Breathe—
Breathe—
Breathe, goddammit!
This smell!
Pwoh...
I'm alive. What! How?
My head is pounding, beating in a debilitating percussion.
Choking, my lungs swell with panicked gasps. Inhaling, gulping down this force-fed meal of turpentine and rot. Scorching, searing down my esophagus into my lungs, all until I heave it up.
Fuck! It just came out my nose.
Saliva dribbles forth, congealing across my chin. Too weak. Too heavy to wipe away.
My eyes strain, blinded by this pitiful dark.
Why so hot?
Move. I said MOVE!
My nails rake against my leathery confines. My body writhes, desperate for escape: wriggling, jerking, kicking, scratching—then, finally… some light!
Come here.
Reaching forward I hurl myself toward the pale green light, shoveling aside each and every obstruction, desperately fighting against this weight that would see me buried.
My lungs summon a guttural heave, then plows forth my left hand. Its nails split, wrist cracks, driving my body ahead to escape this ashen mire.
Crawling like a dead bug, wading through the filth, the muck, as I'm blinded by the mud, but, eventually, my hand erupts into the consecrated cool of the air beyond.
HAHAHA! Freedom! Delectable, delectable, just one last push until—Thud!
White-hot pain sears across my crumpled nose. Its crippling cartilage screams aloud, crushed against a smooth but unyielding material…
Ivory!
I try yanking back my hands, but my forearms catches on the tight curvature of what seems to be a round but belly-sized cage.
YOU DARE DENY ME!
Fine...
Let my mouth do what the hands cannot. Ivory over flesh. Desperation hath no dignity nor shame and nor do I.
My smile turning carnivorous clamps its teeth down on the cylindrical cage in merciless vise. Chalk‑dust grit grinds across my enamel, working, faltering, then failing hard.
My teeth, you'll regret that!
What remains of my mouth trembles, gripping onto the surface infront, biting using the blunt impact of itself to adhere to the rough and decayed chassis of the discarded trash.
Just try break me. I hiss, froth foaming at the corners of my mouth.
I forbid it.
I bite down, then copper gushes.
Again!
I nibble. I lick. I huff. I curse. I coax. I plead.
Nothing...
Nothing!
Shutting my eyes, a prayer almost wriggles itself from out my mouth.
Byack in there, worm. There is no god for you to wriggle to.
Biting back my empty words, I chew on them, raw, mashing back with visceral disgust as their remains spray out towards the shadows instead.
Come on...
Come on...
A dry laugh rattles from out of my throat, breaking into a wheezing, wet, cough-filled phlegm.
Insanity! How could I even consider tempting those silent beasts. They don't even speak my language.
Damn it.
Damn it all!
Thud.
My forehead slams against the protruding tusk.
Again.
Thunk.
My lips quiver. My vision blurs.
Useless.
A sob sticks to the back of my throat.
This smell, the pounding, and now this new rash burrowing into my back. I… I-uh, just can't man.
My eyes dim, the world grows lighter.
Entranced by my abyss, I stare. In it, comfort and familiarity settle.
Minutes pass. Hours pass too. Well… that's just what it feels like.
Time passes, or maybe not. I don't really bother to care anymore.
Funny how all your worries melt away when you just, stop, thinking.
My lungs deflate, my body follows. My mind wandering so as my body melts itself with sweat, reads at the newly carved text etched from within the behinds of my eyelids.
A poem?
Ah yes… one of mine.
'I raised their hearts, yet here I'm chained, Their freedom bought, my soul profaned. I carved their rights with blood and breath, And earned no gift, but living death.'
My final words. How awfully fitting...
Taking a moment to enjoy this final rest, the sound of faint crackling, meaty thuds and apparent movement grow increasingly louder.
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Pu‑Pound.
Who scheduled a construction at my burial?
Picking up a nearby piece, I throw it vaguely, directed at the sound.
Bouncing off, it lands with a faint tumble. However, nothing seems to follow up from its landing. The loud disruption persists again not even moments later.
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Again
I just died and now you want to disturb my mangled body. I have nothing but clothes for you hooligans to part from my body, do you wish to take the last of my dignity too. Shoo Shoo, before you have to smell my shit as it comes out too.
Lifting my pinkie finger I attempt to wriggle myself around to avert my gaze, but, it doesn't happen.
Fine, continue as you please then, like I could even care. My eyes close then my neck rests back down completely limp.
…
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Pu‑Pound.
Digging? huh...
My head swiftly perks back up, with closed eyes I feel as the tip of my nose bashes itself against the pile again.
FUHK
Letting out a raspy groan I scrunch up my face opening my eyes once more.
I apologise for my ignorance earlier; please, come save me. I will even make your job easier, just call it my deposit, please, please, please. Just get me the fuck outta here! Yes, yes then I will compliment you with my fullest sincerity.
A smile creeps itself onto my face, then, as if just raised from their slumber my hands open up, reaching around I feel my surroundings.
Hahaha…
I cast my chin against the rubble to make it pop. My jaw hangs loose, hooking around the boney object.
Gripping, pulling with my spine as a leash, I rein in my most rabid bite.
Woof, Woof, Woof. I've been told I make a good dog. Come over here now and claim your prize.
I wag my butt as my mouth muscles tear, taut with tension, weaving some half-matted expression of phony submission. Compounding this, the rush of being forcefully dragged from my neck then shoulders up scrapes throughout my entire body momentarily causing the cage to crack then crumble away, giving way for my timely escape.
The world spins. Then falls.
Tumbling down around then out, I pound on that bony tail above my arse, for a bout of bad landing.
"My back." I groan softly, cupping around my injured butt. My body straightens itself out with an awkward stretch as I spit out.
Laying still I stare to the sky above, its darkness gazes down on me with its empty gaze.
Wiping my eyes of their bloodied tears, I continue watching above, noting how some of the plumes of smoke are coloured purple as they rise from the ground beneath. Following their path to their causes origin, their lay more and more piles, then pits too, all filled in with the bodies of the dying dead.
Shifting my neck around causes my head to wobble over and stare at the remains.
So it was someones rib. I breath out as my jaw tightens.
I feel my heart as it continues thumping, its unsteady rhythm shakes my hands with an unsettling jitter.
I breathe in, slowly, those same two hands that once covered my pale face move to block my hurting ears.
Those ears, both battered and bruised by the relentless hammering of my own rushing blood, catch a faint something as they rest against my palms back over the charred ground of blackened dirt.
Those Footsteps? Are Approaching.
Soft, rhythmic or light; How do they carry themselves?
Too quiet. I hope their not responsible for this.
Then, as if humbling my collapsed ego, my very ears pop with a shattering chime, rending my silence asunder.
Chaos pours in; filtered through the sounds and scents of this worlds morbid plane, between which I catch two barely discernible voices as they chat grimly nearby.
Oh great ones, please have mercy on this pathetic lamb! Lead them to where the grass is green and food is plentiful.
Bowing down on both knees, my senses grow with increasing clarity. Gradually, those wisps of foreign elements settle down into my weary body; forming the world around with me at its center.
Minutes of this continued penatance is interrupted by a piercing sound that turns my blood instantly cold.
Screaming?