The Faces

Suspense Stories | May 12, 2013 | 8 min read
24 Votes, average: 3 out of 5
...Total darkness. What's going on? I can't feel a thing, not my legs, not my hands...not my body at all. Where am I? I feel absolutely nothing, just these thoughts. I am disoriented and know nothing of my surroundings. How did I get here? I can't move, yet I can't feel anything that may be restraining me. I am struck with fear and confusion. "What is this?!" I try to shout out, but I can't even hear my own voice. Then a gentle finger touch runs down the back of my head. It's a sinister feeling that leaves me wondering what it may be, who it may be.

I suddenly feel a heavy weight in my chest and something begins to happen. I feel a dragging effect pulling me downwards. My feet are regaining their sense of feeling! I know because I finally stop feeling the dragging effect and under my feet I feel myself standing upon...ground, only it feels like I'm drifting. Slowly and suddenly, my shoulders start to tremble as I regain a feeling of existence around my body, but not a sense into reality.

A piercing cold chill runs through my blood all over, as if I have been pricked by a thousand icy cold needles. Is this a dream? What else could this be other than a dream...but I have come to realize that fact faster than I ever have in any other dream I have had before.

No, something is very wrong. This, this is way too real! I am panic stricken and confused. Suddenly all my concerns seize as I finally realize something. Rather, I ask myself one question that drives my confusion and fear to a levels higher, "Who am I?"...I have no memory! Nothing of the past at all exists in my mind. But I know myself, yet at the same time I know nothing of myself...It is a strange feeling that I can't explain.

Wait, there was a presence earlier. That touch...What was that that so gently went down the back of my head? So many questions! I place my hand on my face. I wipe it down but strangely enough, my face has never felt so, so good. Smooth and gracious like brand new silk. I would have expected my face to be a sweaty wreck, only this time its in experience of complete opposite effects from my emotions.

I then notice something else begin to happen, and somewhat to my relief. My body and nerves are slowly coming back to me. I decide to wait till I have regained total composure of myself. "This is not a dream", I finally decide. My sight starts to return as well. My breathing becomes frantic in some sort of excitement as I get closer to the answers I seek. Though my breathing feels not of my own effort, strange in all means, but a sort of habit in a way. I ignore that and concentrate on regaining my sight, squinting to desperately see what is around me.

A blurry image of my surroundings comes into view. My whole body trembles in anxiety as I get to scope the details of my surroundings. "I'm indoors!" I tell myself. "Wait, I heard myself say that!" I say in my mind. My hearing has returned as well! I carefully look around. I'm in some sort of room, a large room lit with torches of fire, like a medieval castle at night. The walls seem to be made of stone and surround me in a peculiar cylindrical shape. The walls have a design of some sort that I cannot make out, an almost constant design all through, but my sight has yet to return fully.

Strangely, though I have slowly scoped the whole room around me, I still have not spotted a door of any sort. In fact its quite clear there are none at all. I look upwards, hoping to see a sign of how I might have ended up in here, but as I stare up, I only see the walls continue upwards to a point where my sight cannot reach. The walls stretch to a seemingly never ending inky darkness.

With a great reluctance, I decide to explore the room farther. As I start to walk forward, I begin to feel an uneasy presence. I am scared and the feeling of not knowing a thing that might have led to this haunts me deeply. Then as I am walking, I feel a sudden heavy sorrow in my chest. My emotions suddenly are rocked by an unknown force. I feel like crying as my sorrow deepens to a point of almost knocking me to the ground. I hold my head as I look down on the ground. I want to drop on my knees and just let go of everything! "But I have to keep moving", I tell myself, "get out of here somehow".

Before I know it, I am at the end of the room, instinctively stopping before I knock the wall. I was so caught up in my strange emotional twists that I kept walking absent sense of direction. Still looking down on the ground, I feel a great fatigue, as if the breath is being pulled away from my very lungs. I turn around and lean against the wall with my back in a bid to rest myself for a bit.

Immediately I notice something absolutely strange. The wall behind me...the shape is...the feeling upon my back..."Why does it feel that way?" What sort of manner has this wall been built? It casts a disturbing and almost stomach churning impression upon my skin. The shape is almost rugged yet roundish, bump after bump I feel on my back. I slowly pushed myself to my feet from the laying position I had assumed on the wall and turn around to get a better view.

I pause motionless. My eyes widen in horror. The sight before me, so close to my nose is absolutely terrifying, yet I cannot move my face from the other one that is staring at me, eyes as if riveted to mine. Our noses almost touching, its mouth open in blank expression. In front of me was a face, no...many faces, in fact, thousands as I came to realize when I finally managed to pull myself slowly away. The faces were all petrified and part of the wall! Stretching in al directions even to the top and disappearing within the darkness, thousands of faces!

As I slowly move behind, fighting my body to move as it is stiff with horror, some of the faces begin to move in their place, as if trying to speak words but only uttering hair raising moans and groans, cries and sounds I can not understand. They are in pain, I can tell, and one by one the other faces begin the same, as if awakening from a long slumber.

Fear engulfs my entire existence. I want to run, BUT WHERE! The whole room, covered in faces that moved, no escape! "What is this?!" I want to scream out as I move my eyes everywhere, looking around searching for a way out, well knowing there is none. My eyes fall upon a tall shadowy figure standing in the middle of the room. The noisy moans from the faces slowly die down to just silent grunts. "Wh-Who are you?...Huh?!" I call out.
"...", no rely from whoever it was in the room.
"Please, help me! I'm begging you!" I cry out, with almost tears in my eyes. I reach a point where I cannot account for my actions anymore.

I begin to walk towards the person. As I get closer, my head begins to hurt. I do not know what force is driving me, but I cannot stop moving towards him. My pain reaches a level of nerve splitting agony. It's getting worse as I near him, yet my every move is spellbound beyond my control. I reach the person and cannot see as I decide to shut my eyes tight. The pain is unbearable!

Suddenly, I feel a sense of serenity. The pain is gone! I keep my eyes closed because I feel so much ease from doing so. It's all coming back to me now. I know everything, my name, who I am. Max Kelly Baraka, that's who I am. A sense of joy fills me. Memories, precious memories flow through me as if I am relieving every fond moment of my life in a split second. I have never felt such comfort, I don't want it to end.

Now I remember, my most recent accounts, I was late for that job interview. My car had broken down, that damn car, so I continued on foot. I was crossing the highway. I had to quick before the clock struck ten a.m. No time to wait for the light to turn red, so I timed a clear opening and ran across the road, sprinting as fast as I could, seeing the other end of the road approaching me steadily. Then suddenly, blood chilling screams from a crowd as if to warn me, next thing I heard, loud screeching of tires then a sickening thud and then afterwards...I'm here. My joy quickly reverted back to sorrow. It was all clear now.

I open my eyes again, once again coming into realization of my surroundings. The person who was in the room, I could now see him clearly. He was a huge figure covered in a dark cloak and hood, dark as the night. His face finally coming into view. In a strange way, I move closer to his face as if summoned there. Eyes as big as an owls and blood red. Horrific eyes that could cast a shadow of terror to whoever that looked upon them. I cannot pull away, "WHY!" Something is wrong, I feel extremely strange. I have lost my sense of existence again, Sight is all I have. "why can't my legs move?!"I feel nothing from my neck downwards!

Then as I move my eyes around, it is helplessly clear as I stare downwards from the corner of my eye what is wrong, what was painfully clear, when I sight a headless body upon the ground. The body slowly sinks into the ground as six scaly, clawed arms emerged and pull the body in, my body. My body sinks into the sand until it is out of sight. My head is in the tight grip of the shadowy figure, who slowly moves towards the wall.

I cannot utter a single word, I try to scream but all is lost, I am lost. Finally, it happens, he stares at me deeply as I am being fixed in the wall to join the rest. My skin crawls as my face stiffens hard as a rock. He watches me closely as he bends his head as if examining me. My thoughts are fading, my mind is slowly being erased. Soon I will be an empty existence, another face on the wall. I hear words from the one that placed me here as my final thoughts leave me forever, I hear, "THE AFTERLIFE HAS YOU..." the words echo, so deep and loud...as I...as I...I am...I can't..........
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