Every step was painful… and wet. I had managed to remove most of the shards of glass but without tools, it wasn’t possible to remove all of them. I had tried. Damn, I had tried. But in the end, I gave up. The process of trying to remove the remaining shards of glass stuck in the soles of my feet just ended up in more pain for nothing. I knew he was here somewhere. We had separated some time ago. After we came across a path that split into two. Little did we know the amount of broken glass that would be littered all over the floors as we walked, barefoot, trying to find some sort of exit.
None of us remember how we got here. We just woke up in a room and after some wandering, we had found each other and decided that it was better sticking together. Nothing really bad had happened. Well, except for the fact that we didn’t know where we were and how we got there. We were also, weirdly enough, dressed in something that resembled scrubs from a hospital and had no shoes or socks to cover our feet. It wasn’t bad. The hard floors were cold but nothing we couldn’t handle by moving around. That’s until after we had split up. I don’t really remember where it went wrong but somehow I found myself trying to walk through shards of glass that was covering the floor. I tried scooting them in front of my feet so that I wouldn’t end up stepping on them. It worked, but not as good as I had hoped. Pain still seared into my body every time I felt a shard pierce my soles. I decided not to remove them there. Mostly because there wasn’t anywhere to sit and I really didn’t want to get shards of glass into any other part of my body.
The corridor I had walked through for what felt like hours, suddenly turn to something like a pipe. It felt like I was walking through a large pipe. There were no more lights in the ceiling but the shards were still there, covering the floor as I slowly walked forward. I don’t know why I just didn’t turn back and looked for my friend. At least see if his path was as sharp as mine turned out to be. But for some reason, I just kept moving forward. I kept scooting my feet across the floor to remove the shards as best as I could. Each searing pain reminding me of the ones already stuck to my feet, or new ones that wanted to share in my torment. At least my feet were now warm. I knew why, but I didn’t want to think about it in any more detail. I wanted to act dumb. Like I didn’t know about the blood.
My eyes had gotten used to the darkness by now. It was still incredibly dark and even if I could, I would never be able to move any faster than my current speed in this darkness. Suddenly. I think I must have turned a corner because there was light. It wasn’t bright or anything. Mostly because it was so incredibly far away, but I could definitely see light at the end of the tunnel. I had to laugh at myself and also keep myself from running. The floor was still covered in shards of glass in varying sizes and I wanted to keep as many of them out of my feet as possible. I also didn’t want to fall. The floor became increasingly slippery as my feet kept bleeding. Nothing I could judge them for. I had just spent, I don’t know how long, walking through shards of glass. I didn’t even want to think of how many were actually stuck in them by now. Each step was painful, but the light gave me hope. It gave me hope that the glass might end. That my friend might be there. That I might get answers to why I was even in this place, to begin with.
I reached my hand forward to grab the edge of the pipe. What I saw in front of me was a regular room. It reminded me, somewhat, of a classroom, but without the blackboard and all the seats. One thing I did see was that the floor didn’t have the shards of glass. There was no more glass! I looked down. My happiness was short-lived. The pipe structure I was standing in that came out like some sort of dark hole in the wall, was a meter or two above the “new” floor. Right below, the floor was covered in shards of glass. More than before. I couldn’t jump and try to avoid it all. Just thinking about landing on my feet made my body quiver in pain. I had to try and reach the floor, as slowly as possible, and push away as much glass as I could. I was thinking if I should remove the shards that were already stuck in my feet, but I pushed that thought away. I was hoping there were enough shards that new ones couldn’t reach my soles. Like shoes made of glass, but nothing as fancy.
I pushed the shards of glass away from the edge of the pipe so I had somewhere to sit. I slowly sat down, still feeling small shards that I had missed get through my clothes and into my skin. I had to focus. I tried reaching the floor with my toes. I had to get closer. I tried getting lower. I didn’t want to hang there but I didn’t really have a choice. Even though my fingers were the only thing holding me to the pipe, my feet still couldn’t reach the floor. Damn. That my height had to be an issue in a time like this. I lost my grip on the pipe. I panicked for what felt like minutes but were surely only a second or so. That is before I felt the searing pain of new and old pieces of glass penetrating the soles of my feet. Tears started to stream down my face. I had to move. I told myself I had to move. Each step was more painful than ever but finally, I reached the edge of the glass and made it on to clean floor. Clean as in no more glass. I didn’t care about anything else. I fell to my hands and knees and cried. I don’t know for how long but I just stayed there and cried. After getting some of my mind back together I sat down and looked at my feet. The blood. There was so much blood. I needed to remove the shards and wrap my feet up in some way.
Removing each shard from my feet was harder, and more painful than I remember it was stepping on them. My mind might be blocking that out, to be honest. The largest pieces were easiest to remove. Still incredibly painful, but easier. The smaller the shards got, the harder they were to remove, and also, see. I didn’t have any tools except my fingers and my nails were too short to get a good grip on the smaller shards. Damn it! That this had to be a time that I had actually trimmed my nails. After some time I gave up. I needed to find something to stop the bleeding. I stood up and almost slipped in my own blood. The world was spinning but I knew I had to move. And so, I did. I took a step, and then another. Each more painful than the last but I knew I had to move. It didn’t go quickly but I finally reached the door to this room and entered what looked like a kitchen. At least, it could probably be a kitchen if someone decided to. The floor was cold and I was suddenly reminded of how little clothes I had. The shirt and pants were thin. I don’t think the blood loss was helping the issue either. Right. I had to find some fabric. I slowly walked up to the next door I saw and opened it.
It was some sort of hallway. Another room that reminded me of a school. But I also saw something else, something that actually made me happy. My friend was sitting on the floor across the room. A similar pipe that I had emerged out of was over him and he was sitting on the floor in the glass. I didn’t say anything. At least, I don’t think I did. I walked as close as I could to him and got down on my knees. I looked around for something to push the glass away so I could get closer to him. Maybe he needed help. He hadn’t said anything yet. Maybe he didn’t know I was there. I found a piece of wood and started to push the shards away from me so I could get closer. It wasn’t perfect. I could still feel small specks of glass cut my skin but in this case, I didn’t care. I wasn’t alone. We weren’t alone. When I finally reached him I sat down next to him and looked him in the face. It was almost like he wasn’t there. He was just staring at nothing. I think I said something. He looked over at me, extremely slowly and almost fell. Almost? He said something.
“Do you like them?”
I didn’t understand. Until I really looked at him. He must’ve found a tool. Some sort of tool but what he did. His feet had holes through them. Large holes, like something, had shot them or drilled trough them, and metal bits were put into the holes. Then I noticed the reason he didn’t fall. In his stomach was a large metal.. thing. It looked like a large drill. It was stuck to a chain that was fastened to the wall in front of him. That’s why he didn’t fall back. He was basically stuck to the wall. I tried to scramble my brain into something and looked up. As soon as I looked up I was met with those eyes. I think I screamed. I don’t know how long I had looked at his “injuries” but he had died while I was. I think I cried. Yes, I did cry but I’m not sure if I cried because he was dead, or because I was once again alone. I tried to lay him down but because of the chain, I had to push him as close to the wall as possible. At least he wasn’t just hanging there anymore.
I crawled back the same way I came in. I think I cried. I looked around and saw a room to my left, close to where I had entered. The room had windows so I could see into it from here. I could see a screen. Like a computer screen or a tv. I pushed myself up on my feet again, trying to ignore the pain, and slowly walked up to the door and walked inside. The screen was larger than I had thought and there was a chair in front of it. So I did the only thing I could think of. I walked up to the chair and sat down and watched the screen. I don’t know what happened, or if the screen actually showed me anything. What I do know is that when I turned back to the way I came in, there was a man standing there. He wasn’t extremely tall, maybe no more than myself, and he had dark hair and brownish skin. He didn’t smile but he probably could’ve. It looked like he wanted to. He said something. I didn’t speak. I stood up and saw my friend through the window, still on the floor where I tried to lay him down. The man said something. He walked past me and took a seat on the chair I was just on. I still didn’t speak. Had I lost my ability to speak? No. It was still there.
I had a feeling. Tears swelling up, blurring my sight. Why didn’t anyone care? I tried so hard and still, no one notices. I was supposed to do something, but no one notices. Why do I care about you?