REBECCA VALASSIS

 

Eris…

I wake up to a rhythm of blood pulsating at the back of my head. My eyes open to an agonising, searing light casting a malevolent glow over this decrepit room. It hangs from the ceiling like a noose. 

Eris…

“Maura…?” My voice suffocates in the stagnant air. 

I peel up from a metallic bed that greedily absorbs the warmth from my flesh. My eyes trace the room, a reminiscent of a crypt where no light from the earth can shine into this tomb. A series of concrete walls surround me, bearing masses of mould that emit a musty scent. I swing my legs over the bed and my feet caress the mosaic of fractured stone on the floor. I explore the room weaving through a growing and pervaded, foul scent. I venture towards the odour and within the dim light, I near a horrifying sight. 

Conjured from a corrupted dream, I loom above two lifeless husks bathed in a sea of crimson. Their frail bodies, encased in white coats that have transformed into macabre canvases. The lifeless forms are adorned with festering wounds. What used to be windows to their souls are now craters as their eyes have melted from their sockets, leaving a raw, pulsating cavity. Thick tendrils of molten eyes oozes down the doctor’s desiccated cheeks, dripping off their chins.

You are a killer!

“What?” I mutter. 

I cower away from the bodies, but before I can even take a breath. Two agonising screams emerge from the bodies, tearing into the walls and into my ears. 

“Maura, help me!” My knees collide with the floor. 

Listen to them, Eris! 

“Make them stop!” 

You never gave them the chance to survive!

Like relentless tormentors, their screams slices through the marrow of my bones. I pivot my head, and there, a metal door watching me. Summoning every strength in my body, I hauled my body towards the door as my legs grate across the stone.

You cannot escape!

I climb onto my feet and open the door, revealing of steps ascending to another level. 

You cannot run from your sins!

Without a second thought, I run up the stairs reaching towards a second door. The doctors continue to scream as I struggle to unlock the door. 

You are a killer!

The door swings open. 

You are a killer!

I run through and out of a basement. 

SLAM!

 The screams cease. As I recollect my thoughts, I realise I’m trapped within the belly of an institution. My head pivots from one side to another, seeing a long corridor endlessly stretching. Hospital beds lay upturned and shattered medications dance in an entangled waltz on the cold, marble floor. I wander into the hallway and walk by a stream of lancet windows. I can hear the clouds cry onto the glass, their tears reflect onto the pale wallpaper. But when I thought I was free from the silence, Maura’s voice continues to haunt me.  

You cannot escape! You are trapped in your own mind! 

“You are not real! You are a trick playing in my head.” 

I remember these hallways. I used to walk here at night with Maura, plotting our escape from this wretched place. We bonded over our desire for freedom and became friends from separate tombs of hell. I can still hear her perfidious words describing this place as a prison that thrives from agony, a system that craved obedience, and a life that sought silence through medication. After long nights of staring outside these windows from our ward, we eventually tried to flee from this place. 

I will never let you forget! Don’t you remember that night?

How can I forget? Hell, I can still hear the storm raging into my ears. The wind howled like a wounded soul. Its mournful roar paralysing anyone who dared to listen. Lightning slashed across the sky as if heaven itself was going to shatter into a million pieces. And amidst the chaos the world around us descended into turmoil.

You failed us!

“Shut up!” I yell. 

You are a monster!

My hands claw my ears. 

“I’m not!”

You are a monster!

“Enough!” My throat burns as I scream for silence.

My hand, tearing strands of hair from my scalp, flails the air. But within the dead of night, the chaos is shattered by an ancient, weathered door emitting a gasp of air. Its slow and mournful cry echoes through the hallway like an unwelcome stranger. At the end of the hallway is a decrepit door barely hanging on the hinges.

As I near the door my eyes fall upon a series of frail bunk beds. The frames of the bed, rusting and collecting mould, looms in the shadows. I venture inside and what once was a ward of curiosity now is a sepulchre for my lost future. Maura and I used to seek comfort of solace in its eerie embrace. Our restless slumbers were groomed by Maura’s voice, singing a lullaby that promised a life of peace. I lean closer and notice mound taking shape beneath the sheets of the bottom bunk bed. Tugging the sheets, a small, stuffed rabbit of Maura’s creation emerges. She gave me this just the night before our failed escape.

You ruined our chance to escape!

“No. No.” I mutter.

My hand begins to burn.

We were right at the gates, and you dragged me down with you!

“You know I tried!”

Look at what you have done! 

I clutch onto the innocent toy feeling a fiery rage course through me. My palms sink into the material feeling it warp around my hand. 

You killed them!

A potent smouldering scent of fire perfumes the air. I look down and notice a flame devouring the toy that leaks from my fingertips.

You killed them!

My grip loosens and the toy set ablaze onto the floor. 

You killed them!

I run out of the ward and slam the door behind me. My hand clenches into a fist and the fire sinks back into my flesh. 

You are the reason for our failure! 

“Get out of my head!”

I am the reason you will never forget!

“I said stop! Or-” 

What? You’ll kill me? 

The breeze in the air thickens as I stumble away from the ward and into another hallway.

I will ensure your eternal demise and watch you drown! 

My head pivots to a hallway resting in a silent death beyond my shoulder. Like curtains to a stage, it reveals a scene of blood and gore. The healers who once tended to their patients now wear their innards as grotesque garments, with exposed organs pulsating and twitching out of their stomachs. Patients, once victims of their own minds, are torn to asunder and infested with starving maggots, feeding upon their carnage. Layers of skin of the unfortunate souls are melted and fused to their organs, still dripping into the cavity of their open stomachs.

Look at what you have done!

I shuffle by the ocean of the dead hearing the contents of their organs dripping out of their gutted stomachs.

Can you hear them, Eris?

“Don’t you even dare speak to me!” I lose my temper.

Listen!

The wind bore a breathless choir of whispers, unfurling behind me. I turn around and my heart plummets. The bodies that were prone on the bloody tiles now stand before me in a silent accusation. They point at me with their pale fingers.

“You watched us die! You will escape your sins!” They chant in a gurgling crescendo.

“Wh-what?” My words falter. 

“We are the death that drips from your fingertips!”

The drums in my head hammer my skull as I shake my head. The flame within my soul ignites and my fingers begin to burn once more. I glare at the bodies with a seething rage as my mind conjures gruesome lust for silence from their perfidious voices. 

“You killed us with fire, but our voices will remain an everlasting reminder of what you are, Eris!” 

I stand poise, ready to watch their flesh melt from their bones while the contents of their throats bow down to me. 

In eerie unison, they declare: “You are a monster from hell!” 

“That’s enough!” 

In the darkness, my flesh ignites with an unholy fire, a relentless tsunami of searing flames engulfs the dead. Their words turn into screams that can tear the very fabric of reality. The deluge of fire slowly sinks back into my pores and the bodies lie back on the ground.

Silence befalls. 

I told you! You are a monster!

I turn back around, and in the distance, I notice the grand entrance to this wretched institution. 

You are descending into the void of your own mind!

I march to the gates, ready to leave this nightmare.

“I will silence your voice for eternity!”

You will never escape until you face your sins!

“Shut up! I will finally kill-” 

“Eris?” A gentle voice pinches the air. 

That voice: a familiar remnant of my past. Within the cacophony of torment, I search for the gentle tone. At the end of the corridor beside the gates, there you lay wasting away.

Your eyes fall onto mine: “Eris?” 

You are a monster!

Anger surges within me as I approach you. Yearning for your voice to stop echoing in the back of my mind your cruel mimicry intensifies. 

You are a monster!

“I can hear you in my head, you know?” I lean towards. “I can hear you remind me of what I am.” 

You are a monster!

“A monster. Right, Maura?”

“Eris? That is not me.” Maura trembles. 

You are a monster!

“A monster!” I persist. 

You are a monster!

“Those voices are not me!” Maura tries to reassure me. 

You are a monster!

“Shut up!” I yell. 

“Eris, I am not saying anything! I didn’t speak”.

The inferno within me consumes my system. 

You are a monster!

Clawing at my cheeks I shout: “I saw you say it!” 

“I didn’t! I swear!”

Trapped in the creation of my own nightmare, her voice continues to mock me. My body begins to burn, and my flesh slowly ignites the fatal fire of hell. It emerges through my pores as I clutch my hands into a fist. 

You are a monster!

“Be quiet!” 

I will silence you once and for all. My hands rest upon your face, ready to watch the fire devour you. 

You are a monster! 

There is no other way out. 

You are a monster!

I must get rid of the darkness that plagues my mind. 

You are a monster!

I must get rid of your voice. 

You are a monster!

Then I can be free from your perfidious tongue. Let this one final fatal act bless me with the endless death of silence before I leave this place. As the voices hiss my anger grows the fire dances down my arms. 

“Eris… no, no!”

The flame reflects in your eyes as it drips down onto my hands. Oh, I can’t wait to watch your flesh melt from your bones. 

You are a monster!

“Please, don’t do this!”

You are a monster!

The fire jumps off from my nails and kisses your cheeks. Your pathetic voice transforms into an orchestrated symphony of pain as you scream for mercy. As the echoes of your torment subside, a silence descends, and I prepare to finally escape this accurse place. I turn to the exit door, reaching for the cold embrace of the handle.

“What happened? Where am I?” I stammer.

The gates has disappeared, and I find myself ensnared in this wretched basement again. The lifeless bodies has transformed into a mosaic of broken stone. The ominous light flickers above my head once again as I rise from the metal bed. In the void of this crypt, an unsettling voice whispers my eternal demise…

You will forever sink into your own madness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing Beck, a maestro of the mind, fearlessly navigating the immersive hallways of horror and psychological writing. Her ability to conjure stories that whisper secrets of our fears will always be a binding tale to our flesh. She is a true sorcerer of twisted imagination and fascination.

 

 Body of Work