Outpatient - A Story of Horror and Madness by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 13

Catherine had been walking the highway for two hours during the storm's torrential downpour. She was cold and exhausted but still confused by the whispering of gibberish that occasionally crept into her mind. She would sometimes stop and strike the sides of her head with the palms of her hands in an attempt to exorcize the voices that made her feel as though she had somehow been violated.

“Get out!” she screamed. “Leave me the fuck alone!”

When she had a bit of energy, she would quicken her step to a jog, still glancing behind her as though running from some terrifying beast bent on consuming her.

The power of the storm that seemed to swallow up the entire valley was now in full force. In Farmington, a transformer was struck by lightning, sending all of Carrabassett Valley into darkness. And when the lights lining Route 27 suddenly went black, Catherine became frozen in t her tracks, her feet fixed in place of the fear of those things that she was unable to see. Now, the landscape became a very different place, as it lay before her a silent zoo of creatures that lived only in the blackened shadows of her fractured mind.

Startled by the imposing silence, broken only by the occasional clap of thunder, Catherine once again resumed her rapid pace down the highway. She tried not to look around at the woods for fear of being confronted by something she could not overpower. The trees that lined the highway illuminated by the intermittent flash of lightning created brief, disfigured shadows among the tall stands of pine. Through Catherine's disorganized perception, the shadows took on lives of their own, moving with the wind as though peering out at her from behind the trees. Their silent stalking only compounded her already paranoid state, leading her to believe that there was now nowhere to hide. But, in the distance lay her salvation, as Catherine saw the town of Bigelow, but only by way of the headlights of a few cars that glimmered dimly through the rain.

But, the blackness of a countryside without power still blanketed the valley and continued to terrorize Catherine with its taunting silence of the unseen. She didn't realize that she was within 3 miles of Stratton Pond Road, as the rain and darkness twisted not only her perception of the woods but also time. Every step felt like and startled by the occasional clap of thunder, Catherine once again resumed her rapid pace down the highway. She tried not to look around at the woods for fear of being confronted by something she could not overpower. The trees that lined the highway illuminated by the intermittent flash of lightning created brief, disfigured shadows among the tall stands of pine. Through Catherine's disorganized perception, the shadows took on lives of their own, moving with the wind as though peering out at her from behind the trees. Their silent stalking only compounded her already paranoid state, leading her to believe that there was now nowhere to hide. But, in the distance lay her salvation, as Catherine saw the town of Bigelow, but only by way of the headlights of a few cars that glimmered dimly through the rain.

But, the blackness of the countryside without power still blanketed the valley and continued to terrorize Catherine with its taunting silence of the unseen. She didn't realize that she was only within 3 miles of Stratton Pond Road, as the rain and darkness twisted not only her perception of the woods, but also time, and that every step felt like an eternity.

Catherine fixed her eyes on the road directly ahead of her feet as she walked. The highway no longer lay shrouded in the rising steam of the rain's initial onslaught but was covered with the constant spattering of drops falling from an angry sky on the way to their inevitable end. At first, she had the small benefit of feeling the slight summer warmth as it glowed from the miles of highway that would lead her home. But, with the arrival of the night's rising moon that peaked out from between the clouds, Catherine felt the already firm grip of damp cold tightening its coils around her. Yet, she continued, driven not just by fear and delusion, but by desperation and a need to survive.

Her body had stopped shivering, leaving her with a staggering gait resembling that of the walking dead. The valley remained unlit and gave Catherine the overwhelming feeling of being truly isolated and somewhat lost. But, she quickly made her way to the entrance of Stratton Pond road, in spite of the cold stiffness that clenched down on every muscle of her body. Once there, she could make out the faint image of her cabin as though it had been placed there by God, acting as a beacon in the night.