The Eyes of the Skull

[Published in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque #2]

In retrospect, when I consider the dreadful situation in more detail, I feel that I ought to have realized that the skull was placed there in order to torment me and destroy my sanity. I remember detecting the presence of a black evil in those dark empty sockets, an evil that threatened to take over my whole being and compel me to lose my mind. However, due to my delirious state at that point in time, I was unable to think clearly, and therefore failed to understand the awful implications of that sinister object, that gruesome skull which appeared to haunt my every waking moment.
The cold cell I occupied contained neither light nor darkness, but some form of weird gloomy mist, and so I was at all times forced to peer and squint in a queer manner. I possessed no inkling of day or night, and in my humble opinion I believed that outside of that unearthly enclosure there lurked eternal blackness. The rotten noiselessness was eerie and intimidating -- I yearned heartily for some kind of sound, and at certain moments I thought that I had become completely deaf, and was unable to hear my wretched fellow inmates crying out in that grim place. In some ways I consider that solemn quietude a blessing, for I am wholly sure that if I had been able to hear such miserable groaning it would have been even more horrible than the sight of those demonic skull eyes.
At irregular intervals the heavy door would open and in would step two monstrous beings who proceeded to thrash and beat me until I was in tears and bleeding. They gained an obscene amount of delight in this atrocious act, and I was able to hear their hideous laughter as they unlocked the neighboring cell and administered similar treatment to the unfortunate soul within those walls. Soon the sad whimpering would cease, for if one dared to continue openly expressing such pain and grief the terrible pair would enter once again and repeat the horrid punishment. And so the quietness prevailed for practically the whole of my depressing period of incarceration.
The cell itself was tiny, with barely sufficient space for those two monsters to deliver their beatings. The walls, floor and ceiling were entirely of stone, so it was awfully cold in that grotesque confinement, and the thing that made it worse was the fact that I was naked, having been deprived of all clothing before being tossed in there. To make my purgatorial suffering complete, to really cause me to lose every ounce of my sanity within that diabolical room, I received no nourishment whatsoever, not a crumb or morsel was given to me by those cruel guards, and this caused me to cry out and to suffer horrendous abdominal hunger pains as I witnessed myself wasting away and my bones becoming more evident as I remained in that ice-cold cell.
As time passed ever so slowly I felt that I did not belong within those accursed walls, and that some insane travesty of justice had occurred. I huddled desperately for warmth against those freezing cold stone slabs, all the while believing that in such an awesome place even the strongest of minds would crumble and crack under the horrendous strain. Whenever I glanced around me I appeared to witness the semi-darkness closing in on me from all sides, enveloping me in evil, and stripping me of all rational thought, such was the cloying terror and the creeping silence.
And then there was the skull...
Oh, how I wish I could avoid describing such an ominous and wicked thing, that damnable face sculpted from human bone, and the eyes -- the atrocious and tormenting eyes! They were severely loathsome, and caused me great anguish as I was forced to gaze into those maddening black sockets. Even in the mist-cloud that filled the cell those dark eyes seemed to be calling to me, calling my name, inviting me into a mystical and ungodly world that only the demented and the damned could enter. The forbidding chill of the darkest winter filled my heart each time I dared to look into those shadowy hollows, and I began to fear every waking second I spent in that infernal place.
My thoughts I endeavored to center on my wife and child of whom I could only recollect the vaguest of knowledge -- damn it, I could not even picture their faces any longer such was my oppressive delirium! I wondered how much they were missing their loved one, how many nights they spent in an unwholesome turmoil, unable to enjoy the slightest wink of sleep, thinking of the terrible and impious fate that had befallen me. And the sickly countenance of that repellent ogre whom I had so wickedly slain in battle -- God in Heaven, I surely and truly did not deserve such an unpleasant and shocking treatment, trapped within those unholy stone walls, condemned to suffer such an ignominious punishment!
Yet not only was I forced to suffer such torment, for during my inhuman imprisonment I learnt, by way of a series of surreptitious whispered conversations, that the pitiful souls in each adjoining cell to mine were in the process of being tortured by a devilish presence. One wretch was horrified to discover he was sharing time with a ravenous rodent which was almost the size of a cat, and which would regularly chew at both his feet until they were mere bloodied stumps of loose flesh and protruding bone. However, the thing that really irked him terribly was the fact that he would doze off into a painless slumber and, upon regaining consciousness, he would discover that his feet were untouched and whole once more, which pleased him no end -- but then he would discern the awful creature lurking in the clouded gloom of his cell, and he would howl with terror as it crept upon him and began to nibble once again at his toes.
Also, the unfortunate person in the second cell was plagued by the appearance of a naked and beautiful female with the proportions of a love goddess, and who had the frustrating habit of dancing salaciously in his presence and therefore driving him into a wicked frenzy, for she was no more than a tempting apparition, which meant that he could not even place his eager hands upon her voluptuous flesh. He became wild with unbridled lust as she lay beside him with splayed thighs and a dazzling and enchanting smile, and I was able to fully comprehend the utter agony of his discontent.
Days crept by, followed by weeks, and months -- Heaven knows, I could have been there for centuries, God forbid! I became weak both in body and mind, sickeningly thin and emaciated, a pale shadow of my former self. The mysterious darkness of those skull eyes was upon me the whole time, the whole torturous and hellish time I was in that confounded cell. On occasions I could have cried out in pain, I cannot be sure, as those compelling and insidious sockets threatened to drag me inside, into the abominable deepness within. Many times I created the delusion in my confused mind that the very Devil himself was watching and observing through those phantasmic eyes.
The skull itself was somehow attached to the inside of the door, by what means I could never be entirely certain, it was as if the thing was a part of the cold metal from which the door was constructed. As it haunted me and threw my thoughts into utter chaos I found myself approaching it and attempting to wrench it free, inserting my thumbs into those eyes and pulling with all my strength and might. The mass of bone refused to crack or even splinter, remaining steadfastly secured upon the door, and as I sank to my knees in complete despair I was sure I heard a gruesome laughter emanating from deep within those eyes, from the blackened corridors of the underworld. I am unable to fully describe the nauseating madness that filled my head at that particular point, the frustration and the fear and the desperation that appeared to be gripping me, the horror of it all seemed like a fist clenched around my soul, squeezing and tightening until every last drop of humanity had been stolen from me -- such an unimaginable feeling cannot be described by any mortal soul, I conjecture.
My final demise was both terrible and fantastic -- I always thought that my solitary confinement was a means to an end, and consequent occurrences proved my assumption to be correct, for one day (or it could have been night) as I lay upon that icy-cold floor in a dazed and delirious state, the iron door opened and in stepped the two fiends. Naturally I expected the familiar thrashing that I had become accustomed to, yet to my shock and amazement no such punishment took place. Instead I was dragged to my feet and through the entrance, into the stench-filled corridor which seemed so strange to me, and I heard that heavy door slam closed as I was pulled onwards into a depressing darkness, all the while accompanied by chilling laughter from my deviant escorts.
All was hazy and unclear, as I endeavored to open my eyes and focus on my surroundings. Something was not quite right -- something was unnaturally absurd, and I started to panic, struggling to break loose but with not even a semblance of success. As we proceeded I felt the dreaded chill transforming into an incredible heat, as though a raging fire was close by. And then the truth descended upon me like a severe and thunderous hammer blow, for as I experienced the intense increase in temperature after my trembling body was flung into that flaming pit, I finally managed to open my eyes fully -- to observe those three cold stone walls within that damned cell.