June 3rd, 2017
Everything was spinning.
Jared coughed, struggling to keep his breathing steady.
A cool breeze blew gently through the grass below the hills. The sun had begun to rise, filling the sky with bright yellow and orange. It would have been a peaceful sight for anyone, unless you happened to be Jared Patsin.
He knew he was overdosing, and unless he threw up the pills and received medical attention, he’d soon die. The hill wasn’t that far from home, and he knew almost every inch of the area.
Jared stumbled as he walked, making his way towards his destination entirely by feel.
His hand shakily brushed the rotting tree that made its home on the cliff.
Step by step, he climbed up the decaying tree, higher and higher. He felt the newly formed sunlight shine on his face.
His stomach burned, feeling as if the handful of pills he had recently downed had been replaced with burning hot coils. It was pure agony, but he knew all of this would be over soon.
Eyes unfocused and barely seeing, Jared began to hyperventilate, his eyes glazing over as he struggled to breathe.
He sat upon the one branch that could hold the stress of his weight, desperately trying to get his eyes to focus on the sunrise. Jared wanted the last thing he would ever see to be something calm and relaxing.
His eyes went in and out of focus, he could barely register what was going on. Jared clutched his stomach tightly, the pain becoming too much. He regretted everything, wishing he could make it back to the house in time.
His legs buckled as he attempted to stand, resulting in a snapping sound that echoed throughout the cliffs. Jared watched as his shadow got closer and closer to the rocks and decaying trees below. There was a sickening crunch that lingered in his ears as he felt himself hit the ground. He had fallen headfirst.
There was a bright light. Jared looked around, seeing absolutely nothing but whiteness. He couldn't feel, he couldn't think, he couldn’t do anything.
Invisible hands latched onto his legs, pulling him down, the white fading into complete and total darkness. His back fell against something indistinguishable. An invisible floor perhaps? Four amorphous figures looked up at him.
From what he could see, the middle one had been the tallest, the two on the left and right had been roughly the same height, and the fourth and final one was the smallest, standing just up to the middle’s one kneecap.
Each member of the quartet were white blurs, their faces glowing with different emotions. Rage, terror, and misery on the smallest of the three, but the tallest one was the hardest to register. Acceptance? Trust? Boredom? It looked blank, being the only one out of the four who kept eye contact with Jared.
Blood-curdling noises erupted from the group, making Jared cover his ears instinctively. The ghostly figures just stood there, although the sounds coming from them were anything but normal.
Ear piercing screams and sobs circled the small space that Jared was unknowingly in. With great difficulty, Jared could make out three different voices that continued to plead to some unspecified source.
There were two sets of screams that sounded nearly identical, although one scream was out of fear and the other, out of fury. The sobbing continued to get louder and louder, banging repeatedly into Jared’s skull.
Jared couldn’t focus on their faces any longer as another flash of light blinded his eyes.
When he opened his eyes once again, there was a voice. A man hung directly above him, being held up by a safety rope. He shined the flashlight back onto Jared’s face, which Jared did not appreciate. “We found him.” There was one thought racing through Jared’s aching head as he was lifted to safety. What the hell just happened.
