Another Chuck Wendig weekly challenge. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/06/28/flash-fiction-challenge-down-the-tv-tropes-rabbit-hole/ This time was to go to Tvtropes.org hit random and go from there. I got Powers Via Possession. Normally, the person chooses this road and gets control. I decided to go a different route. Anyway, super fun to write.



Grey Eye Suicide

A powerful force lifted my eyes as I fought to keep them shut. “Leave me alone.” My strength always failed, eventually. My body was no longer my own. I stood up and walked over to the window. The spirit curled my first up punching the window. The sharp crack echoed the pain. It gripped a shard of glass and sliced it across my wrist. It let out a howl to my throat before fleeing.

I dropped to the ground with a wheeze. I knocked my phone off the night stand. One hand wrapped around the injury, and the other punched in 911 leaving the numbers stained crimson. The line rang once before a soothing feminine voice answered. “911, what is the nature of your emergency?”

As stupid as it was I laughed. What if I told the nice operator lady the true nature of my emergency? I wonder how she would react. “I cut my wrist.”

There was a long pause. “Sir, did you try to harm yourself?”

“No, I lost my temper and punched my window, but it’s bleeding badly.” The blood pumped out of my wrist flowing around my fingers. I knew I might die. But, I no longer could summon up the willpower to panic.

“Do you have something you can tie around your upper arm to slow down the blood loss?” Her tone as calm as mine. I could feel her suspicion and doubt behind it.

I pulled my medical kit from under the bed. I let go of my arm long enough to tie a tourniquet around my bicep. I watched the blood become a slow stream. I yanked out a pack of gaze pressing it against my flesh.

“Sir, are you there?” A touch of worry caused her voice to rise.

I debated on whether or not I should answer. My wrist looked as if I did try to kill myself. One time in psych ward was enough. No, the injury was terrible enough I knew I needed a real doctor. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“Has the bleeding slowed, sir?”

“A bit.” A presence swirled around me. “I’m going to walk around, I’m feeling tired.” Using my elbows against the side of the bed I pushed myself up.

“Sir, you should stay here and talk.” An insistent patience filled her tone.

“I’ll be fine.” I stepped into the bathroom in my tiny apartment, and shut the door. The being swirled behind me a face barely visible in the glass.

“Mercer, do you see me?” Crackling with static the voice bored into my mind.

“I see you, smell you, and feel you. What do you want from me?” My face seemed so pale, bleached of my warm summer tan. I hated all of them.

A slithering hiss as he wrapped around me. “I’ve sent my friends to show you that I am powerful. Are you afraid, Mercer?”

I didn’t have to think about it. “Fuck you.”

It chuckled again blurring my vision with its wispy form. “I need your help. Don’t you help lost spirits, Grey Eye?”

“Would you go screw yourself already?” I started to feel antsy the paramedics would be here soon, and I didn’t want to be caught talking to myself.

“Help me and I’ll free you from being a Grey Eye. No more spirits, no more being bothered. You could be free of all your obligations, and all your worries. A normal life.” The creature murmured into my ear.

“Said the devil.” I retorted. A demon, it could be only a demon. “I don’t deal with demons.” They loved to corrupt Grey Eyes.

“You might die, or be locked away. Doesn’t that scare you, little Grey Eye?” It sputtered around me. I heard the knock at the door.

I tumbled out the bathroom and swung the door open. The paramedics grabbed me and examined my arm. “You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

I scanned the blood all over my apartment. I was afraid I had to agree. “Yeah.”

They pushed me in my chair and started to pull off my slapped together bandages. They shared a look. Their thoughts written all over their face. “We’ll have to take to the hospital.”

“I didn’t try to kill myself.” I let out a long breath. “I know what it looks like. But, I didn’t.”

They both gave me sage nods before helping me up. They didn’t believe. Once we were in the ambulance one started to stitch up my wound as we chugged along the street.

“Why’d you do it?” There was no blame in his voice.

I let out a snort. “I didn’t.”

“Is that the truth?” His dark eyes held disbelief and pity.

My head tilted at him. “The truth,” I let the words linger. “The truth is harder to believe than I’m simply a depressed man who slit his wrist.”

The guy’s eyes widened. “And, what’s so crazy about it?”

“What if I told you I was a Grey Eye, a person who is controlled, and manipulated by spirits and otherworldly beings against my will? Sometimes they take over my body and act our their desires. And, one of them slit my wrist.” A bubble of hysteria leaked out in a laugh. “You see that’s insanity. I barely believe it myself.”

He went still. “My grandmother was a Grey Eye.” His voice so quiet I almost missed his words.

“Are you serious?” Most Grey Eyes never got involved with others.

He nodded. “She got married before it manifested. She wrote a memoir about it. She used to meet with other Grey Eyes. They used to help. Don’t you meet with others?”

“Hell no, they want to help the spirits. I don’t care about them. I want to be free. Freedom, Freedom, Freedom!” I shouted sensing some of them swirling around me. My rage scared them off as they skittered to the away.

“How do you get free?”

“When you die, and I’m not ready.”