Fearlessly Frightened

• Ashika Jagdish, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2014

I opened my eyes to a dominating darkness, with no sense of my surroundings; numb and utterly fear-stricken. Wide-eyed and frantic with hope, I looked around in an attempt to even be able to catch the tiniest glimpse of a sliver of light. My throat burned with aridity and the idea of not knowing how long I have been in this darkness made me shiver with anxiety. For all my mind could reminisce, it could’ve been simply minutes, or hours, or even days. I clenched my stomach as it roared with hunger, and bile rose up my throat. I wanted to vomit, but apart from the hydrochloric acids naturally found within the digestive system, there was nothing to vomit. It stung as it travelled up my oesophagus and onto the cold marble floor, or at least what felt like marble floors.

Abruptly, a monotonous, maleficent female cackle erupted, echoing within the isolated room. The pounding of my heart further accelerated. All of my senses had been entirely engulfed by fear. “Who’s there?” I stammered, barely audible; meek and feeble.

No reply; just the distant, eerie rhythm of drip, drip, drip. Or were they footsteps? Hallucinations were said to be one of the first signs of insanity. I must’ve been losing my grip on reality, or maybe I already did?

The atmosphere altered, almost as if a chilling fog engulfed the dense, lonely room. Subtle at first, then asphyxiating, a wave of vapour filled my systems. Frantically, I attempted to grasp onto any remnants of consciousness, however, the haze devoured my thoughts, my reality and my life.

Ruthless waves of the aqua-grey ocean lapped against the coarseness of the arid shore, as if somehow, it was quenching its thirst. The horizon split into a shadowed gloom, overcastting the isolated area, dauntlessly dominating whatever was left of the beach. In an instant, a silver fury of light plagued the entire sky, briefly bedazzling it with luminosity.

One, two, three, four, five...

The sky ruptured into a booming, rumbling alto, like an opening act for a rock band. Mounds of heavy droplets danced their way onto the feeble solidity of the earth. Over the waters a La Nina tempest formed, brutally, yet intrepidly manoeuvring its way onto the shore, bringing forth gale force winds.

The beach was lonesome, apart from a little girl, quite possibly five years of age. Her wispy, auburn hair was strewn about in every direction possible. A multi-coloured inflatable beach ball bounced from her arms and into the waters which thrashed. Frightened, yet determined to retrieve her one and only hopes of happiness and memory, she hurled herself into the wild sea, only to be consumed within it, never to return.

At once, an agonising shriek erupted, awaking me from my deep slumbers. I realised that the scream emanated from nobody else but me. My limbs shook fretfully.

The monotonous, malicious laughter once again boomed off of the walls.

“What do you want from me?!”I bellowed. Not out of trepidation, but out of a furious annoyance at the bizarre situation of being held hostage with a memory deficiency. The instigated fear of not knowing... the fear of not remembering, thrived into a rage.

The omniscient voice reiterated its laughter. A bass-like, yet feminine, voice suddenly became audible. “Don’t you see?” she asked, almost too jovially. “You’re trapped within the fear of your own mind!” The voice laughed again; mocking.