Rectified

A Short Story by Adam Sill

The man shouted as loud as he could as he stood in the center of the dark black bedroom. He slammed his head against his desk. He drove his fist into the wall tearing a chunk out. He grabbed his computer and hurled it across the room. He flipped his bed upside down and threw his favorite chair out the window. He fell to his knees with his face drenched with tears. He wiped the tears away on his black robe. But this simple scratched his eye and caused more pain.

“I can’t do this any more!” he yelled. His voice was weak and he sounded distraught. “Please just leave me alone!”

Then the man spoke again. However this time his voice was firm and hoarse. It sounded as if a different man was speaking. The voice said, “If I leave you alone, you will have nothing. You have destroyed all that you have. You are alone in this world. No one loves you. I will leave when you end It.”

“P-please!” The man said in his normal voice, “I don’t want to. I didn’t mean to!”

“It’s too late!” said the voice, “You are in this mess. It is entirely your fault! You can try to blame me, but you know deep down that you did this! You know how to end this! Just do it!”

The man ran out of the room he had just destroyed into another room. This room was painted red and in the center of the room was a desk with a knife laying on top of it. The man grabbed the knife and held the tip to his chest. He screamed as he thought of all the mistakes he had made. Could this really end his suffering? It seemed so simple. Just a moment of pain and he would be happy again. But it wasn’t right. He knew it wasn’t right. He knew that this would merely add to his list of mistakes. He knew that there was no real way out of this struggle. So this would have to do. He prepared himself. He raised the knife, ready to stab when he heard a shatter.

“What was that?” he said

“Nothing!” the voice said, “It’s just a distraction! Now get on with it!”

“No.” the man said, “It came from the room down the hall.” The room he was speaking of was a blue room at the very end of his hallway. It was the only room he had not entered. He looked at the knife and dropped it to the ground. He exited the red room and walked down the hallway. He approached the door, and stared at it. He did not know why this room was so inviting, but just being in the presence of it gave him a warm feeling he had never felt. He pushed open the door to see a beautifully painted blue room. It had a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe filled with white robes. On the desk was a piece of parchment and a quill. In the center of the room on the floor, was a lamp. It looked as if it had fallen off the desk and shattered into pieces. He sat down on the ground, and began to reassemble the lamp. It took quite a long time, but he felt that he might as well occupy his time with something productive.

He finished repairing the lamp, so he picked it up and set it on the desk. He lit the lamp so that it would light up the room. He sat down in a chair beside the desk, picked up the quill and began writing on the parchment. He wrote about his life, and all of the mistakes he had made. He felt a great weight lifted off of him as he wrote. He continued writing for hours, until he had written his entire life out on the parchment. He stood up and walked over to the wardrobe. He removed the black robe and threw it on the floor. He then pulled from the wardrobe one of the white robes and flung it over himself. It was softer than the black robe, and he enjoyed wearing it more than the other robe. Then the man walked over to the bed and laid down. He had a long day and he was very tired. He closed his eyes and went to sleep.