This is a fictional piece of work submitted to The Fulcrum Newspaper for the SUNY Spooky Short Story Contest, written by contest winner Tyler Rizzo.
The Bloody Eyed Incident
You wake up, taking a deep breath as you come to in the middle of a hallway. You look around, recognizing it to be the dorm hallway. You feel something on your face and reach up to feel what it is. ‘A gasmask?’ You are confused how you have a gasmask but something inside you says to keep it on. After taking a few moments to collect yourself and trying but failing to remember what happened, you get up to your feet, still a little dazed.
You definitely aren’t on your floor but that’s not your biggest concern….where is everybody? You walk down the hallway, failing to find any sign of human life when you look out the window in the common room and what you see causes you to freeze. Burning cars all around the parking lot and blood everywhere but no bodies, just blood. You realize you need to get out of here and try the elevator, anxiously waiting for it to arrive but once the door opens you nearly throw up from what you see. Blood covering every inch of the elevator from floor to the celling. You decide to take your chances with the stairs and open the door to start going but you are stopped by a figure in the doorway.
Standing in front of you is a man in a well-dressed suit with dark red hair like the color of dried blood. But that’s not what causes you to freeze up in terror, no what stops you are his eyes, the whites of his eyes a pitch-black darkness with irises red like crimson. He grins at you, his teeth sharp to a point. Your every instinct tells you to run but all you can do is stand there, frozen in fear as this creature walks towards you. “And I thought there was no one left here…My name is Nox, and I have come to set you all free.” he speaks in a low whisper as he slowly circles you, frowning as he looks at the gasmask. “Now now…you don’t need that silly thing. Let me get that off and show you true freedom. The freedom in madness.”
You try to pull away, but the creature is quicker than you and rips the gasmask off your face. You try to cover your mouth and nose as you stumble back away from him, watching in horror as smoke begin to emit from his body. “Take a deep breath. It’ll all be over soon.” The smoke then rushes towards you, seeping in between your fingers, into your nose and mouth, you try to desperately keep it out but to no avail. Then without even thinking you get up, no longer covering your face and look at Nox, who is grinning once more. “Perfect, take a look at yourself.” You turn towards the window, seeing the faint reflection of yourself. You look mostly the same except for your eyes, the color of your eyes has changed from their natural hue to a crimson red. You then begin to laugh, the laughter becoming more crazed and maniacal by the second. You are now free.
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