My story begins like any other regular day in my suburban town. I wake up and have a well balanced breakfast full of the nutrients to get a good start for the day. After breakfast I would usually walk to school and continue on to learning for a brighter tomorrow. On this day things were different, although it was bright and shades of fall were around the corner, something wasn't right. I looked up from the side walk and noticed that there wasn't anyone on the street. No cars with happy people going to work, no mothers kissing their kids goodbye as they run off to school. The only sound was that of the chill wind blowing against the trees making the leaves brush up against each other. As I was taking it all in I heard the wind cry "Arnold" in a low whisper. I turned around to see who said the name, but there was no one in sight. I turned stiff as a jolt ran through my spine. I turned again to see if there was any form of life around. I received more of a shock as I saw that life around me had been unchanged, it was a regular day just like any other. I thought about how the streets went from being empty to springing with life. As usual my teenage attention span just shrugged it off and I continued to school.
Sitting in my math class I began to ponder the strange voice whispering that familiar name. Arnold was the only thing I could think of. At that moment sound began to deteriorate and time began to freeze.
"Déjà vu." I whispered as time came to a complete stop. I always felt powerful when time "stopped" for brief seconds, it made me feel greater than my peers. My love for power would always be short lived because of the restart of time and things having going back to the way they always are.
"Any moment now…" I thought while I closed my eyes waiting for things to start over. I counted to three and opened my eyes.
"Nothing..." the room was still how it was when time froze. I closed my eyes again. I always wanted this to happen, but now I was afraid of what I have done. At least it is what I think I did.
"Arnold." whispered the voice from outside the classroom. I wondered if time would restart like this morning after hearing the voice, but alas nothing went back to normal.
My fear finally festered long enough to make me hungry. I left the classroom and headed to the cafeteria. Sadly all the food was uncooked. I tried cooking it, but the appliances were also stuck in time.
"I guess it's down the hatch." I said as I force fed myself a bundle of old cafeteria food. After finishing it I felt a bit queasy but I forced myself to keep it down.
I walked around the school trying to find anyone or anything that could help me. I turned the corner and along came the whisper.
"Arnold." It said with a wanting sound. I wanted to know where the voice was coming from. So I searched high and low to get a glimpse of the person calling. After an uncertain amount of time I began getting angry with the voice. Every corner I turned, every place I looked, the voice had always been behind me. My Brain then hatched an idea. I ran to the big field in the back of the school where I knew there would be nothing around me, but more importantly behind me.
The air was still and nothing was happening. I had finally thought one step ahead of the voice.
"I beat you! You cant sneak up behind me this time. What are you gonna do now?" I screamed. Just as I thought there was no reply.
"Arnold?" I said once I was tired of waiting. Once I had finished saying the name the wind began blowing vigorously. I felt a dark figure shroud behind me. I froze and quickly closed my eyes. I knew if I moved it could be my last. I felt strong snorts of air coming from the shadow and hitting the nape of my neck. I felt its tongue slowly caress me as though it were a blind man trying to see. After what seemed to be hours I wanted to confront my fear. I turned around and opened my eyes to see the dark figure. It had long rows of sharp teeth a long pointed tongue and a seemingly shapeless body. It had no eyes but a streak of white across its face. Looking into its body was like a vast abyss much like that of a starless night.
After viewing the beast for a brief moment it began to open its mouth. In that split second I clenched my head in its jaws. Everything went black.
"Am I dead?" I wondered. I had felt no pain going into the monsters jaws. I slowly reached for my face and I noticed I had my eyes closed. I opened them and noticed I was in the grassy field and it was as though the monster had just been in my imagination.
"Arnold." The voice whispered in a semi-familiar tone. The earth began to shake violently and pieces of the earth and sky began to shatter leaving nothing but a white nothingness in its place. The ground at my feet began to crack and I soon fell victim to the white abyss. I was in a state of free fall. Nothing felt real anymore just the voice that would whisper that infernal name.
"Why that name? What is so special about that name?" I wondered. The free fall stopped with a violent jerk. My limbs felt as though they were being pulled at every angle. I was then turned 180 degrees and was the dark figures face again. This time I saw it in even more detail due to its new enormous size. I opened its mouth again. Looking down into its throat I saw a bright red eye looking back at me. I kept getting closer to the eye. I hadn't realized that I was flown into its ferocious jaws. I fell into its dark pupil and began drowning. It was as though I was in tar and it was swallowing me up like quicksand. Struggling for air I swam up.
"Arnold!" I screamed as I gasped for air. The drowning sensation stopped and I realized I was in a white room. I heard sobbing from behind me. I turned and noticed a naked woman on the floor facing away from me. Her body was pulsating and red and all of her blood vessels were visible. I reached out to help her. She then suddenly turned and pushed me to the ground. She had no facial features, but two slits were her nose should be, and her skin was like that of a burn victim. Her skin beneath her nose began to tear open and she hissed the name Arnold over and over again. I ran to the corner as she inched closer to me.
"No!" I screamed as she grabbed hold of me and started tearing into my skin with her rotten looking nails. Everything began going dark and my body became more relaxed. My eyes closed and I fell into a deep sleep.
"Is my son ok?" screamed Mrs. Henderson and she stormed into the hospital.
"Why yes Mrs. Henderson. We just sedated him and now he will be on his way for the new experimental lobotomy." replied Dr. Sanjeet with a smile.
"May I see him?" Mrs. Henderson asked.
"Yes, of course you can." said Dr. Sanjeet with a calming tone. He led her to the room where her son was. He was strapped down to a bed looking into the ceiling in a white room.
"Take your time. I will return in a bit." whispered Dr. Sanjeet as he closed the door in his way out.
Mrs. Henderson walked over to her son and sat next to him. She grabbed his head and held it close trying to stop her sobs from escaping.
"I know you can't hear me, but please wake up." She whispered in his ear as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Arnold?" She whispered.
His eye grew wide and his body began to flail and thrash around in is bed. His pulse began to rise and he began ululating. Dr. Sanjeet ran in slamming the door behind him.
"What did you do? Get out!" he screamed as he injected Arnold with some anesthetic.
Mrs. Henderson wept running out of St. Pablos's hospital for the mentally ill. When she arrived at her car she sat there knowing that she might never see her child if the operation fails.
"I want to see my son again." She whispered as she started her car. Before she could put it in reverse she heard a voice whisper…
"Diana."
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