27 December 2012

~Chapter 1 (Did you read the premise yet?)

"And I tell y'all," Hosmer went on, "She was the biggest one you'd ever seen! When old Betsy bumped the ship, the entire thing went rockin'!" "Did the whale sink the ship?" Billy chimed in. "Clam it, goddamnit! I'm talkin' here! Y'all wanted a story, so Imma give y'all one! Don't be interruptin' me!" Hosmer could have a quick temper sometimes. The trio of guards, George Hosmer, Billy, and Ray walked down my hallway. Ray and Hosmer walked shoulder-to-shoulder. Even Hosmer's muscular chest and Ray's thin build could fit shoulder-to-shoulder in these hallways. However, Billy's wide structure provided his spot behind the other two, as he took up most of the hall anyways. The three walked down the hall together, venturing ever nearer to my cell. "Enough with the stories. Y'all just can't appreciate a man's tales sometimes, can ya?" Hosmer said. "I can!" Billy tried to defend himself. "Why argue?" said Ray. "You don't need to share anymore, Hosmer, but I'd like to hear more about your experiences as a sailor at some point later." Hosmer smiled. He loved being respected about his tales. "Say, Ray," said Billy, "What do you think will become of us? We can't be paid for walking in circles every day, can we? Isn't there something else we have to do?" "Oh, y'all are a newbie! I forgot." Hosmer said. "'Course there's more to do. If one of them rascal's get out..." Hosmer looked to his right. A cell, the one neighboring mine, was there. It's inhabitant had her face pressed against the little glass window, staring at the guards. Hosmer banged on the glass pane with his palm. The insane woman jumped back and yelped. "If one escapes, we get to gun 'em down." "It doesn't seem like anyone could escape this place, much less their cell." said Billy. Ray held up two fingers. "Two sorts of captives can. The insane murderers, you simply break out killing everyone in their path with whatever they can find, and the innocents that are still totally fine in the brain, who could actually find a logical way to escape." "Innocents?" asked Billy. "There's innocent people here?" The trio reached my cell. My cell was on the right side of the hall from their perspective. Hosmer stopped at my cell and leaned against the wall, right outside my door, as he was walking on the right side of the hall. Ray leaned against the opposite wall. Billy stopped walking and stood next to Ray. With this arrangement, I could see the side of Hosmer's head, and all of Ray and Billy just by peering out the little window on my door. "Oh course there's innocent people here." Ray said. He stopped. "You do know about the Dreams, right?" "Dreams? What dreams?" Billy was utterly confused. Hosmer threw his head back laughing. "What dreams... What dreams... Ha! Where have ya been for the last year and a half, son?" A year and a half. That's how long I had been here. Also, I too had no idea what dreams they were talking about. Were they talking about nightmares? Those dreams you can never remember? Maybe even wet dreams? None of these were reasons for insanity. I was very intrigued. I sat down behind my door, so I could hear them well without them seeing me through the little window. "Listen, Billy." Ray began. "There's these dreams that were jokingly dubbed Bloody Dreams or Bloody Nightmares, but people realized that such a name was rather proper. A Bloody Dream could come some people in different ways. For some people, it may take place in the forest at night, other people in their own home, or anywhere else. The only things these dreams have in common is that they are overly realistic, everything is in first person, the dreamer meets Satan in some form, and that the dreamer is mentally scarred from that day on. The most important thing about these dreams is about what happens to the dreamer afterwards." By now, Billy looked a little spooked. "What the dream says is that the dreamer is either currently a cold-hearted, insane murderer, or will soon become one. Once news about the Bloody Nightmares got out, neighbor accused neighbor and brother accused brother of having one. The bad thing about this is that, if it was saying that they were destined to become a killer, that there was no way of knowing if they had actually had a dream or not. And so, thousands of innocents were captured in put in insane asylums." Ray gestured with his hands to the entire building. "I'll bet a majority of the captives here are innocents." "What? But there's thousands of people here!" Billy exclaimed. "Exactly! Can y'all image their lives?" Hosmer said. "Horrible." said Ray. He turned to face Billy, but his musket on his shoulder hit the wall. The bayonet broke free and clattered to the floor. "We ought to get going now." said Hosmer. It wasn't until Hosmer began to speak when I realized that I was standing with my face against the glass. No wonder I knew what was going on. Last time I focused on myself, I was sitting on the ground, below the pane. "You two start walking." Ray said. "Let me re-clip my bayonet." Billy and Hosmer turned and walked past Ray. Ray picked up the bayonet began to reattach it, but looked to be purposely stalling. When the two others were well out of earshot, Ray looked me right in the eye and leaned close to the door. His icy blue glare startled me. I yelled and jumped back. He was looking at me! Eye contact with captives was strictly against the guard's rules. Ray gestured for me to move back towards to door. I reluctantly advanced towards him. When I was practically against the door, he stopped motioning. He began to speak to me. "I hope you heard all of that. You don't have any crimes reported. If you're an innocent... good luck and God speed." Ray turned and ran to catch up with the other guards without even looking back. I was shocked. I walked over to my cot and sat down. Good luck and God speed. What did he mean? Was I an innocent? Does he expect me to try to escape? I pondered these thoughts for the next week. Ray and I didn't speak to each other. We didn't make eye contact. The topic of the dreams was not brought up again. Well, that was until the following Friday. There was a knock on the door.

PickuuuThe Merciless Death of Jordan Virginia Masters • Opuss № I