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Charlie woke to the sensation of falling. There was no ground beneath him—only darkness and the distant echo of something screaming. Then his eyes opened. A small room surrounded him. Padded walls. A door without a handle on the inside. For several seconds, he couldn't remember where he was or how he got there.
His head felt heavy, drugged. He tried putting his hand to his forehead but couldn't. It appeared that he was trapped inside a straitjacket. Charlie began to panic. As his breathing started to increase, he couldn't tell what this sudden fear he felt was from. Could it be the cocktail of drugs he was forced to consume or something far worse, a guilty conscience?
A woman was standing over him. She was slender and middle-aged, although her youthful face made it difficult to guess her exact age. Her medical scrubs, at the very least, were able to reduce some of the anxiety Charlie was feeling.
"Where am I?"
"Oxleas House." Charlie stared at her. "That's a funny farm, isn't it?" "We prefer the term mental health unit." Charlie wiggles himself around, using all the strength he could muster to prop his back onto the padded wall. "Let me help you". "I can do it myself. Lord knows what you might do to me next".
"We are here to help you, Charlie". "I shouldn't be here." "I need to get out of here." The woman remained composed as she methodically walked over to him. "Don't get yourself all worked up. After all, that's how you ended up in this room". "No. You don't understand." His voice cracked. "I need to check on my sister..."
The nurse bends down to his level. He catches the outline of her snatch. In any other situation, this would have excited his carnal desires. There was a numbness that he couldn't quite shake. These must have been some pretty heavy drugs, much stronger than any that he might partake in on the weekends with his friends.
"You experienced an episode last night. Can you remember what happened?" A piercing sound tore through his memory. This sound was like the kind you would find if a television couldn't find a signal. It was harsh on the ears. Whilst it was unpleasant, at least it stopped the ringing in Charlie's ears. He had tinnitus and had had it for much of his life.
He could never quite figure out whether this was hereditary or due to the loud metal music he would consume after another long shift at the warehouse. At least he thought he wasn't like Abi, who was born deaf. Charlie nevertheless winced. Then he remembered. "My sister?"
The woman paused. "Where is she?" "I guess you don't remember what happened to her." Charlie stared at her, waiting for the penny to drop. "Abi was murdered in Cator Park a few nights ago."
For a moment, the words meant nothing. Then the room seemed to tilt. "What?" He pulled violently against the restraints. "Let me out of this thing! I need to see her." "I'm afraid you can't leave."
"You have no right to keep me here." "You've been sectioned here for your safety. The shock of losing your sister like that... It's understandable why your mind broke."
"Don't try to psychoanalyze me."
The woman sighed. "Charlie, if you don't calm down, one of my staff will have to sedate you again." "If you don't let me out of this thing, I swear to god I will bite your fucking nose or ear off." The door then opened. Two heavyset male nurses entered. One carried a syringe.
Charlie glared at them. "Yeah. That's it. Come on, then. Give me your best shot." "That's where you are wrong, Charlie. You voluntarily checked yourself in," the doctor said. Charlie went through confusion and anger but couldn't pick what to feel. "You were responsible enough to realize you needed help."
"Bullshit. You did this to me." The nurses seized him. "Get off me, you cunts! I need to see Abi!" The needle entered his skin.
Darkness swallowed him.
Several nights earlier, Abi had walked through Cator Park beneath the autumn sky. She was young, dressed for an evening out, ear warmers covering her ears. The tattoo across her bare back—a Jorōgumo, a legendary folklore spider-woman from the land of the rising sun. It could be partially seen in her black dress, which exposed the alluring woman who carried eight legs.
As she walked with purpose to a house party of Kat's, who recently moved from Brighton to the big smoke, she appeared oblivious to the footsteps behind her. The man followed at a distance. He watched her as he waited for the perfect moment to strike. A broken bottle scraped beneath his shoe. Abi stopped. She glanced at her phone as she noticed her brother was calling. She let out an audible sigh as she forwarded his calls to voicemail.
As she looks up from her device, a sheet of clear plastic wraps around her face. Abi is thrown face first onto the ground. Her phone struck the ground with some force. Its display shattered into thousands of pieces.
The man held her down. Abi fought desperately, but he was so much stronger that she was unable to stop his savage onslaught. Her breathing became frantic. She tried to let out cries for her, but they were masked by the passing cars outside the park. Then came the blows. At first they were his fists. Then he pulled out a rusty hammer. It connected with her skull with some force that it cracked.
When the man finally walked away, he did so without looking back. The cars on the outside of the park had dissipated as an eerie quiet went over the park. Abi lay motionless on the cold pavement. Her phone began to vibrate beside her.
At her parents' house, Charlie held his phone to his ear. Nothing. He lowered it. "Still nothing." Sally was Abi's and Charlie's mother. As she watched him, Charlie continued to get no answer. Sally found herself increasingly irritated by this development. "Why must you always upset her before she goes out?"
"I only offered to give her a lift." "But you should know how she is. She likes her independence." Charlie looked away for a second. Out of guilt or as a means to collect his racing thoughts.
"Yeah. Don't I know it." Sally frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?" "I've had it all my life. I could hear the murmurs from people as we walked past. I've had to hear all kinds of abhorrent shit because of the way she is"
He hesitated for a sec. Then the rage came. "Why couldn't I have had a normal sister instead of a spastic that can't fucking talk? I don't know what's worse, having a mute for a sister or a mother with a broken vagina?" The slap came before he finished speaking.
Sally stared at him in disbelief. "How can you say that?" "I'm just saying, it doesn't make sense. I came out completely fine." "Is that so? I think you need to have a look in the mirror at who the problem is in this family". She looked as though she no longer recognized her son. "If she is such a burden to you, once you find her, you can find somewhere new to live."
She turned away and walked towards the front door of the house. "Where are you going?" "Out to find her, something you should have done ten minutes ago." "I'll take you." "I want nothing from you. After tonight, we are done"
"I'm sorry me and Abi are such a burden to your existence." Sally slammed the door. "Come on. You know I didn't mean anything by it." Silence settled over the house. Charlie stood alone. Then he heard something. A soft, almost imperceptible movement behind him. He turned. A tiny spider was crawling across a photograph of him and Abbey graduating from university.
Charlie stared at it. The spider crawled across the glass. His fist smashed through the photograph. The spider disappeared beneath his knuckles. "Fuck". The blood started to appear almost immediately from his knuckles. Charlie felt anger coursing through him. He chose to forgo a plaster or bandage for his hand. He reached for his car keys instead and hurried out of the home that was no longer his.