Breathe—
Breathe—
Breathe, goddammit!
This smell!
Pwoh...
I'm alive. What. How.
My head pounds, each throb is a debilitating percussion.
My chest buckles — lungs swelling with panicked gasps. Inhaling—gulping down this force‑fed meal of turpentine and rot. Scorching. Searing down the esophagus, into my lungs, until I heave it all back up.
Fuck! It just came out my nose.
Saliva and bile dribble forth, congealing on my chin.
Too weak. Too heavy to wipe away.
I look forward pitifully, my eyes straining in the blinding dark.
Did it just get hotter?
I gotta leave. Now!
Move. I said MOVE!
Nails rake against the hard, leathery confines. I writhe—desperate for escape: wriggling, jerking, kicking, scratching.
Then, finally, I see it…
Light!
I hurl myself forward, shoving aside each obstruction, again and again, fighting against the weight that would see me buried.
Don't leave!
Summoning a guttural heave, I drive forth my second hand—nails splitting as they scrabble through the ashen mire.
Until… at last, the barrier yields and my hand erupts into the air beyond.
HAHAHA! Freedom!
I can smell it.
Just one more push for the world's unloving embrace.
Thud!
White-hot pain flares across my crumpled nose.
Crippling. Cartilage screams at something hard, smooth and unyielding…
Bone.
It blocks, preventing my escape.
I pull my hands backward, but my wrists catch.
YOU DARE DENY MY ESCAPE!
Fine. Then let the mouth do what the hands cannot. Ivory over flesh.
Desperation has no dignity nor shame.
My jaw clamps bone in merciless vise, chalk‑dust grit grinding across enamel.
It slips
I Bite again—still slips.
"Just try to break me" I hiss, froth bubbling at the corners of my mouth.
I forbid it.
I chew down and copper gushes. Then, I nibble. I lick. I huff. I curse. I coax. I plead.
I turn to religion—remembering how bad it treated me, so I negotiate with the shadow demons.
Insanity!
It was crazy to think I could negotiate with them.
A dry laugh rattles out of my skull, breaking into a wheezing, wet cough-filled phlegm.
Damn it.
Damn it all!
I flail my hand outside, gesticulating for someone—anyone—to drag me out.
Nothing.
I slam my head against the protruding bone.
Thud.
Again.
Thunk.
My lips quiver. My vision blurs.
It's useless.
I choke back a sob.
This smell, my pounding head, the rash burrowing into my back I… just—can't anymore.
I'm done.
My eyes dim, my head grows lighter.
Entranced by the abyss. I stare.
In it I feel comfort and familiarity.
...
Minutes pass.
Hours pass.
Well… that's what it feels like anyway.
Time flows, but I don't really care anymore.
Funny how all your worries melt away when you just stop thinking.
...
I close my eyes.
Text etches itself behind sealed eyelids.
A poem?
Yes…
It's one of mine, I remember it.
It reads:
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—
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Pu‑Pound.
Who schedules construction at a dying man's funeral?
Picking up a nearby vertebrae, I throw it vaguely in the direction of the sound.
It bounces off the pile, then lands.
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Pu‑Pound.
Wait, is that… digging.
Someone's definitely digging, searching for— I'm saved. I'm sorry for my rudeness earlier; I will even make your job easier.
Reinvigorated and desperate, I cast my chin against the rubble.
It Pops.
Hehehe…
With my jaw hanging loose, I hook my teeth under the bone.
Gripping, pulling against my spinal leash reining in my most rabid bite.
My body strains taut against the hobbling tension.
Until finally…
Movement!
I drag my shoulders up, my head bursting through the mound. I roll out and down, spitting out the bone.
"Here!"
"I'm here!"
My voice croaks.
The fog clouding my mind unveils, my vision gradually clears.
A shaded silhouette approaches me.
My ears, battered and bruised by the relentless hammering of my own blood, at last give way—
Rending a shattering chime, tearing my silence asunder.
Through the ringing chaos, I can barely discern a voice.
Oh great one please save me!
With my senses gradually growing in clarity, I finally discern..
Screaming?