her life. She didn’t understand and she didn’t care to...all she really knew was that she was scared. Her fear was a crushing force, threatening to steal the breath from her lungs, a second skin that clung tightly to every single inch of her body. She could feel it surrounding her, thought she could touch it if she dared to reach out for it.

 

But the rocking motion was the only movement she could will herself to make. There was nothing else left for her, nothing but the rocking...

 

Suddenly, Carol stiffened. She felt almost as if she were being watched, like there was something coming up behind her. The rocking grew quicker, her breaths coming in short, rapid gasps. 

 

Oh my God, what if it’s them? What if they are coming back for more? Kenny and the others, coming to do again what they had done before. More pain, more terror, more tears...oh my GOD...

 

A shaft of light splintered the darkness of the room as the door to the hallway burst open. Carol felt as if she would explode! She couldn’t bring herself to turn around, only to wait for them to grab her once more, to force her down on to the bed and to take from her what wasn’t theirs to take again and again...

 

Carol saw the shadow of a person in the light hitting the curtains, saw it moving closer, saw it stop and just stand there, watching her back, about to strike yet again. More tears streamed down her face, she could hardly breathe now her fear was so intense. Not again, God, no, not again...please...

 

The presence over her shoulder was too much to bear, sill standing there unmoving. What was it waiting for? Why didn’t it just get this over with already? Damn, just do it! Just get it over with...

 

She had to see, she had to, just one look at the face! To see the thing that was doing this to her...she had to. Without knowing how, she willed herself to move. Carol sprang her head around to see her tormentor, to get one last look at that face. To know what the evil looked like. It was too much for her, the figure bathed in shadow from the light filtering around it through the doorway...a dark menacing figure, come to finish the job the others had started...

 

Carol’s eyes went wide and she screamed!

 

*   * *

Fred Jennings shoved the plastic card into the latch on Room #143 and watched the small light go from red to green. He struggled to turn the latch with the small bag hanging from his right hand and shoved the door aside as he dragged his luggage in.

 

Before he could hit the light switch he noticed a shimmering form on the edge of the bed, facing the window.

 

“What in the hell...” he muttered as he stood and stared at the thing on the bed. It looked like a girl in what was left of a prom dress but the light streaming in through the open doorway seemed to go right through her.

 

The figure was rocking back and forth on the bed but was making no sound, her motions were more fluid than real, her color so pale...almost ghostly white...

 

Jennings felt the hairs on the nape of his neck stand on end and the large piece of luggage in his left hand banged loudly to the carpeted floor.

 

It was then that the thing turned around, pierced him with an icy blue stare and he felt his blood run cold. The face, that anguished face, looked into his own...for one brief instant Fred Jennings knew the terror of dying a violent death, knew the fear of the damned...

 

Then the thing let out a ghostly scream, a sound so awful, so pitiful it tore through his head and seemed to pass on into the hall. With an electric charge and crackle that took his breath away, the figure abruptly disappeared and left Fred Jennings standing there in the dark of Room #143, shivering with cold and sweating profusely.

 

Jennings found his legs then and sprinted from the room, leaving his fallen luggage and the door wide open. He ran down the hall toward the check-in desk knowing full well that he wasn’t going to spend another damn minute anywhere in or near this godforsaken place.

 

Shawn P. Madison, creator of the Guarder/UEN Universe, currently lives in the beautiful Garden State of New Jersey with his wife and a veritable cornucopia of kids. Although he has written in many different genres, he tends to write mostly science fiction and horror. He has published more than ninety short stories in numerous magazines and anthologies, both electronic and print. His novels, GUARDER LORE and THE GUARDER FACTOR were both recently reprinted by Writer's Sanctum Publishing, his novellas EMPIRE OF THE IRON CROSS and TALES OF THE PLAYER were both published by Cyberwit Publishing and his collection of horror short stories, THE ROAD TO DARKNESS, was published by Double Dragon Publishing. You can reach Shawn via e-mail at: asm89@aol.com. Bienvenue au Danse, Shawn.