A World without Coffee

This story was written while I was in a Psychology class where we were learning about different psychological diseases during my freshmen year of college. Enjoy!

"I toss. I turn. Running. Running. They're coming to get me. I hear creatures. What are they? I'm soaking wet. Why? How? I run fast. My eyes fly open as I jet up to a sitting position. I look around, scanning my surroundings. Oh, I'm back in my room. My tiny, white, square, brick bedroom. It was only a dream. As I get up I notice I'm shaking and covered in sweat. I lift my hand up to wipe sweat off my forehead and then stop. That's not sweat on my hand. It's blood. What? What did I do? I look around the tiny room. All I saw was my bed, a shelf with a sink attached, a cup of coffee, my door, and...blood smeared all over the ground by my door. Did I sleep walk again? Did I kill someone? I couldn't have, I never have before. It must be mine. I washed my hands and searched my body for cuts. There are none. I sneezed and got a whiff of the delicious smell of coffee. It draws me to finish the half cup of coffee on my shelf. As I finish the last drop I am filled with paranoia. Someone wanted me and my coffee. No. I bought this myself from...that market. They can't have it. 

I think back to that market and remember that beautiful girl offering me my first cup of coffee. I remember when the government outlawed coffee while I was such a young lad who had no idea why such a thing would be forbidden; all I knew was that the nuns of my orphanage were distraught by their new law against coffee. Why would it be illegal? The beautiful girl asked me. She said her name was Coco, which I thought was an odd name, but once she convinced me to take my first drink I didn't care. My only care was buying as much coffee as I could. She said to tell no one...That's when the nightmares started. I'm always being chased.

Knock, Knock. I jump. "Can I come in? It's Master Kompf, your alarm went off. You're not supposed to be awake yet." Master Kompf? Why is he here? Normally security or the nurses come to check up on me...He must know I took the coffee. I have to leave this community. I've been here too long. I thought back to when I left the orphanage in search of my parents only to find this odd little Monastic community that took me in as their own. They've been so lovely, but now that I broke one rule they'll be after me. Why? I remember the blood on the floor and that was on my hands. Maybe it's more than just this illegal coffee...Maybe it's what I did. I need to run. The door is my only way out. 

“Brother Jacobs, I am coming in.” I think fast and hide behind the door. It opens slowly and Master Kompf walked to the bed. “Where are you Brother Jacobs?” Behind his back I slip out the door, shut it and locked him in. I now love the locks on the outside of the doors in this community. I have always wondered why they were there since the doors are never locked, but now I am thankful for them.

Bang! Bang! Bang! “Brother Jacobs! Let me out! Security Breach! Someone!” Master Kompf banged on the door. I noticed a puddle of blood on the hallway floor, followed by three different trails of blood. What happened here? I have to get out. I run to the door.

“Winston!” shouted the one voice that could stop me in my tracks. The one girl who I never could have expected to see again. Sister Margaret. My best friend Julianna, whose been missing for a year. I turned around slowly to see her, looking worn out, in a white nightgown, blonde hair going this way and that. Her bare feet were covered in blood along with the tips of her gown. She must have walked on the blood paths…where did she come from? “There are guards out that door! Follow me, I know a better way out!” I looked at her, back at the door, and then at her again. Before she went missing I trusted her with my life. I ran towards her and we darted back into the one of the blood filled hallways. Blood splashed to and fro, but we kept running in fear that the security would find us sooner or later.

Julianna stopped at a dead end. A wall. What? She took us to a dead end…for what? To get credit and rat me out? Is that why she disappeared? As I was thinking this, she crouched down and opened up a little hatch I had previously not seen. “Get in!” I turned around, saw the security just as they approached the hallway we were in, and then back at Julianna and entered this unknown hatch.

It was a dark pathway once she closed the cover, but we went through the pathway hurriedly knowing any second we would be followed again. I followed Julianna near her in order to see her silhouette in the dark. We went around many twists and turns until finally we reached another small door. She opened the door and we both crawled out onto the fresh, soil outside the Monastery.

Julianna grabbed my hand and led me farther away from the Monastery without even a goodbye to the community we had both live in for so long. I turned back for a brief second, saw the Monastery gates open and the security rush out. It appeared we had exited from the side of the building and they were not able to locate us yet, but if we did not make it out of there soon they would see us.

That is when something hit my head and I blacked out.