NECROPOLIS

Reality is shaped by the forces that destroy it
- D. Harlan Wilson

Fear, the one strong emotion that everyone knows, the one emotion which helps us survive yet the one emotion which we want to avoid. Amongst all fears it's the fear of the unknown which haunts us the most. For us humans, we would rather run from a guy with a chainsaw than sit in a safe place with something always breathing behind your back. Imagine being in an art gallery, and you feel that every picture is looking at you. You feel terrified even though the pictures can't harm you. They can't... Right?

Walking along an empty narrow street, Samuel Wikerson was contemplating about the horrors of real life. His life has been miserable right from childhood. He didn't remember his parents, or anyone from his family. He has been living on his own as far as he can remember. It wasn't easy. In fact for him, life got as miserable as it can get. Some unidentified disease was slowly eating his body. He was completely broke. Not that he had more than ten dollars in his pocket at some point in his life. But he always salvaged enough to eat at least once a day. Now, it has been nearly a week since he last ate. Let alone getting pain killers to survive the night. He wasn't able to sleep because of the pain. And when he managed to sleep the nightmares woke him up right away. The Nightmares were always the same, being tied to a chair and slowly tortured by plucking his nails. He never usually got to the end of it. But one night when he was so tired to wake up even from the nightmares, THINGS GOT WORSE.

The end of this street is usually where Samuel lied down. But today it seemed different. Something was dragging him to the end. It was dark but the moonlight shining between the trees was good enough for Samuel to see that this is not the way his Street used to be. He wanted to turn back and check whether he took a wrong turn somewhere but something kept pulling him to the end. It was as if someone else was controlling his body, he was unable to stop. So he kept walking, he didn't have anything to lose. If something is giving him energy and pushing him to a new turn in life, he was welcome to take it, because so far his life was more miserable than death. In fact, what is so miserable about death? Even if it is painful, it's only going to last for some time. No one is here to miss him nor anyone he will miss. He might as well die and get it over with. But the tortures of this life are known. Who knows what after-life is like? It can very well be his nightmares for eternity! Better a known devil than an unknown angel right? GOD! We keep hoping that it's an angel.

Suddenly, the wind blew around him in circles and he started shivering. The cold wind was too much for his body to take. Others wouldn't call it much of a body anyway it's was just his skeleton with a layer of skin to cover it. Well, you don't expect a thick layer of fat on a person who at most ate once a day for the last ten years. Beyond that he didn't remember. He never really had any memory of how he got to a place, all that mattered to him was to survive another day for things might get better someday. More importantly, Death might be worse. The giant scar on his right cheek started burning. He never really remembered having the scar but now he did, and it was painful. Though he didn't want to walk, he struggled to keep walking. His fur coat blew off and he reached a gate frozen from head to toe. The gate creaked open with a gentle touch and there stood a mansion black as a raven. He walked on the pathway leading to the doorsteps. The garden on either side was filled with decaying plants and among those decaying plants grew black roses. The rotten smell filled the air while his legs stepped inside.

He felt a weird sense of Deja vu when he was inside. In fact he felt nostalgic. It felt so strange to feel nostalgic about such a creepy place. When he looked around the main hall, he saw a bat hanging from the red chandelier over his head. The moonlight through the French Windows filled the space. The cold air surrounding him suddenly left the place and he felt warm and comfortable, yet scared. He walked a few steps and saw a hallway leading on to the inner chambers. When suddenly he felt a piercing pain in his heart. He instinctively looked up to see the bat gazing at him with its blood red eyes. He sat down on a table next to him with his hand clutching his chest just to feel the table's surface wriggle and try to pull him inside. He stood up immediately and kneeled to the ground, when immediately the bat flew past him outside through the door and slammed it shut. The red chandelier began to burn filling the room with an eerie red glow and out of nowhere Samuel heard a faint whisper filling the room. He strained his ears to hear to hear a little boy's voice.

Let the door be shut,
And the cords be cut.
Going dark and cold
To the undead world.

Samuel stood up. His knees felt weak. Yet, he knew that if he stayed there it's going to be the end of him. He stumbled across the hall to the hallway. He felt a strange familiarity about the place. When he went into a room to sit down near a heater, memories came flooding on to him.

"Samuel, Samuel... "

His mother kept calling.

“Don’t run around in the backyard after sunset. How many times have I told you this?”

A moment later as if remembering something important she asked

“Did you go to that mansion today?”

He saw that his mother's eyes were red with anger and fear

His scar hurt once again. He just stood near the entrance to the room thinking about his mother. Up until this day he never remembered her. But now, he heard her voice clearly in his head. Was it completely inside his head? He wasn't sure of that. Then he heard the voice again. Now it was not just in his head. It was as if the entire place was calling out to him

Samuel... Samuel...

When he turned back, there was no hallway. Just a black void going on and on. He then looked around to see the room closing in on him. And something was infecting the walls of the room and that something definitely didn't like him. The painting of a young girl on the wall started growing in size until it covered the entire wall. The girl then started growing old and she died staring into his eyes. The filth covering the room entered into the picture and he found himself being sucked by it. He turned around and jumped into the void while he saw the girl's eyes fall inside into her empty skull.

And the cords be cut...
And the cords be cut...

Samuel floated in the void. The only source of light was from the way he came in and he moved further and further away from it. He was not sure if he was moving or the house is trying to shut him up. He had no idea of the passage of time, or distance. He was there seeing nothing and hearing nothing. He couldn't see his own body. The only sound he could hear was the sound of his own heart beating. And after a while it stopped. He didn't know if he was alive anymore. But for the first time in his life he was sure that others knew that he existed. He had a family and he had memories of them. Floating in the void, the void in his memory began to fill up.

He stood there in front of the huge raven black mansion. Behind him was the Wikerson residence. He could very well hide safely in there, lead a life laid out to him by his family and fulfil their expectations. But his curious half was bugging him to go have a look inside the mansion. It was like an insect in his brain ever since his mom told him that the mansion is off limits to him and his friends. Today he decided to find out why it is off limits no matter what the cost. He passed through the beautiful garden filled with red roses in front of the mansion and climbed the stairs to the door. It was a huge door with scratch marks all over it clearly contrasting the black color. The door slammed open and a bat flew out of it when he stepped close to it and he was pulled inside. Then, he found himself standing in his bedroom. All his toys in his room was staring at him. He tried to move but his body was frozen in its place. He stood there trying to figure out what happened. He saw his toys slowly start crawling to him. They left a trail of blood when they crawled on the floor. He was puzzled as well as paralyzed with fear. He tried to scream but he was choking with his own blood in his throat. He felt it, the taste of blood. When they were about to reach him he heard his mom open the door. She passed through all of his stuff as if they didn't exist in her life. He screamed as much as he could. But she could neither hear him nor see him. He stood there seeing all the things which belonged to him disappear in front of his eyes. Erasing his presence from their lives. It was no longer his room when the toys spewed blood all over him.

Samuel opened his eyes to see himself in the hallway again. He felt different. This place gave him memories. It didn't matter even if they were all lies. All that mattered was now he had an identity. A memory of his past. A life he had lived. His step wasn't weak anymore. He felt a surge of energy flowing inside him. He now had hope, and 'Hope is a good thing'. He walked along the hallway. He saw a small boy standing in a corner. He felt a sudden pain in his scar. The pain blinded him, and fear rushed through him in an instant. He couldn't afford to be blind in such a place. Then he felt the floor beneath him give away. It felt like quick sand slowly pulling him inside. He tried to move but it held him firm and tight in one place. And once again he saw the room being infected with a strange black fungi. A pungent smelling gas filled the room making him suffocate. He then heard the scream of a small boy. His vision was back to a blurry state by now. He looked around and he wasn't sure where the scream came from. He heard the scream once again, it pained his ears to hear the scream every time. He then realized that this scream was not from the outside. He heard it from his mind, from his memories, from his past. Hope is a cruel thing. After the faint touch of hope, pains are much more horrendous. The fungi grew near him and when they started growing on his hands. He started losing consciousness once again. But someone kept screaming inside his head.

Samuel screamed at the top of his voice. Right after the horrid scene with his toys. It hurt his heart to see his family forget him in front of his eyes and live their lives as if he never existed. He was gone from the family photos in their living room. When he walked back to his room it wasn't there. It just wasn't. There was no door leading to it. And he ran out of his door just to see himself back in the raven black mansion's hallway. Now after everything, there were tentacles everywhere trying to catch him. He ran around screaming, unsure of what to do. When he tried to bolt the door shut to the room he entered, a tentacle from below captured him and dragged him away from the door. The skin of the tentacles were transparent and he could see the blood flowing through the tentacles as they sucked on him. His entire body started shivering and he frantically started kicking to get out of this horror. The more he kicked. The more they sucked. He couldn't believe he was going to die so soon. He had planned so much to do with his life. He wanted to be an adventurer, ironically his life's adventure was about to end. The reality of the situation came crashing on his believes. He believed that if you wanted something with all your heart, the universe will make you get it. This is not want he wanted. This couldn't be happening. He closed his eyes and hoped that he would wake up from this horrible dream. The tentacles were choking him. He opened his eyes once again. Suddenly, all the tentacles popped spewing blood all over his body. He slowly walked as his entire body shivered and he froze when the saw a figure at the end of the hallway. It was an old man covered with ragged cloths and there was something black growing on his hands. Terrified, Samuel screamed again, and ran.

Samuel woke up. His childhood fears came back to him once again. He remembered his nightmares, it was THE OLD MAN. The one who wandered in his dreams torturing him for fun. He looked around, he was in the same hallway he lost consciousness. This was the sanest thing that happened to him today. Trying to find the way back he entered the main hall. The chandelier was out and it was dark. A candle was burning dim on a table in a corner, filling the room with an eerie glow. He then saw a black liquid oozing though the doors and windows into the room. But, he didn't try to resist. He was too tired to resist. He thought he was prepared for whatever was going to happen to him. The black liquid formed a puddle in front of him. And out from it rose a boy. The liquid dripping down from him turned to blood red color. The boy stared at him. And then he slowly started walking towards him. The boy looked at his eyes and nothing else. He stared at it so blankly that it creeped Samuel to see such an empty person. Fear took over his senses.

Samuel ran blindly trusting his instincts. All around him the walls started cracking and tentacles rushed towards him. He stumbled on a tentacle rising from the floor and toppled over. He landed in a pool of a sticky liquid. It was pitch dark. The stickiness was not natural. The liquid was trying to cover him, Hold him, Take over him, and DROWN HIM. Both physically and consciously. His consciousness was fading fast. He didn't have control over his actions anymore. He rose from the puddle. It was pitch black and he couldn't see his own body. He saw a dim light at a distance. Giving him something. He couldn't understand what it did to him. But he was staring at the light and instinctively walked towards it. When he walked towards it he once again saw the old man appear behind it, and the light turned red. He heard a shriek all over a place. The shriek turned to a high pitched sound. He covered his ears and tried to move. But his body froze in its place. The old man stared at him and his cold blood red eyes sent shivers through Samuel's body. Once again, tentacles caught hold of him and took him towards the old man. Samuel was contemplating of what he could have done that made him deserve such cruelty. Guess somethings just happen. He saw the old man levitate towards him.

 

Samuel tried to throw his shoe towards the little boy. It froze in midair and fell down never reaching the boy. Samuel wanted to be brave. It was just a little boy. But something about this little boy terrorized him to his bones. The liquid around him grew in density and solidified around him. More liquid rushed from the cracks on the floor and covered his entire body. The entire blob started moving towards the little boy and he could see the boy moving towards him. The uncanny familiarity of the boy terrorized Samuel more than his nightmares. The entire place was silent and he could hear his heart beating. With a sudden burst of energy Samuel broke free of his bonds and pushed the boy away from him. His hands burned when he touched the boy. The boy flew to a corner of the room and fell crashing.

The old man suddenly pounced towards Samuel. Samuel fell hard on the table at the corner and it crashed and the broken wood gave him a deep cut on his cheek. Pain rushed through his body when he saw the old man moving towards him

With nothing to lose, and a bit of bravery Samuel rushed towards the boy in the corner. He suddenly felt a mind numbing pain on his scar. The goo all around him tried to hold him down as he tried to choke the boy to death. The liquid tightened around his body and it started breaking his bones and choking him. Filled with fear and anger he ignored the pain in his body and concentrated on inflicting pain

Samuel saw a killing intent in the old man’s eyes as he tried to choke him to death. He tried to kick him away but the tentacles held his feet firm making him immobile. He kept trying to break free and when he suddenly broke free he knocked the candle towards the Old man and his rags caught fire. The rags on the old man then fell on his left leg burning it.

Samuel's rags suddenly caught fire. He shook them away without letting go of the boy. The rags fell on the little boy's legs and Samuel felt a raging pain in his leg. The Burn mark on his left leg started burning once again and Samuel realized everything. As memories rushed back to him one by one. He saw the deep cut on the boy's right cheek. He slowly let go of the boy, as goo covered his entire body blinding him.

Samuel lost consciousness with the old man choking him. But just before he lost it he felt him let loose. Maybe he thought Samuel had already passed away.

Samuel woke up on the streets on a cold winter. He looked around and realized that he was no longer Samuel... Whatever his last name was. Whatever happened has changed his life completely and he was on his own from now on.

As Samuel let go of the boy. He saw him disappear in front of his eyes. The truth was crushing him. He had never really gotten out of his childhood terror mansion. He never could. He was stuck in a conundrum here encompassing both the past and the future. His entire horrible life has just been a part of this terror mansion. He had lost his life the moment he stepped inside this mansion when he was six. All these years, everything was just the mansion's way of telling him to give up. All the hope of life might get better some other day was just a cruel fake belief. Now he had really given up. He has truly lost everything. He was prepared to be here.

The mansion looked normal now. He was prepared for it. He didn't want to leave. He walked past the halls filled with screams and blood. You know you have changed when these seem normal to you. As he walked to the balcony on the next floor. He saw a small boy walk towards the mansion and an Old man at the door. He smiled to himself thinking about how time flows in this place.

At a distance he saw a burial. The coffin was open and he saw the corpse starting right at him. He was not sure. He blinked and when he opened his eyes. He was in the coffin inside the corpse seeing through its eyes. The corpse was also standing on the balcony staring at him. Everyone around him started burying him alive. He was claustrophobic and yet he felt comfortable after what had happened to him today. He was accustomed to fear, embraced it. He lay there dark and cold, not sure how much time had passed. He could see his body starting to decay. He could FEEL his body starting to decay as he lay there waiting to disintegrate, when he heard a faint whisper.

Going dark and cold
To the undead world