Insomnia

A short story written by:

Chase Merkley

The scratching was coming closer and closer as Donald sat in the corner of his room looking at his door. He puts his hands over his ears and closed his eyes telling himself that this is an episode and it's not real.

"Donald," he hears whispering coming from his door. He opens his eyes and sees no one there. He looks at the clock to see that it is two eighteen in the morning.

"I need sleep," he says to himself wiping his eyes and standing up. He walks to his door and looks out his apartment and sees an empty hallway. He turns around and an old lady with a night-gown falls on him.

"You have to help me," she whispers, "They are trying to get me," she says and puts her hands on her cheeks. She takes hold of her hair starts to pull her hair out of her skull. She starts to laugh and starts to break her fingers one by one. Donald trips and falls outside his apartment. He looks up and sees the woman laughing and the door shuts and Donald wakes up in his bed sweating and breathing hard.

He sits up and sees it is two eighteen in the afternoon. He lies back down and puts his hands over his face.

Richie walks in the apartment to find his roommate sweating.

"Did you have another dream again?" He asks Donald looking for his favorite shirt in the closet. Donald stands up and looks at his mirror by his bed. He sees Richie looking for his shirt. "Yeah, this one was crazy. It felt so real," he says looking at himself. Richie laughs putting his shirt on.

"You are so weird, you know that?" He says walking out of the apartment. Donald sits back on the bed. What is wrong with me he asks himself? He asks God what is wrong with him, but he feels that God has no answer.

Donald leaves to go get some groceries. It's his day to bring the food home. He goes to H-E-B to get his items of food. He goes to aisle five to get some pepper and salt and other spices. He picks up this spice that he has never seen before and tastes it. He coughs because of how strong it is. "Oh you are going with me," he says out loud. He looks and sees a man looking at him. Donald stands there stiff. I'm I dreaming? I am shopping? Am I really here? The man starts to walk towards him. Donald can not tell if he is dreaming or not and doesn't act. The man is feet away and Donald doesn't know what to do. Donald just stands and hopes for the best and not for the scares. The man passes him and Donald feels a since of relief. His cell phone starts to ring and Donald jumps from the music. He starts to laugh to himself and answers it.

"Hello? This is Don," he says.

"I can't feel my legs anymore...I cut my wrists," says an unknown whispering man.

"Who is this?"

"Can you look and see if I'm dead? They said I was already dead."

Donald looks down the aisle and sees a puddle of blood. He walks towards it and when he reaches the blood, he sees no one in the store. He turns around and sees a little boy at the other end of the aisle.

"Am I dreaming?" He asks himself out loud.

"Daddy, I didn't mean to it," the little boy says and shows him his cut wrists. "All the other kids were doing it," he says walking towards Donald. Donald runs to the exit but the automatic door won't open. "Why won't this thing open!!?" He turns and everyone is looking at him.

"Sorry sir, this door has been under repairment," one of the managers says giving him a weird look. Donald pauses with embarrassment. He looks at his cell phone and checks the incoming calls and sees that no one called him. He goes back home.

Donald goes to the apartment, puts the groceries up, and turns on the sink to throw water on him. He hears laughter coming from his closet. He turns and looks at the closet. "Hello?" he asks. He slowly walks over and opens the closet. He screams in terror and walks backwards, but falls still screaming with fear.

"Donald, you're so stupid!" His best friend and secret love, Carrie, says hitting him in his arm for saying an immature joke. Donald just laughs and wishes that she felt the same way that he felt for her. She had no idea that he loved her, but he knew one day he would tell her.

"Oh crap, I got to get going," She says getting her things together.

"Oh come on, where are you going sweet thang?" He says laughing. She laughs, "What? I got to go and see Aaron," she says opening the door.

"Oh right, Billy. How is good old Aaron?" He says not really interested.

"Aaron is so wonderful and he is so beautiful and-"

"Wow, that's not gay. Alright, have a nice time with your boyfriend," he says shutting the door. She laughs and walks away. Donald walks back into the living room. What does she see in Aaron and not in me? We have so much more fun together. Why doesn't she see that? So he is has a nice body, so what! He throws one of his CD's across the room into a wall. He doesn't deserve her!! Oh what's the use screaming at myself. It's not doing anything except ruining more CD's.

That night a knock comes from his door. He hears Carrie knocking at the door asking for Donald. He can tell that she was crying and opens the door. She embraces him with a hug. "What is going on," he asks himself. Is God answering his prayer? She lets go of him and stares at him.

"What's wrong Carrie?" She starts to tear up and holds her mouth to not cry. She calms down and breathes hard a little bit and then looks back at Donald.

"Aaron, it's about Aaron. I found out he was cheating on me with another person," she says tearing up again.

"Oh man, I am so sorry Carrie. I am sorry that he cheated on you with another girl," he says.

"No, he didn't cheat on me with a girl," she says giving a disturbed face. Donald wants to smile a little but wants to be nice to Carrie.

"You're saying he cheating on you with a man?"

"Yes!" She says crying. She runs out of the apartment screaming.

"Wait Carrie! There's something I need to tell-," he says seeing that she is long gone into the night. "you," he finishes telling himself.

The telephone rings in the two story house. Thunder strikes the sky of darkness as Aaron runs to the phone. "Hello?"

"Aaron?" He hears Carrie crying on the other line.

"Hi Carrie. I'm glad you called so we can talk about what happened," he says.

"Can you just tell me one thing Aaron," she asks.

"Yes?"

"Do you love me?"

Aaron hesitates and thinks about the question.

"No Carrie. I am sorry, but I am who I am and I can't change that," he says.

"Can you hang on for just one second?"

"Yeah I can wait." Carrie puts him on hold. Aaron sits and waits for Carrie to return. He starts to realize that maybe he should have told Carrie that he was curious and he didn't know if he was actually gay or not. Now after he did sleep with a guy, he knows he is gay. He can hear Carrie getting back on the phone. He stops thinking.

"Hey are you there Aaron?"

"Yeah I am here Carrie."

"Did you know that girls that commit suicide don't usually use a gun?"

"What did you say Carrie?"

Carrie takes a 385 barrel shotgun to her face over the phone. Billy yells for Carrie and yells for Carrie before calling for help.

Donald was in his room when he got the call about Carrie taking her life. He stopped breathing forever it seemed. He felt like part of him was already dead. The

night before Carrie died was the last time Donald slept. It was the last time Donald was normal and was the beginning of his nightmares.

Donald falls on the ground looking at the man.

"Help me!" The man yells crawling towards him with his face melting. Donald puts his hand to his mouth wanting to puke. The man's legs are missing, probably already melted, and the man's jaw is just hanging from his disturbed face. The man stops crawling and just lies on the ground melting. Donald crawls to the corner of his room and starts to shake.

Richie runs in the room to see Donald in the corner yelling.

"Donald! What's wrong? What did you see?" He says trying to calm him down. Donald finally looks up and sees Richie but looks and sees someone sitting on a chair right by the closet wit their head back.

"Donald!"

"What is that?" He says looking at the woman who looks dead. The body shakes and the head starts to come up. It looked like the woman shot her own self in the face. The head comes all the way up and she looks at Donald. "Carrie?" He says out loud. Richie turns around and sees no one there. He sees the chair and the closet open, but sees no one.

"What do you see Donald?" Richie says.

"Carrie," he says scared to death.

"She's dead Donald. You need to see some help Donald. I can't help you," he says looking at the time. "I got to go, I will check on you later," he says leaving.

Donald looks back at the girl when Richie leaves and sees no one there. He looks down at the ground and sees her crawling towards him. She tries to talk, but with her jaw broken from the shot, she can't talk and all she can do is mumble. Donald yells for help, but no one comes. He closes his eyes and starts to count to ten. He starts out whispering shaking, and then starts to yell it hearing her get closer and closer mumbling. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!" He screams faster and faster. Suddenly he feels her hand touch his knee. He screams and stops counting to ten. He hears nothing. He opens his eyes. He sees her staring at him reaching for him. He screams with fear.

"Donald, time to wake up," the doctor says. Donald wakes up to see himself tied down to a bed in a white room. He looks around and sees the doctor and two girl doctors staring at him with their pen and paper taking notes.

"Where am I?" He says looking at the doctor.

"What was that Donald?" The doctor says with his flashlight in Donald's eyes. Donald gets frustrated wanting to know what is going on with him.

"Where am I?" He screams. The doctor steps back and puts his flashlight up. He fixes his glasses.

"You really have no idea where you are, do you?" He asks Donald. "My name is Doctor Riley Donald and these are my assistants; Mrs. Doss and Ms. Summer. You have been in this facility for two years now and we have been studying your behavior and your actions and your thoughts. Your one of the rare cases Donald," he says smiling.

Donald is confused and angry and startled. "What? Rare cases? What's wrong with me? Why am I seeing things?" He asks demandingly.

Doctor Riley hesitates. "Well, the reasons you're seeing the things you have seen is probably because you have committed those things you saw," he says taking his glasses off.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were born in 1988. You cut your wrists when you eight years old. The reason you told your parents was because all the other kids were doing it. When you were fifteen, your grandmother went crazy after your grandfather died and she would pull her hair out. You told me when you came here that you loved a woman by the name of Carrie. You said she was the reason you started to kill," he says.

"Wait, you said kill?" Donald asks confused and scared.

"Yes Donald, that's why you're in here," Dr. Riley says.

"I'm a killer?" he says to himself.

Dr. Riley continues Donald's life. "You told me that when you found out that Carrie was going out with this guy, what was his name Mrs. Doss?"

"His name was Aaron Mitchell Dr. Riley," she says looking at her papers.

"Thank you Mrs. Doss. When you found out that they were dating, you told me that that was when you freaked out and you shot her in the face," he says.

"What? I am the one who killed Carrie?"

"I'm afraid so Donald," Dr. Riley says. Donald thinks of all the things he has seen.

"The night you killed Carrie Faust, you felt good as you told me yourself, you went home and broke your grandmother's fingers so she wouldn't pull her hair out anymore. When you left she died of a heart attack. You were put in a mental hospital but were released two years later. When you were eighteen, you killed another guy and from then on you didn't stop and you were brought here and we put you under a deep sleep to see your fears and your sins. I see it has worked," he says.

"So all the things I have seen. I did that to them?"

"I'm afraid so," he says.

"So now what?"

"I'm sorry, but you only saw a few of your evil ways. We need to put you back to sleep for you see more," he says nodding at the two ladies to get the shots.

"No, wait I don't need to go sleep. I saw what I did and I don't need to go back to sleep," he says moving around not wanting the shot.

"I'm sorry Donald," he says.

"Please Dr. Riley. No I don't want to go back to sleep," he starts to raise his voice. They start hold him down. He struggles and screams but they pin him down and give him the shot. He slowly starts to fall asleep.

He wakes up and sees he is in the white room again but not strapped down. He sits up and sees Dr. Riley sitting in the corner facing his back to Donald.

"Dr. Riley?" He says getting out of the bed standing up. He doesn't say anything. Donald starts to walk towards him. He hears him whispering writing something on paper. "Dr. Riley?" He sees touching his shoulder. Dr. Riley turns around and Donald screams. The note Dr. Riley was writing said, "Insomnia" over and over in his blood.