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  ADVERSE

  A short story by Eduard Joseph

  Published by Eduard Joseph

  Copyright 2015 Eduard Joseph

  Front cover design by Eduard Joseph

  This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are

  not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. Any resemblance to any person or

  persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved

  The right of Eduard Joseph to be identified as the author of this work has been

  asserted by him under the South African Copyright Act of 1978 (as amended).

  Darkness all around. Silence… Where am I? My chest felt tight and my mouth too dry to call out for help; but would anyone hear me if I could call out? I heard the muffled sound of voices approaching from my left and tried to shift in the creaking wooden chair, but could hardly move. I opened my mouth to speak only to let out a gasp of air.

  “Where am I?” I finally felt the words leave my mouth.

  The muffled voices said something, but their words were incoherent and distant. I shifted my head askew; hoping to see underneath whatever blindfolded me, but all I saw was darkness.

  “Please.” I pleaded.

  I’ve never been as scared in my entire life. Not even lying in bed as a child and hearing the monster shift under your bed could even come close to the paramount fear I felt at that moment. An irrational fear takes a hold when you have no idea where you are or what’s happening around you.

  Hands forced my head downward and I felt the blindfold being untied and then my sensitive eyes were met by a blinding light. The light hit my eyes like a thousand needles; forcing me to squint and cower from the light. I saw two men stand before me – their silhouettes illuminated by the bright light.

  They spoke to each other, but their whispers were almost inaudible to me as I watched the one man lean in towards the other as he spoke. Though I couldn’t see their faces, I could feel the eyes of the second man on me – it terrified me.

  “What’s going on?” What do you want?” I pleaded to no prevail.

  The second man leaned in towards the first and whispered something before walking away. The first man lingered for a moment and then turned to me – a dark and faceless shadow whom reminded me of every nightmare I had as a child.

  The first man turned around and started walking away; making me fear my own demise.

  “Wait!” I called out.

  He didn’t stop. He kept walking away and dissipated into the light; leaving me on my on as the door shut and darkness swallowed me whole. There I was; a Jonah in a whale of blackness, not knowing whether I will live to see another day. I lost complete track of time in the lack of light; had I been there an hour… a day… a week? Maybe longer. Did it matter? I thought of my sister and despite having only darkness to stimulate my senses, I could trace her face in the air and her soft smile made me weep. I wanted to see her again. If and when I get out of this mess I will go to her house and apologize for the fight we had. It was a stupid fight and to be perfectly honest, I can’t for the life of me remember what the fight was about.

  Her smile irradiated the darkness for a moment and in that fleeting moment I felt safe at home as if nothing happened. The image of her face vanished when the door opened and bright light flooded in again. I tried to shield my eyes, but remembered that my hands were bound so I squinted and watched as the two gravely thin men walked in again.

  “What’s happening?” I asked them, but they didn’t respond.

  The first man had something in his hand and I stared at it trying to figure it out as he stepped closer. He held out the object and I could see that it was a photograph.

  “What is this?” I asked unsure.

  He stared at me with his dark and shapeless face and held out the photograph; gesturing that I look at it. I took a deep breath and did what he wanted. The photo was of a naked woman who was covered in blood and had a broken broomstick shoved into her vagina. I gagged and cried out when I realized it was my sister.

  “What did you do to her?” I cried out as the tears started flowing.

  I tried struggling with the rope that seemed to get tighter around my body with every passing moment. I wanted them to pay for what they did to my sister. Whatever they wanted from me had nothing to do with her. She was innocent.

  “You did this.” The man finally spoke.

  I stopped struggling as a cold chill ran down the entire length of my body – it had to be a lie. I could never hurt my little sister. She was too precious to me. I stared at the man and glanced at the photo in his hand in disbelief. It took me a moment to catch my breath and gather my thoughts.

  “You’re lying.” I said.

  “We have a video as well.” The second man said, “Would you like to see the video?”

  My eyes filled up with tears at the thought of me hurting my sister. It couldn’t be true.

  “Why are you doing this?” I cried like a little baby.

  The first man leaned in and I could smell the mould on his balaclava – they clearly haven’t done this in quite some time and their abduction attire was put away in storage until now. His eyes were dark and the rest of his face was unseen behind the balaclava, but I could see movement as he spoke.

  “You have something we want.” He said.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked dazed.

  “Give us what we want and we’ll let you go.” He said and then straightened his posture again.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, “If you just tell me what you want?”

  The first man leaned in towards the second one and whispered something as they both nodded. Their nods sent an electroshock of fear down my spine as I feared the worst was still in store for me. I watched as the second man left the room again.

  “Where is he going?” I demanded

  The first man turned to me and said, “I think it’s time you see your daughter.”

  Every ounce of my body wanted to kill him for simply mentioning my daughter. I tried to jump up, but the chair was as heavy as concrete and barely budged as I struggled to free myself.

  “If you hurt my daughter I will kill you myself.” I asserted.

  The man stared at me for a second with that blank and dark face of his, turned around and left the room as I yelled at him. The door closed and once again the darkness swallowed me whole.

  ***********

  Darkness and I – we were like strangers on a train who had nothing in common, but were stuck together. The men didn’t come back and time passed as I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness. At first, I struggled with my constraints as my parental instincts kicked in, but as my strength waned, I quieted down and accepted that I couldn’t do anything to save my little girl. I just had to pray that these monsters wouldn’t hurt her.

  The darkness plays tricks on the mind and it wasn’t long before I started hearing something move in the dark around me. Though I couldn’t see anything, I knew I wasn’t alone and tried my hardest to convince myself that it was all in the mind.

  The sound of shoes scuffling across the floor echoed through the darkness and a little girl’s chuckle bounced around me. I would recognize that chuckle anywhere – it belonged to my little girl. No other six year old girl had such an infectious giggle.

  “Honey, is that you?” I asked.

  The giggle reverberated and then disappeared just as instantly as it appeared and I was left in silence again. It couldn’t have been her; it had to be my mind playing tricks on me and a part of me wished that it was her. As strong as I am, I broke down and cried at the thought of my little girl in the hands of these monsters that kept me hostage.

  Without w
arning the room flooded with bright light that pierced my sensitive eyes. I heard a woman’s voice talking to me, but couldn’t really make out what she was saying. As my eyes focused, a woman in a nurse’s outfit came into sight.

  “Can you hear me?” She asked.

  What the hell was happening? My head felt thick and the room was slowly spinning. I tried to focus on the nurse, but she kept moving with the spinning room.

  “Where am I?” I finally asked.

  “Can you hear me?” She asked again.

  I nodded and said, “Yes I can hear you.”

  She turned to a doctor who stood in the doorway, whispered something to him and then jotted something down on a clipboard.

  “Compound 621 unsuccessful.” I heard her say.

  “What?” I asked confused.

  The doctor walked over and it was only then that I noticed I was in a hospital bed. I was so confused and terrified; one moment I was in a dark room being held captive and the next I was in a hospital bed.

  “Do you know where you are?” The doctor asked.

  “No.” I said with a shaking head.

  “You’re at the Johnson’s Institute.” The doctor said, “You’re a voluntary test subject for trial medicines. You’ve been with us for three days and you were assigned to the Sicknit Trial.”

  “What?” I asked confused.

  “You’ve had an adverse reaction to the medicine.” The doctor said, “Sicknit will revolutionise the industry as being the fastest acting flu medicine, but it has a lot of side-effects including hallucinations .”

  “I was hallucinating?” I asked dazed.

  The doctor nodded and said, “Yes. You were injected with Compound 621 with hopes that we’ve eliminated the ingredient that causes the hallucinations, but it seems like we weren’t that lucky. Let’s hope Compound 622 is the one.”

  *************