Brain Dead

Chapter One – Maggots

I was suddenly conscious, lying in slippery cold goo. My breathing was heavy and I occasionally gasped for a breath of cool air. It was dark; the moon shone overhead and gleamed deep into my vision. I held up an arm to block the moons glow from my blue eyes. Where was I?

I sat up abruptly from where I lay and felt my face tighten from the throbbing pain behind my skull. I was soaked with mud and slime. The air smelled of animal shit and rot. I moved my head to see my surroundings. I appeared to be on a farm. An old, creepy, abandoned farm. But how did I know it was abandoned?

There were flies buzzing everywhere. I knew they were attracted to the mud, but I swatted them away without hesitation. I could feel a cool, tingly sensation on my elbow and used my right hand to scratch at it. That was when I felt strange movements on my hand. I slowly looked to my arm and saw nothing but white, twitching insects feeding on my dirty flesh wound.

Maggots. They covered half of my left arm. I let out a squeal and in a panic, wiped the filthy vermin from my narrow arm. I stood from where I sat with great speed and took a step away from the insects. I felt a warm tear drip from my face as I looked at the wound the maggots were infecting. It was a massive chunk that appeared to be torn off surgically. The muscle and bone were neatly visible to any eye. However long I was asleep, gave the maggots enough time to actually clean the wound. I was almost thankful.

I tore a strip of cloth from my casual blue t-shirt and bandaged the wound as well as possible. I also wore well-fitted skinny jeans and was shoeless. My toes were numb from the cold.

I closed my eyes and began to panic. What was the last thing I remembered?

“Shit Bethany, think!” I patted my head, hoping something would come back to me.

A scream, I heard a scream. I looked in its direction with a terrified expression. Something told me to investigate, but why?

There were pens for pigs and chickens around back of the barn. Though the scream came from within. My nerves were jittery and I knew I wouldn’t want to see what was sure to come. I took one last look out to the fields where I awoke, then took a single step into the forsaken barn.

Everything inside was what would be expected in any barn. A small tractor, hay stacks, a few stables, rakes, pitchforks etc. It was what was hanging from the center of the ceiling that made me wide eyed. It was a girl. She was blonde, but her hair was now thick with browned blood. She was chubby, but her stomach and all of its insides were splattered on the floor beneath her feet. Her green eyes were now dangling by a thread from her eye sockets. Her hands were tied to the rope, which was attached to the ceiling of the barn.

I began to scream, but covered my mouth with my hands. My eyes now burned with tears
and fear. Where am I? The questioned screamed within my head.

Then, the same pain in the back of my head started to pound harder against my skull. I gasped and fell to my knees. My eyes were clenched shut while my hands held pressure on my head.

“Shit! Make it stop!” I screamed in agony.

And then my mind was white with memory and recognition. There was a flash of a white room, a hospital room to be exact. The vision faded and the pain was back. I screamed again and thumped my head with the palm of my hand. This time, I saw myself lying in the hospital room. I was the patient. I could hear the beeping of the hospital equipment, which was attached to my forehead and temples. I saw the screen that monitored my heart rhythmus.

Then there was my mother standing over me, holding my hand. A doctor came into the room with a clipboard and a pen.

“Doctor? Do you think she’ll make it?” my mother questioned.

“I’m afraid the surgery didn’t go as planned. Bethany, well, I don’t want to be the one to tell you this, but…”

“Please get on with it!” My mother was desperate.

“Your daughter is what we call ‘Brain Dead’. The procedure failed and we were unable to remove the tumour on time.”

“But Doctor! She’s still alive!” My mother broke out in tears. “It says so on this monitor!”

“I know ma’am. Her body is alive, but her brain has shut down. Without her brain, she wont be able to function at all. She will live the rest of her life on ‘Life support’ unless you make the decision to pull the plug.” The Doctor, I could tell, had a hard time telling family’s bad news.

“No!” My mother gasped. “Keep her on life support! She could wake up! Oh good Lord, please have her wake up!” she pleaded.

“Mom!” I screamed, “I’m right here!” But it was no use; she couldn’t hear me. And with a blink of an eye my head was pounding once again. I was in the darkness of the stench filled barn. I was about to look up to the unfortunate woman above me, but I suddenly sensed a
presence behind me.

My heart dropped. Standing slowly, I turned around. There she was, the tortured woman, alive in the flesh. Her face was so close to my own I could feel her breath. Her eyes swayed from their sockets as she moved. She grinned. There were no teeth shown, but I knew I needed to run.

The woman moaned through her smirk. She held her insides and slowly began to take another step.

“No!” I screamed and pushed her shoulders.

“What’s the matter little girl?” she spoke in a raspy voice. “Are you afraid of a poor, innocent, tortured woman?” Her head snapped back.

I cried out loud. I stumbled and fell to the hard ground. “Please, what do you want?”

“I want you to suffer, little girl. This is only the beginning of the nightmares.” She let her intestines fall, and she fell to her knees. She crawled on top of my body. Her left eye grazed my cheek. I was almost hyperventilating and her blood soaked hand travelled my body.

Suddenly she laughed. It was high pitched and witchy, then she vanished. And so did everything else. I was all alone in a dark space, waiting for what might come next.