Tag: terror

The Platform Pt.2

I feel the people around me yet no one is making a noise, all of us anxious for what comes next.

Mj Gale3 Comments

As we are all pushed forward we step onto another platform, it’s still complete darkness. No one is saying a word. I’m pushed forward even more as we hear the doors of the tram close and feel the gust of wind as it leaves us all standing on the platform in the darkness. I feel the people around me yet no one is making a noise, all of us anxious for what comes next. It feels like an eternity, the quietness, the darkness, the unspoken energy in the room increasing to a level where it feels like you could choke on it. As we continues to wait, we finally see a glimmer of a red light far away.

It flickers almost as if it was toying with us, getting bigger and then flickering away, brighter and then darker and then gone again. When I try to focus on it, the light seems to disappear and then reappear as soon as I avert my eyes. It was then I realized that the room was hot, and getting hotter. I still couldn’t see anything besides the flickering red light in the distance but I can tell the people were starting to take off their coats and clothes. It is so hot I can feel the heat come through my shoes, I’m sweating and I feel my ear start dripping blood again. The light has gotten closer and appears to be constant now even when I stare directly at it, it keeps changing from a red to an orange to a darker red color. I’m almost transfixed by the transformations of it when suddenly I feel myself get pushed to the ground.

The ground is so hot it burns my hands as I began to push myself up. In the commotion someone steps on my hand and I yell out as I feel my finger snap backwards. As soon as I yell out everyone started screaming at once. It happens so quickly that it’s disorienting. I’m trying to get off the burning hot ground while trying to ignore my finger throbbing and everyone is screaming. It is still so dark and I can’t see the flicker anymore. The screams are so loud, I just curl into a fetal position to avoid being crushed again and put my hands over my ears.

I am thankful now, that I didn’t take off my coat even though it was so hot, because now it was protecting me, a little bit at least, from the heat radiating from the floor. I am sweating so much and it is so loud. I am completely disoriented and barely even notice a sudden whooshing sensation, until the deafening silence that followed, and then there is a second whoosh. I stay curled up but try to get a glimpse of something, anything, but it’s still so dark. I hear a thump and then another thump, and then so many thumps and I yell out when something falls on me. I reached to move it off me and scream when I realize it is a head.

Continued in Pt.3 of 4

© 2017 Mj Gale

The Swarm

As soon as I looked I felt terror through my entire body

Mj Gale3 Comments

We are huddled in a corner, it’s a very large room and almost completely dark except for a few candles in the corner where we are. There had to be hundreds in this room, as close together as we could get, yet the other side of the room was empty. Everyone was whispering, there was one phrase that kept getting repeated, “the swarm, the swarm, the swarm”

I’m looking around, asking what they were talking about, but everyone looks dazed, almost drugged. I realize now everyone was whispering to themselves, unaware there was someone next to them.

I’m trying to move but there was so many people crammed into this corner that I couldn’t get them to budge. I tried being more forceful and it was like pushing a rock. I couldn’t figure out what was going on but I knew I needed to get out of there. The flickering lights from the candles were disorienting.

Then I heard an actual voice, deep voice talking to someone else. It was coming from the empty side of the room. Instantly I knew it meant trouble. I tried to blend in and get into the rocking sway of the people all around me, and I started whispering. I kept my eyes down as I heard the deep voices come closer.

“It’s time to move them” I heard. I tried not to panic because I felt, down to my core, that I had to get out of there before they moved us to wherever they had planned. I kept looking up for exits, a window, anything that I could run to. It was just too large and dark of room, I couldn’t see anything past all these people.

The group started shuffling forward all of a sudden, and I felt myself pushed from behind so I got into their rhythm again, keeping my head down and muttering as they were. I could tell they had us headed to the opposite side of the room, knew I couldn’t let myself get that far.

I wait until what I think is the middle of the room, and I raise my head, desperate to find an escape route. As soon as I looked I felt terror through my entire body. The room was not dark because of a lack of light, the entire side of the room where they were sending us was moving, it appeared to be an open mouth. This mouth ahead was made up of millions of tiny little moving objects; the darkness itself appeared to be moving, and I could hear now a slight buzz above the muttering. Instantly I knew what the swarm was. We were being walked to a death within the swarm.

I stopped and was instantly pushed forward by the people surrounding me. I decided action was better than surrendering, and just turned around and started climbing over the people. Onto their shoulders and over their bodies. I heard one of the deep voices yell something and just kept going back. Back was better than whatever was in front of us. I kept going, scrambling over these people, (why couldn’t they wake up??) I fell, jumped right back up, kept going and climbing over and over, yet I still felt as if I was being pushed forward to The Swarm, the deep voices were much closer to me but I kept going. Just as soon as I could see I was almost to the end of the group of people, I heard the deep voices, they seemed right on top of me… Then I felt a hard hand grab my neck, and everything went black.

© 2017 Mj Gale