No Escape

I am Samuel Trey Kingston. Most people call me Trey, but I hate my first name. I was named in honor of my grandpa, who I hate. I am 17 years old and already tired of life. I don’t like my family so I am always with my friends, who are the only ones that make life worth living. I smoke meth to make my life less stressful. I do acid for fun; my friends said that it was great and I think they’re right.

         One night I was at a party with my friends and a couple of losers. I was having a good time until one of the losers said something smart-assed about one of my friends and I went to lay him out. Unfortunately, the acid was stronger than I thought and I stumbled and missed. He turned around and went to punch me but swung too wide. Awesome! I dodged that punch and I felt like Muhammad Ali. I saw a bright, bluish white light that blinded me and then went black.

         Abruptly, I was slapped awake. For a few seconds my vision was blurry, like looking through a fun house mirror. My sight cleared and found myself in a bright, hospital-white room so clean it makes me nervous.  I was strapped to a large metal table on a stand. The table is tilted forward so I’m almost standing.  There’s no furniture in the room. I heard a “whoosh” sound and the wall slid out to reveal a trio of pale-skinned creatures.

         They were completely hairless and wore black jumpsuits, which made their skin seem more pallid and corpse-like. One pushed a cart with surgical tools on it, his hands gnarled and skeletal at the edges. With no wasted movement, he glided toward me, and Terror gripped my throat. I could not scream.

         To my horror all three of them were missing parts of their faces: one was missing his eyes; the sockets empty with dried blood and dirt caked inside. Another lacked his ears, instead there were holes in his skull, the insides of which were fleshy and moist. Another had her mouth stitched up, the lips missing and suture marks rotting inside and out. The only way that I could tell that the figure was feminine is that her shape, which was smaller and softer than that of the others. That was all the crazy I could handle, I screamed.

         “Where in the hell am I? Who are you? Let me go please, I don’t want to die.”

         I know it sounded cliché, but it was the only thing I could think of. Then I saw their heads turn away and they started mumbling to each other. They turned back and stared at me quizzically. Then I realized that they didn’t understand me. Great, so I was going to be murdered and I wouldn’t even be able to attempt to talk them out of it. The guy without eyes puts his hand on my head and I feel a strange itching sensation. When he spoke it was soft but intimidating and he enunciated his words very clearly.

         “We are the Hive. You will stop yelling or suffer. You are on our ship over the planet you call Mars, on the way to our planet.”

         “Why did you take me,” I whimpered.

         “Easy access,” he said, “you were out in the middle of a park unconscious, and overdosing.”

         That’s when I realized that this isn’t real it was the acid and the crank I took. This is a dream, a nightmare actually, but not real. I closed my eyes and willed myself to wake up, but when I opened my eyes I was still on the table. I silently swore if I ever made it out of here I would never touch drugs again. I would learn to love my family, and might even accept my first name.

         He smiled and then he spoke, “we extracted the drugs from of your body, you are not hallucinating.”

         His smile scared me more than anything else. “What do you want with me then?”

         “We want to open you up and see what makes you tick. Then take you back to our planet for research.”

         “But if you slice me open you can’t keep me for research, I’ll be dead.”

         “We have enough medical skill and equipment to keep you alive you will be fine. Now I grow weary of talking to you of lower intellect, sleep.”

         I don’t know how long I was asleep, I didn’t dream. When I woke up I was back in my room, my own wonderful house away from those freaks from the Hive. Then I got this weird feeling like being watched and I see a window that shouldn’t be there and I realize that I wasn’t home. I was still with the Hive. Then I heard a voice outside the window, I looked and saw the mute woman staring at me I screamed and backed away.

         “We scanned your mind and found this place in your memory. We recreated it for you; it’s our belief might as well be comfortable while we study you.”

         A knot formed in my chest and I started to feel sick. I lifted my shirt and there was a large gash down my torso. It was long and slender and it was already starting to heal. Sanity threatened to leave me. I began to bang on the door to the room. I turned around to go to the other side, tripped and smashed my head on the dresser. I lost all coherent thought and fell unconscious.

         When I woke up I was looking down at the hive and my own body. My skull was broken and my brain, on the floor. I started to scream, and then realized that I was free of them. I felt relieved and peaceful. That is until the deaf looked up right at me and pointed. The mute followed his hand and saw me, they tell the blind one who tells them to leave.

         “You don’t think that because you’re dead you can escape, do you? We can easily study you dead.”

         The other two returned with a strange device that resembled a flashlight. They pointed it at me and created a cage. I tried to get out but it set me on fire. I couldn’t die so it went out but it hurt.

         “No, we are just getting started,” he chuckled.

         Insanity took hold of me I didn’t fight it, I lost myself and captivity no longer mattered. I slipped into oblivion and didn’t look back. The transition was so fast and easy, I didn’t even notice and suddenly I was no longer there. I didn’t exist.