Free The Wrath of Jeremy by Stephen Andrew Salamon

him,
strange in a way that he couldn’t explain. He knew the man was a
nurse, but yet he hit him on the head. It was a mixture of rage,
intimidation and perplexity all rolled into one in his eyes as he
waited for the next ingredient to enter. Gabriel looked up at the
nurse again while they entered an elevator with black, juicy
roaches on the ground, frolicking together as if they were dancing
to a waltz.
    Gabriel was sickened by this. Staring at
these disgusting creatures, seeing they were multiplying before his
eyes, caused Gabriel to forget the man’s warning and speak up.
“This is sick, what kind of place are you guys running here
anyway?”
    The man immediately pushed the emergency
button on the elevator walls, causing the elevator to stop and
shake, and the man walked in front of Gabriel again. Since it was a
very small and confined elevator, with roaches on the ground and
the smell of mucus and urine filling the air, every deep breath
Gabriel inhaled caused the sweat on his head to worsen and drip
down to his eyeballs, creating a stinging sensation in them as
Gabriel was forced to stare at the man’s face.
    “Hey, idiot, I thought I told you to shut the
fuck up?” The obese man slapped Gabriel across the face, causing
blood from Gabriel’s nose to shoot out all over his mouth, dripping
down the wheelchair, past its metal frame and down to the ground
where the roaches fought to get a taste of it. Gabriel’s tears shot
out and all he could do now was raise his eyes toward this bastard
of a nurse and wait for the next blow.
    “I’m sorry, but—” Gabriel tried to speak
before the man hit him in the face again with the back of his hand.
The blood from Gabriel’s nose got on the man’s hand and he wiped it
off in Gabriel’s hair, with Gabriel shouting in agony, “Hey, stop
it!” The man started to beat him hard in the face, and all the
roaches danced in the raindrops of blood that became a downpour to
them. More blood fell toward the insects’ bodies, creating a small
puddle on the floor under the wheelchair, and one could almost hear
their echoes as each drop soared to the floor and hit the dirt and
roaches.
    “I said shut the fuck of up! I know who you
are, and if you ever try to speak again, I’ll kill you!” The man
stopped his words as he ended the beating of Gabriel.
    Not understanding why he was beaten or why
the obese man was shouting, Gabriel, weak and distorted, in pain
and bewilderment, spoke with nervousness and tears. “What are you
talking about?”
    The obese man reached down to the floor of
the elevator and picked up a bunch of bloody roaches in the palm of
his hand, stuffing them into Gabriel’s mouth as Gabriel felt them
walking around his gums. He vomited on the man, and Gabriel tried
to catch his breath and block out the fact that roaches were in his
mouth a second ago, in order to keep his vomit down. The large man
then pulled out a syringe from his pocket and stuck the needle into
Gabriel’s arm. That’s when he passed out as the rest of the roaches
that he didn’t spit out fell from his mouth and squealed as they
hit the ground of the elevator, falling to their death.
    Later on, Gabriel slowly awakened to the
sight of straps on his ankles and wrists, locking him onto the bed
he lay on. He tried to break free from them by moving about, but
failed. He looked around this small room and saw red wallpaper and
yellow dots at every end of it. Scanning the room more, he noticed
to the left of him a window with twelve thick, black bars on it. He
was trapped like a prisoner. Gabriel rolled his eyes to the front
and saw a single cross hanging on the wall. He asked and begged it,
“Please, God, help me!” Tears fell from Gabriel’s eyes and before
he could close them and pray, a breeze came across his face,
hitting the tears that dripped down to his neck, and he detected
the Jesus on the cross’s eyes suddenly opening. The cross shook,
with the eyes of Jesus opening wider toward