Lost

First came the pain, lancing through his skull in white, agonising flashes. Panic quickly followed, as he struggled to fully regain awareness and re-awaken his dulled senses. Questions flooded his mind, where when whys that seemed to have no answers, what and hows that he just… couldn’t remember. Fear finally struck when he realised he couldn’t see, nor hear. The cacophony in his head became worse, his instincts screaming at him to curl up, roar, run away and cry all at the same time. And then it stopped; all that was left was the headache and the shivering of his weakened body. He remained frozen for a while, wishing only to faint or fall asleep and relieve his throbbing head. Respite never came. Eventually he decided to sit up, only to find his left arm too frail to support his weight. His hand went from under him, he slipped, fell from where he was lying and with a flat ‘thump!’, smacked his head on something hard – the ground maybe. His headache faded away, his consciousness too…

He woke up this time to the absurd sound of a heavy door being unchained and unlatched. His face felt wet and sticky, his body cold on the rough tiled floor. Two footsteps, then someone flicked a switch. For a second or so, he could make out the distinctive buzz of neon tubes charging up. Then bright light flashed, bringing back the pain that now also radiated down his neck. Maybe blindness hadn’t been such a curse after all. He rolled off to his side, trying to take in his surroundings, while the door was being closed again, somewhere behind him. The room was large but mostly empty, from what he could see a rectangular space about twice as long as it was large, with two opposite pillars rising across the centre. The walls and floor must have been white once, though a yellow-greenish taint had spread to most of the room, reminding him of an old subway station. A stainless steel table rested behind him, which probably masked the door. He gathered he must have fallen from it earlier. Blood had pooled where his head had been in front of him and had started to flow between the floor tiles in little rivulets. Most of it was dry though. With a few reverberating steps a man came into view and nonchalantly squatted in front of him. The two men observed each other for a few seconds, the stranger seeming almost bemused, his head tilted slightly to one side.
-“Didn’t like the table, Rob?”
In other circumstances, Robert – it was indeed his name – could have appreciated the dry humour. Now however, most of the wit was lost on him as fear clamped in a knot around his lower gut.
-“Wh - who are you? Where am I? How do you know my name?”
-“Who I am”, replied the stranger “is of no importance. As for this place it is my own, my… realm of some sort. I never named it, for few need ever talk about it, and fewer still even remember it. Let’s call it… ‘Here’. And how do I know your name? Well, I’ve been keeping an eye on you for long enough to know all that there is to know about you.”

The man got up and started pacing in front of Robert, taking slow, deliberate steps. Six-foot tall, maybe more, he walked with a grace that was both alluring and menacing. His age was lost in a face that could have been twenty-eight or forty-five, sitting on top of wide yet slim shoulders. He stopped suddenly, staring at Robert with what could have been raging contempt or the deepest sorrow.
-“Tell me Rob, when did you lose it?”
-“When did I lose what? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?”
-“I want you to answer my question, for the moment. When did you decide to give up, what made you decide to renounce what had guided you for so long?”
-“What are you talking about? What is this, how – how did I get here?!”

Weak, helpless, lying on the floor, Robert fought tears of despair from running down his cheeks. None of this made sense, he felt too stunned to piece it together. Who was that guy and what was he playing. If only he could remember how he had got here, where was he before, what was he doing? His memories escaped him, at least the recent ones, everything was a blur, an insane patchwork of pictures and voices. And still the throbbing in his head, the pulsing that prevented him from thinking, from concentrating on anything. He tried to massage his temple with his right hand, but his fingers met with blood and open flesh. Terror overtook him then. He screamed.
-“My God! Please, you have to help me!!” Tears flowed freely down his bloodied face now. “Please, I beg you! What happened to me?!”
Robert reached out frantically, trying to grab on to the stranger, trying to get a hold of something that would make him feel safe. But he was too weak to drag his body across the floor; the stranger simply stepped out of reach, his eyes never leaving Robert’s, unshaken. Terror made way to rage and injustice, cries and screams, as Robert vainly tried to right himself up, to get up and leave and get someone to help. He finally collapsed, sobbing, helpless and dying in front of this sadistic witness.

-“Don’t worry, you’re not going to die yet, not until I see it fit.” Robert could barely hear him through his weeping. “You truly don’t remember, do you? I should have expected that. You shot yourself, Rob, right through the temple. Did you know that is a mortal sin? Of course you knew”. The stranger had Robert’s full attention now.
-“Yes, you should be dead now,” he continued, “but I prevented that – albeit for a while. I haven’t decided of your fate yet. In fact it will depend on you, and the answers you give me, so be sure to think them carefully. But you will need your memories for that, and you seem to have blown off too much of your own head. I suppose I will need to assist you then.”
Without warning, he bent down a grasped Robert’s head with icy fingers whose touch pierced to very soul, then wrenched it and tore it apart. In an incoherent distortion, Robert’s world turned into a chaotic maelstrom of sounds and impossible colours as time unfolded backwards. For the ensuing hours the room was filled with Robert’s screams of agony as his body suffered through this most unnatural of process.

I know, I know

It's been far too long, and I apologize. Not much has happened in my life however and there wasn't any point in me just posting - nothing -
Anyway, I've been playing with several little things these past couple of weeks, but I'm not happy with them yet. I'm still posting this one, as I think it's not too bad. I can always fix it later. I'm hoping to post the end someday soon, but I'm not making any promises... You all kow me...

Nico