Short Story Excerpt: Into the Realm of the Lunatic

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I’ve always been fascinated by the mind’s ability to conceal things we have done from our own conscious selves. That must be especially frightening for a psychologist or therapist to experience in their own minds. They must have to live with that thought each time they have a session with a patient suffering from a personality disorder.

But for the grace of God, there go I - John  Bradford, 1533

Into the Realm of the Lunatic takes that idea a step further by forcing Dr. Shauna Adams to confront her personal demons as she treats a patient with real malevolent tendencies. There’s a link between Shauna and her patient and it’s one she can uncover only by entering Into the Realm of the Lunatic.

 

     Blackness, everywhere she sent her gaze. The stale air and absence of noise suggested she stood indoors, although she could see nothing. It seemed like it had been far too long to be lost within this dark void. It caused her to wonder if the subconscious mind existed within a moment; a metaphysical fragment unreachable by human experience. Failure wasn’t acceptable, so she began walking, unsure of her direction or what she might encounter.

     A few moments later, a white illumination appeared before her. It first appeared to be dim and growing brighter, but it was soon revealed to have been far away and growing nearer. Beneath the spotlight, shrouded beneath its glowing aura, she saw two lovers mating upon a single mattress. Curiosity begging her closer, she saw that the mattress was old and worn with its springs threatening to burst through the thin fabric. The beige mattress was stained in several spots with dried blood. The lovers, female, were more vivid and defined than one would expect to find in a memory, but their faces were hidden from view by a shadow that seemed to come from nowhere.

     Did Calvin Britton have some sort of sexual identity crisis?

     “Does Calvin Britton have some sort of sexual identity crisis,” the lesbians mocked.

     The loud voices shattering the silence startled her. Stumbling backwards, she could only gawk in disbelief. The more frightened she appeared, the louder those lovers laughed. They pointed fingers at her, accusingly, much like those grade school bullies from her childhood. She felt like the misfit fighting back tears as the privileged children ganged up on her. It didn’t make any sense to feel this way. None of it was really happening, she reminded herself. Yet, as irrational as it was, she found herself wanting to run. She would have fled. She would’ve run fast and hard…if she’d had any place to go. Her desperation grew more hopeless and the lovers’ taunting more malicious as the moments passed. She searched the blackness, instinctively needing to flee. The laughter, mocking her very existence, threatened to burst her eardrums. It was meant to hurt…and it did. She just had to go, but to where?

     “Run, you fool! You’ll get no answers from us.”

     Just then, as if responding to a command from the lovers, a doorway revealed itself far beyond them. She didn’t care that it stood so far away, just as she didn’t care where it might lead. It would take her away from the sadistic lovers and that was all that mattered. She ran to the yellow light beyond the door as though it was a beacon calling her to safety. That beacon grew brighter with each stride until it was almost blinding. No matter how fast she ran, that doorway and the iridescent glow beyond it seemed to remain just as far away. It was as though she’d unwittingly hopped aboard an unseen treadmill. She could actually feel her heart pounding in this dream-like state; her breath short and her legs rubbery. It seemed like she’d been running for miles, fruitlessly trying to reach a destination forever just out of her grasp. Finally, throwing herself forward in one desperate thrust, she bounded herself through the doorway like an athlete crossing the finish line.

 

Experience all nine stories in Whispers From Hell: An Anthology of Horror & the Supernatural.

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