From Darkness Comes Insanity

He looked to be somewhere around 6 feet tall; taller then her measly 5’5. His short brown hair appeared to have once had a distinct style, but it was now just a messy clump of hair. He walked towards Amelia cautiously, the way a person would walk toward a deer in the wild.

“Holy shit, are you okay?” he asked. She was momentarily confused. Mentally she was a wreck, but he wouldn't know that. She must have really looked horrible.

“Why are you here?” She inquired, ignoring his question. He came towards her more hurriedly now, as if some barrier was somehow broken when she spoke to him. She took a single step back. Even though he was not the man who she had seen before, she wasn't going to take any chances and snuggle up with a stranger.

"Your head looks like someone bashed it in with an iron pipe." Amelia raised her hand to touch the wound that was all but forgotten, but immediately dropped it when she made contact.

"It stopped hurting yesterday..." She mumbled, watching him sharply as he got closer to inspect. He brushed a long delicate finger over the wound but she instinctively recoiled from his hand. She felt an excessive amount of discomfort with Graham so close to her. He leaned over her, trying to study her wound in the dim lighting. His breath washed down her neck, reminding Amelia of her first night in the hospital. A shiver ran down her spine, but she she stayed still under Graham’s scrutiny.

"Whether or not it stopped hurting, it's gonna get infected, just look at this place." He said, gesturing to the dusty cafeteria. She hadn't taken the time to think about a possible infection. It was really the last thing on her mind, and even now, it seemed like much less of a threat compared to a murderer.

"Wait here." He disappeared around the corner, and she bounced nervously in the cafeteria.

What if he doesn't come back? What if he comes back with a weapon? Or with the other man?

When Amelia had wished for someone to comfort her, this isn't what she had in mind. She couldn't imagine beginning to trust this man. She knew nothing about him.

Still, hidden behind the fear, some part of her was relieved to find another human being here. She waited for several minutes, anxiety creeping up on her the longer he was gone. Finally, he came back with an assortment of items. An old worn cloth, a dusty bottle of something she couldn't read, and a chair.

"Sit down." His voice was no longer warm like it was several minutes ago. Still, she did as she was told and watched as he dumped the liquid all over the cloth. As soon as the liquid sloshed out of the bottle Amelia’s hand flew up to cover her nose.

"Is that…”

"Alcohol." He replied, giving her a meek smile. Her stomach dropped.

Alcohol, on a giant head gash? Wasn't there some kind of warning label that said to only use it on small cuts or something?

Still, she watched as he thoroughly cleaned the cloth. When he content with his work, he turned to her, rag in hand. The fumes were horrific.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked, cautiously eyeing the cloth. He shot her a sympathetic look, but said nothing more. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, ignoring the burning it caused in her nostrils. Her knuckles turned white from gripping the sides of the chair so hard.

This is probably going to hurt more then that actual gash itself.

"Just close your eyes and breath, you'll be okay, I promise." He said, sensing her anxiety. She stared at him for for a moment, contemplating whether or not she wanted to trust this stranger. He raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing. She took a deep breath, then closed her eyes. As soon as the world was closed out from behind her lids, she felt the cold, damp cloth against her head. She exhaled with joy when it didn't hurt, but her relief was short lived. The gash started to burn. It felt as if someone had lit the side of her head on fire. Tears started pouring from her eyes without her consent. When it felt like she might actually pass out from the pain, she yanked her head away. He let her, proceeded to cover the cloth in more alcohol, then repeated the process. After several minutes of agonizing pain he went over to the sink and washed the alcohol from the cloth. Tears continued to pour from her eyes as the burning ravaged her head. He dabbed at the wound with the newly washed cloth for a few minutes until the burn subsided.

She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and the sleeve of her jacket to wipe stray tears away. She inwardly sighed, mad at herself for crying in front of a stranger. Even though she had a legitimate reason, it still angered her. Weakness was not something she wanted to show in this place.

"So whats your name?" he asked, focusing on the wound.

"Amelia." She whispered, her voice hoarse, even though she had not been screaming. When he didn't respond, she prompted him with her own question.

"How did you get here?" She asked, inspecting his face. The corner of his tongue peeked out of his mouth as he concentrated on cleaning her head up.

"Dunno. I woke up here about a week and a half ago; thankfully not with a hole in my head" He said it so casually, as if he was stating what he ate for breakfast.

"You've been here for weeks?!" He grimaced and stood up, taking a few steps back so he wasn't looking down on Amelia.

"Yeah. I mean, I found an exit and obviously left, but we're in the middle of no where. It’s obviously a ghost town. As creepy as it is here, I didn't want to go wandering off into the woods with no idea where I was. Figured someone would have come looking but no ones been here." She started panicking again.

If he's been here for weeks with no luck what chance do I have?

Even though she had loved the wilderness, there was no way she was just going to wander off into uncharted woods and hope she found someone before she was eaten by wolves or died from hypothermia. Even in her unnerved state, she knew it was a stupid plan.

"Calm down, it's okay." He placed his hands gently on her shoulders, as if he could will her to calm down. She frantically searched his eyes for some kind of clue that he was joking, and that everything was going to be fine.

"Look," he started, "I know that we don't know each other at all, and we have no idea where we are, and this is worst thing to hap-”

“I get it.” Amelia cut in with an irritated tone. “We’re both fucked.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, kneeling back down to her level.

“At least now we can stick together. We can help each other out. We'll find a way out of here, or, worst case scenario, we'll keep each other alive until someone finds us. I don't know about you, but I definitely have some people back home who are gonna be looking for me." She nodded, wiping the tears away from her eyes. His words soothed her mind. She started to breathe normally again.

He's right. We'll either find a way out of here, or someone will find us. Besides, he said this is some kind of ghost town, and people visit those all the time, right? So, we're bound to stumble across someone eventually. Amelia knew that she was only trying to convince herself of this. In reality, she knew the odds were not in their favor.

"Okay, you're right." She murmured. "What about food? You said you've been here for a while, so what have you been eating?" He looked away, nibbling at his lower lip.

"Well..That's the bad news.”

“Like any of this has been good news.” She said sarcastically. He let a small smile break across his face at this, but continued.

“When I finally got out of the hospital I scavenged all the houses. I found a box of really stale saltine crackers. I ran out two days ago. Haven't eaten since." Her stomach growled at the mention of food. Amelia briefly wondered how long they could go without food before they would die.

"Don't worry about it, even it if is a ghost town, we'll be able to find something. Maybe we'll eat a rat." he said in a mocking tone. She visibly gagged, her face wound up into a look of horror.

"That's disgusting!" She shrieked, giggling at the thought of it. Eating a rat, the worst of starvation wouldn't bring her to do that. They both laughed, momentarily forgetting the horrible place that they were in. Still, it didn't take long for reality to slap Amelia across the face.

"Graham?" He looked up at her, concern etching his features.

"Have you.." She stumbled on her words, becoming nervous just thinking about the topic. He simply stared at her. She drew in a deep breath.

“Have you seen anyone here? Like, another person. The person who probably put us here.” The color drained from his face. Shit, she thought to herself. Up until now, Amelia had been hoping that she was just insane. Probably suffering from some hallucinations, but this only confirmed her fears.

"It’s only happened a few times," He whispered, "I thought I was just going a little crazy.”

"What did you see?" She asked, not really wanting to know. A pool of nerves bundled in her stomach as he considered his response. She twiddled her thumbs and bounced her leg - both nervous habit of hers.

"The first few days it was just faces or flashes of something out of the corner of my eye, but in a place like this that was enough to plant the first seed of paranoia. After that I started seeing bigger things, you could say. Like whoever is here started warming up to me."

"What do you think he wants?" She questioned, considering all the possible answers in her mind.

Murder, rape, slavery, torture.

She stopped her thoughts. Amelia knew she would only scare herself even more.

"Do you really want to think about that?" He asked in the most lighthearted tone he could muster. He let out an awkward chuckle, trying to ease the tension in the air.

"Look, I don’t think this guy is going to gun us down, and now it’s two against one. If he managed to get us here, he can’t be that stupid. Maybe he’ll leave us alone now"

She nodded, trying to act more composed then she felt. Graham’s words made sense when she heard them, but she knew it was wishful thinking. Even though neither of them wanted to believe it, they knew that this man had brought them there for a reason, and he wasn't going to let up just because they had paired up. Amelia suddenly had the impulse to look over her shoulder. Her back tingled, as if someone was watching her.

"So what are we going to do?" She asked, casually turning her head to scan behind her as she spoke. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure looming behind Graham.

"HOLY SHIT" She screamed, jumping up and knocking the chair back. It clattered noisily against the cafeteria floor.

"What?" He asked in a panicked tone, turning around to scan his surroundings. She rubbed her hands over her eyes then inspected the area behind him and behind herself.

"I - I just thought I saw someone behind you.” She let out with a shaky breath. He gave her a small smirk to try and disguise his own panic. He wasn't very convincing.

"It's probably just this place getting in your head..." He trailed off, then placed his right hand on the middle of her back.

"Come on, this place is way too big - too many places for someone to hide.” She nodded absentmindedly, instinctively pulling closer into Graham’s side.

“I've been staying in room 304, we can go there for now." The hair on the back of her neck stood up as her eyes raided all the places a person could hide. She walked uneasily, turning her head so fast she probably should have broken her neck. She hated feeling so exposed. It put every nerve in her body on alert. Graham walked slowly out of the cafeteria. She wanted to sprint out faster then her legs could possible carry her. Somehow, they made it out without another incident.

After walking down a long corridor and making several turns into different halls, they finally entered a small room. It had a single bed, a dresser with rotten wood and another door that led into a private bathroom. In the corner sat a pile of ashes.

"Did you have a nice campfire?" She asked sarcastically, eyeing him as he moved to the bed.

"It gets cold at night." He said. She nodded once, taking a seat on the floor.

"How did you even get that lit?" It seemed like such an inconsequential question. Amelia was always asking questions which had answers that didn't really matter. She was a curious person. He reached into his pocket and tossed something to her. She dug around in her lap and found a light blue lighter. She flicked it on once, and with that flick came a light bulb in her head.

"My cell phone.." she murmured to herself. She fished around, finding it sitting in the bottom of her pocket. She cursed under her breath.

How could I forget something like that?

"Don't bother, no service out here." he said just as she saw the little bars at the top of her phone to be non-existent.

"Well, fuck." She tossed her cell phone in to a corner of the room, watching as Graham walked over, brushed it off and set it next to the bed. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"It may be useful." He said in a defensive tone. She snorted, but otherwise dismissed his comment.

"So now what?" She asked, picking at a new hole in the knee of her jeans. She hadn't taken the time to notice before, but her clothes were rather torn. Her jeans had holes littered across them, and her shirt was covered in specks of blood. Her hair was still tangled in an unforgiving knot. She mentally scorned herself for thinking of such shallow things during a time like this.

"I don't know," he said, "We're going to have to find food and soon. I don't really know how safe the water is or even why we have water. Seems ridiculous, but who the hell am I to question it? Anyway, food. We'll starve to death before we get out of here. For right now.." He hesitated, thinking up an appropriate plan.

"Well, you can either get some rest or we can go exploring." Amelia weighed her options, and her stomach - which was totally empty.

"Let's go exploring."