Corruption
                                          By Daniel Edwards

The evening sun shone done onto the beach, turning everything laying underneath into a smouldering pile of ash. The tide crept under my bare feet, roaring ferociously, a deranged beast anxious to cease me by the heel and drag me down into it’s dark, bottomless abyss.
I walked merrily along the shore, my companion by my side. He was dressed as he usually was, a black cloak was entwined around his frail  frame, a jet black bowler hat lay slanted on top of his head, blocking his face from view.
My parents had always told me that I was the only person that could see my companion. He started out like any other imaginary friend, we used play together all the time, his favourite game was hide and seek, but it got to the point  when the games started to frighten me. He’d take me places, show me things that made me want to tear my eyes out of their sockets. He was slowly driving me insane. I then started to realise that he was far beyond any normal imaginary friend. He was a real entity, squatting inside my mind. He felt everything that I felt. He could interpret my every thought. It was like he was spying on me, every second of every day.
The delicate shells that lay, scattered, among the beach were shattering under my uncovered feet, piercing my soles like miniature daggers. I left a small, bloody snail’s trail across the shore, which the sea eagerly lapped up in one quick swoop. Once it got a taste of my blood, it get kept returning eager for the coppery taste.
I crouched down to rest on the sand ridden beach and gazed at the clear blue sky. The late summers breeze caressed my cheeks as it drifted past, back towards the blazing sky. It whispered suggestively to the sun, whilst trying desperately  to jolt the seagulls out of the sky.
I lay down on the beach, the sand crunched under me in a hushed tone as I moved, it pinched my skin, and left me uncomfortable and made my skin feel raw.
My companion lay just a few centimetres away from me. He was closer than ever before. And I felt a little anxious because of it. His breath scalded my neck as it brushed past. I wanted to move. But I found myself welded to the sand. Why couldn’t I move? I tried to wail but no sound escaped my lips. I was paralyzed. I finally mustered enough strength to tilt my head to my side and gaze at my companion, the pain that followed was excruciating. I tried yet again to scream, but I failed miserably. I couldn’t even close my eyes, this cause them to water and they stung. Badly.
The figure behind me, I realised now that he wasn’t my companion, he never was, looked in unbearable anguish. The tiny fragment of visible face was wearing a mask of pain, and I was sure I saw tiny traces of tears trickling down to his chin, the sun must have also spotting them, as it’s rays caught them, only for a fraction of a second. The tears basked in the sun’s rays and for a brief moment of happiness, glimmered like liquid diamonds. The sun soon tired of the tears, however, and the liquidized diamonds faded back into the gloom of reality.
His muscles began to convulse, tiny dancers all moving to an imaginary rhythm.
As I stared in awe at the mysterious figure twitching precipitously in ever direction, I complete forgot about my paralyzed state and leaped to his side.
I heard a harsh tearing sound, and I rotated on my heels to gaze at the spot where I had resided mere seconds ago. I was wrong. I wasn’t paralyzed. I was somehow sewn to the bank. The skin that once covered my back had been torn off and was now resting on the sandy ground. Alongside a pool of blood that was still freely pouring out of the top of my back. I tried, for the third time, to scream, and I found that I could. I drop to the floor directly below the figures trembling feet, and wailed a blood-curdling wail. The sound shattered my eardrums and left my head feeling maltreated.
I turned my blood-painted head towards the figure. The  trembling had died down now, but every couple of seconds he would jolt forward like some deranged aerobics exercise. “W-what’s happening?” I sobbed, clinging to my knees to try and find at least a small amount of comfort. “W-what have you done?”
He just cackled manically, this combined with the occasional twitch made look even more unhinged than I did.
He looked at me, still cackling, he pointed to his head and starting to slowly spin his hand in a circle, only one finger pointing. He kept staring at me as he reached for the hat perched on his head. And raised it.

The world around me  began to tremor, like an earthquake had emerged and not only began agitating the earth, but the sky also. The colour began fade out of everything, the world merged into an empty shell. All of the life seeped out everything surrounding me. My head began aching again, and this time, I couldn’t take the pain. I felt like my head was splitting into tiny fragments. I started hearing voices, not in my head, but from someone towering above me. It was God. God was speaking to me.
“She’s fazed out again.” One voice boomed above me.
“Well hurry up! Inject her again.” The other voice barked back, this one was more sharper and impersonal than the other. It sent shivers down my exposed spine.
An invisible object pierced my skin. The world stumped trembling. The skin along my back had instantly re-grown, and I slowly fazed out of the world, the figure shortly followed.
                                               ***

I rejoined the real world. My head was still aching, though the pain was not as vivid as before. The room was all too familiar, and as soon as it was revealed to my eyes. The walls were covered with a soft, padded texture, which had the complete opposite effect on me than it was supposed to. Instead of making me feel safe and secure, it made me want to rip myself apart. I wanted to escape with all my heart. But my will wasn’t strong enough. I tried to stand up, but my arms were bound together. I struggled against the jacket , but it was too constricting, like a boa constrictor had wrapped itself around my frame and was compressing me until I was completely shattered my bones and grinded me into a pile of dust.
“How are we today Edward?” The women in front of me queried. Her face was wrinkled round the edges and her scarlet hair was slowly fading to grey. Age was slowly marauding her face. It was a shame, I could tell by gazing at her that she must have been beautiful in her youth. But the grim reaper was slowly stalking her. And he was starting to reach his target. “Did you have a good day?”
“Yes,” I replies in a bleak, expressionless tone. “I went to the beach.”
I turned my head to my side, and saw him. He was sat, cross legged, next to me, the bowler hat still masking his face.
I spotted a faint smirk on his face. The squatter was winning. He wanted my mind. And he was gradually taking it.