Box of Madness…

Colin woke to absolute and complete darkness. It was a darkness more intense than he’d ever known. “What time is it?” he mumbled to himself. He reached for the familiar lamp switch by his bed and found that he could only raise his hand a few inches before it struck something cushiony yet solid. Disoriented, he quickly sat up only to bump his head into the same thing whatever it was. “What the…?” he exclaimed. His voice sounded very loud and near. The air seemed stuffy. He felt so weak.

He began to panic, pushing and kicking in every direction. “Heeelllppp!” he screamed over and over beating at his surroundings. Out of breath, he finally stopped for a moment and thoughts raced through his mind. “What is this…? Where am I?” he said to no one. He tried hard to remember how he’d gotten here. Maybe it was just a dream. He pinched himself. I must be awake, he thought.

His last memory was of leaving the office. He’d had to work over for Mr. Price who’d left him with a pile of files to complete and leave on his desk. In the parking garage it had been very quiet. He remembered how his shoes sounded on the concrete floor…echoing. “Yes…!,” he remembered a homeless man crouching between some cars.

The homeless guy had rushed at him like a locomotive. He remembered how the man had screamed as he attacked, like an animal of some kind. The hands…they’d been so strong. He hadn’t looked strong but the grip had been like a vise and he remembered it clawing, tearing at him. Colin had fallen to the garage floor as the man bent over him. It was all a kind of blur. He must have blacked out.

Colin thought about his wife, his home. Jane would be worried, he needed to call her. If he could just get outside of this box or whatever it was!

Breathing a little slower now, Colin ran his fingers over his surroundings, trying to let his fingers reveal some clue. It was well-padded inside and smelt like new material. “Hmmm….maybe silk or satin, something like that,” he reasoned out loud. Why had the man put him in a box? What was this all about? It just didn’t seem to make any sense.

If only he had some kind of tool, maybe he could find a way to pry his way out. Colin checked his pockets. He didn’t recognize it at first but he soon realized that he was wearing his best suit. This was only getting stranger and stranger!

In his vest pocket was a book of matches he’d picked up when he’d paid the check at Bruncher’s last Saturday. With a feeling of relief, he tore one of the matches loose and struck it on the cover. The flame was very bright after the total darkness he’d endured. His assessment had been pretty accurate. He was indeed enclosed in a box of some kind that was padded with satin. It was insane! He continued to wonder about the strange box until the match burned his fingers. He quickly blew it out. Colin felt helpless and bewildered. He strained his mind trying to understand the nightmare.

“Hmmm…,” he thought aloud. Maybe he could find a latch or something if he tore the satin loose. He began to rip at the fabric. It came away easily enough but behind it lay solid wood…another mystery! He lit another match. Looking about the box, a sinking feeling began to creep at the edges of his mind. There was only one box that he knew of that was built in such a fashion. “Oh, my God!! It can’t be true. I’m in a coffin!” screamed Colin. He dropped the match as he beat his fists against the wood. The match fell into the soft material by his side and it began to burn.

“Fire!” screamed Colin as he began to thrash again. The right sleeve of his suit coat had caught fire along with the satin. He beat it out and fell immediately into the heavy darkness again. The acrid smell of smoke filled the coffin. He began to cough and held his suit coat over his mouth and nose to breathe. He passed out.

Slowly regaining consciousness, he was startled to find himself still in the box. “Help!..help! Somebody please…help me!” he shouted and banged against the wood. He listened intently to see if there was any responding sound but it was just silent, deathly silent. The box must be stored in a warehouse or some isolated place. How long had he been here, he wondered…and why…WHY?

He felt for his wallet, it was gone. “Rotten S.O.B.!! Stole my wallet!” he shouted angrily. There were no car keys in his pocket either. Visions of the homeless man driving his new car and spending his money made his temper boil over. “Let me out! Let me out! Damn you…let me out!” he yelled.

He finally spent his rage and just lay there wondering when or even if he’d have an opportunity to escape. At least there was enough air to breathe. He’d been lucky not to burn up. Thank heavens there was still enough air to breathe. Heaven?…Heaven! With a pained but penitent look on his face he said, “Please, please Lord…I’m sorry for whatever I’m done to deserve this. I’ll do anything…anything, if you’ll just help me out of this! I’ll never sleep with my wife’s sister again!…I’ll give more to the homeless!…I’ll be a better person…but please, please help me.”

In the absence of any immediate divine assistance, he stopped praying and after a while just lay there. He realized he was getting hungry. He laughed to himself. No matter what kind of crazy predicament you found yourself in, the body sooner or later would remind you it was dinner time. At least he did feel somewhat stronger.

Boredom finally lulled him into a very deep sleep. He dreamt of being a wolf running through a giant forest. To his surprise, the homeless man was also transformed into a wolf and ran beside him. The man turned his wolf head toward Colin as they ran. He didn’t see the wolf’s mouth move but he heard him distinctly somehow say…“the thrill of the hunt…!”

They closed on their prey quickly and it turned out to be a young woman with long dark hair. She stumbled and fell before them. The homeless man lunged for her neck and took it between his huge fanged jaws. Blood spurted and ran down her breasts. The homeless man shook her savagely as he tore the wound wider. The hunger was incredibly intense. It seemed mad but the blood called to him. He found himself licking at the blood, tearing at her breast. The sensation was of heaven and hell!

He awoke with a start. Nothing had changed. He was still the coffin’s prisoner. Remembering to search his other pockets, he found a nail clipper. Opening it quickly, he began to scrape against the wood with it. It was slow going but a small hole began to form. Repositioning it in his other hand, he was startled to find that his nails had grown an inch. “Nails?” he muttered to himself…”they’re more like talons!”

With a surge of inhuman strength, Colin began to tear at the wood with his nails. The wood splintered easily. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I like it,” he said to himself. His new strength was astounding! As the wood gave way, dirt began to fall into the coffin. “Dirt!! The lousy b------!! He’s buried me alive!” Clawing and digging with all his might, he began to ascend up and up through the mounds of dirt pushing down on him. It felt like a ton of earth had been poured on top of him.

His left hand broke the surface soon followed by his head. Spitting dirt out of his mouth, he took long breaths of air. How the air inside the coffin had lasted long enough to allow him to escape he didn’t know but he thanked his lucky stars that it did. Forcing the rest of the dirt away, he scrambled on top of the grave and looked around. His vision was keener than he’d ever known. Apparently it was nighttime but he could see almost as if it were day.

He was in a graveyard. Colin picked himself up and dusted away soil that clung to his clothes. “A graveyard!” he exclaimed, “…a graveyard?” he said in a softer tone. He looked at the headstone. His name, date of birth, and date of demise was carefully etched on the brand new stone. ‘Loving husband and father’ was written under the dates with an angel in flight pictured to one side.

“Dead? I’m not dead,” he said to the stone. He stood for a moment and scratched his head. “Dead….hmmm.” He felt for his pulse. There was none. He tried the other arm…still no pulse! “What…what is this?” he demanded. There was no one to answer.

Colin walked quickly through the cemetery until he reached the street. He felt ravenously hungry! “Feel like I haven’t eaten in days!” he remarked. The bright lights of an oncoming car broke the darkness. He walked into the street and began to wave his arms. As the car stopped, he could see that it was a young woman driving. “Hello, miss! I’ve had a kind of an accident and I need to get to a phone right away,” he pleaded.

Offering assistance to Colin was the last act of charity the woman would ever do. His hunger surpassed the boiling point as he rode away with her. It was totally beyond his control. He never even knew when he’d begun to feed upon her. When his feeding frenzy slowed enough for him to think, they were stopped on a quiet side road. He was revolted by what he found.

He pulled his bloody lips from a savage wound at the woman’s neck. Her heart had stopped beating. Eyes glazed over, she just sat there as if staring at the liner in roof of the car. Blood had dripped all over her pretty lace blouse running into a small pool in her lap. It was so horrible that Colin began to scream as he realized he was the attacker. “No…no…no…! It couldn’t have been me…! I didn’t mean to…”

Exiting the car with the speed only a vampire could do, he ran into the night like a speeding bullet. “Vampire!!!” he screamed as he went. “God…no! Please not me…please!!”