A7X One Shots

Today, a new person was arriving to our humble home. I couldn’t wait to introduce him to everything we had to offer. What was he here for? I shook my head. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was he was home now.

He had dark brown hair and whiskey-colored eyes. The doctors guided him down the hall. His eyes were wide as he looked around our overly clean home. Fear was the only emotion playing on his face.

A smile spread across my own. He’d come to love this place just like we all did. While the doctors checked him in, I walked over to his gurney. They had him strapped down. Oh! He really didn’t want to be here, did he?

“Hello,” I sang. “Welcome to our lovely home. My name is Clarence. Welcome home to Nightmare Asylum. As we say to all the newbies: now your Nightmare comes to life!”

He looked at me, more fearful than before, and I laughed. “As we say to all the newbies: now your Nightmare comes to life,” the man with gauze wrapped around his head said. He laughed at me after.

I wasn’t crazy. I kept telling the doctors that, but they didn’t listen to me. They were sending me to an asylum. Hell, I was at the asylum. No matter what I said, they didn’t believe me. I’m not insane. I’m not!

The doctors looked over at me on the gurney and shook their heads. Laughter came from the rooms and all I could think was that I’d be dragged down to the devil’s show. Based on the judge’s ruling, I’d be their guest forever.

A nursed shooed the guy called Clarence away, but he turned and looked at me. “Peace of mind is less than never,” he said and giggled as he walked back to his room.

The nurse came to the head of my gurney and started to wheel me down the white-tiled hall. Lifting my head off the table, I watched as the hall got longer, the further away the end got. She stopped at a door and opened it, pushing me in.

She left the room, but I was still strapped to the gurney. I lifted my head and looked around. It was a plain room with nothing on the brick walls. I slammed my head back against the gurney. I shouldn’t be here! Closing my eyes, I started to murmur a prayer.

“I hate to twist your mind, but God ain’t on your side,” a voice in the room said quietly.

My eyes snapped open, and I looked to my left. A small man with black hair and dark, blue eyes looked at me. “There’s only one reason for you to still be strapped to a gurney and to be here. You murdered someone, didn’t you? God ain’t gonna answer a killer’s prayers.”

“I don’t belong here. I’m not crazy.”

He laughed. “Nah, you have to be if you’re here at Nightmare. Only crazy people come here.” I woke up to smell of flesh burning in the air. My head came off the bed and found the eyes of my roommate. He seemed unfazed by the stench floating in our room.

“Don’t freak, killer. They burn us because men like you—murderers—have such easy souls to steal.”

My eyes widened. “What?!” That didn’t make any sense.

“Relax, your time will come. Today, you’ll stand in line while they ink numbers into your head,” he said and parted his hair to show the numbers 118904. I grimaced.

“Why do they do that?” My voice sounded scared.

“Nightmare uses us as slaves until the end of time,” he said with a cynical laugh. “Nothing stops the madness, killer. Just pull the trigger when you have the chance.”

I tried to look at him, but he had moved out of my view. Before I could ask another question, the door to the room opened. The same nurse from last night wheeled me out and took me down the hall. She opened a door and finally took the straps off my wrists.

Sitting up, I saw I was in an office. There was a man sitting at a desk. He had a tweed jacket and a graying moustache.

“Please, sit.” His voice was deep.

I hopped off the gurney and took a seat in one of the chairs.

“You’re here because you’re a danger to society. The court system has decided your penance shall be served here. It’s our goal to rehabilitate you.”

I gulped. “I’m not insane, sir.”

“You should have known the price of evil. And I know it hurts to know that you belong here,” he said and then motioned for the nurse to come get me.

I was strapped back into the gurney and taken back to my room. My eyes closed, and I fell asleep. I woke up in a sweat, praying it was all a dream, but all I saw were the brick walls of the asylum. This horrible nightmare wasn’t over yet, and I was still dancing with the demons who ran this building.

“You’re a victim of your own creation,” my roommate said, “Are you beyond the will to fight yet?”

I glared at him. “What’s your problem? You seem to hate me.”

“Hate don’t need a reason, killer. Loathing self-assassination is how you’ll go.”

I fought against my straps on my wrists which only caused him to laugh. The door opened and two nurses guided us down the hallway. My roommate leaned down and whispered,

“You’ve been lied to just to rape you of your sight.”

Straining against the straps again, I tried to get him to shut up. He laughed as my nurse took me to a room. She shaved my head and tattooed a number into my head.

“Welcome home, 109972. This was given with the best intentions to help you with your complications,” she said and injected me with a syringe. I woke up to Clarence leaning over me.

“Did they give you your first shot?” He asked.

I nodded and he laughed. My roommate walked over to me.

“I bet you feel real good, killer. Now the nurses have the nerve to tell you how to feel. They’ll keep you sedated while they medicate your brain. You’ll slowly go insane, killer.”

Clarence slipped back into the room. “They’ll tell ya it was given with the best intentions to help you with your complications.”

They laughed and left me alone. A little while later, a nurse gave me another shot and took me off the gurney. I walked over to the group my roommate was in.

“I need to get out of here,” I told him.

“There’s no one to call, killer and everybody to fear.” He chuckled. “Your tragic fate is looking so clear. It’s you fucking nightmare.” I dragged my nails down the bars of my windows. I had to fight not to fail and end up like the others here. The medications they gave us were practically killing us. Every time they injected us, we died over and over again, drenched in our sin. And it was clear from Clarence and my roommate we had no respect for another.
A scream tore through my throat as I pulled on the bars.

“Your pain is what they desire,” my roommate said, “Do you hear the voices calling from above?”

I shook my head and sat down.

“Look, I know it may all seem real, but our life’s made up of choices, killer. You made yours. So tell me how you got here.”

I laughed evilly. “I’m here for you. They took your soul for granted, and it’s mine now to steal.”

His eyes widened. “What?”

“You’re the killer, not me. Your nightmare’s come to life,” I said.

He screamed, loudly. Isiah screamed again. He told me a few days ago that he was new here. This happened every few months with him. He would create another person and tell the doctor he wasn’t insane.

I guess he didn’t remember that he killed twelve people. Isiah wasn’t a good man.

I poked my head into his room. His whiskey-colored eyes met mine.

“Clarence! Look at him!” He pointed at any empty space in his room. “He has horns coming from his head. My roommate is trying to steal my soul.”

I shook my head. “Your tragic fate is looking so clear,” I said with a small laugh. They were definitely going to give him a lobotomy. “It’s your fucking nightmare, Isiah.”

Notes

I don't actually know what this one is.