The Prison of Guilt : A Echoing Nightmare

The Prison of Guilt : A Echoing Nightmare

He awoke and reluctantly stumbled out of bed, all the while knowing that once he did, they would start again. He walked to the sink to brush his teeth, then ran a comb through his hair, preparing for the gates to open so as for him and his fellow inmates to be allowed to get their breakfast. Suddenly a loud buzz resonated throughout the prison, and all cell doors swung open. It seemed as though his walking nightmare was taking a vacation today, until he began to hear them again – the voices which had haunted him since his arrival in this, as the prisoners had so eloquently named it, “hell hole”.

The ghosts of his past were relentless in their haunting, appearing when he least expected, he could catch them in his peripheral vision and hear them whispering and weeping in his ear. These four phantoms, the lives he had ended, the drunken mistake that ruined everything, when his car crashed into theirs on that fateful night, which he wanted nothing more than to forget. Three innocent children and they're loving grandfather – all lost forever more because of his recklessness.

His day went on rather normally, as it had for the last 364 days. After dinner he returned to his cell and as he lay on his bed the visions became more vivid. The more he saw them the more the memories of the grief stricken parents faces in the courtroom flooded back to him. He had caused this agony that would last them for the rest of their lives. His demons became a constant reminder of the consequences of that one decision that changed his life for the worst. He tried to rid himself of the guilt and suffering by focusing on his surroundings, the clinking of metal,  the distant echoes of footsteps, and the muffled conversations in the distance. But it was no use for the ghosts were relentless, and had begun not only invading his thoughts but also his dreams turning each and every one of his nights into a endless string of nightmares. Each night forcing him to relive that tragic evening in his sleep but from their point of view to make him suffer as they did.

The following day, while the man sat in the cold dark prison the apparitions grew more real, almost as if he would be able to reach out and touch them. He tried and tried to fall asleep but nothing could be done, this night of all the ghosts wanted nothing more than to make him suffer as it was after all the anniversary of their deaths.

Flashbacks of that horrid night played in the prisoner's mind like a film on repeat. The memories became increasingly vivid, him sitting in his car drunk and disoriented with a blurred vision, driving over a grass hill and then through a stop sign, and colliding at full speed with the side of the van carrying those innocent lives. The ghosts began to materialize around him, the loudest silent cries ever heard echoing through the walls of his cell. He began to feel extremely overwhelmed with the guilt, the remorse, he began to slowly lose his grip on reality. It had become too much for him to bear and he was consumed by the cries.

He couldn't take it any longer, closed his eyes, plugged his ears, and began to scream at the ghosts, “STOP, STOP, FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD STOP!!!”. And at that very moment, as if those words were the key to a spell, his surroundings we're transformed. With his eyes still shut, unable to see what was taking place around him, the world around him shifted and suddenly, he was back in his car on that fateful night. He was back to that decisive moment, the moment in which he chose to put his key in the ignition. He opened his eyes and stared at the keys in his hand. At that moment it hit him like a ton of bricks. Brought back to his past, he made a different choice than he had before, this time he made the right choice. He opened the car door, stepped out of the car, left the keys and called a cab to take him home. The night took place vastly differently, and the crash that had ended the lives of those four innocent people and ruined the lives of many more was no longer a reality but a nightmare. He stood there, on the empty road, the echoes of his screams and those of the ghosts began to fade away until they were gone. The weight, the crushing weight of guilt that had plagued him for so long was now lifted and the spirits had vanished in the dark of the night.