Breathe—
Breathe—
Breathe, goddammit!
This smell!
Pwoh...
I'm alive. What! How?
My head, pounding, beats 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 back up.
Fuck! It just came out my nose.
Saliva and bile dribble forth, congealing down my chin. Too weak. Too heavy to wipe away.
My eyes strain, blinded by the dark. Pitiful.
Did it just get hot?
Move. I said MOVE!
My nails rake against the leathery confines. I writhe, desperate for escape: wriggling, jerking, kicking, scratching—then, finally… Light!
Hurling myself forward I shoving aside each and every obstruction, fighting desperately against this weight that would see me crushed.
Come here.
Summoning a guttural heave, my left hand plows forth. Nails split, driving my body onward to escape this ashen mire.
Crawling like a dead bug, I wade through the filth, the muck, blinded by the mud but, eventually, my hand erupts into the consecrated air beyond.
HAHAHA! Freedom!
It smells delectable, just one last effort until—
Thud!
White-hot pain sears across my crumpled nose. Crippling cartilage screams loud, crushed against a smooth and unyielding surface…
Bone!
Yanking my hands back, I catch my wrists—trapped.
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 turns carnivorous, clamping down on the bone in merciless vise. Chalk‑dust grit grinds across my enamel, working, faltering then failing hard.
Fuck.
My jaw, gripping once more, chews, rattling my skull against the blunt impact of itself.
Just try to 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 unconsciously wriggles itself from out my jaw.
Get back in there, worm.
Nibbling at the filthy thing, I bite the thing, raw, and into many pieces, sacrificing it to those shadow beings instead.
...
...
A dry laugh rattles from out of my skull, breaking into a wheezing, wet, cough-filled phlegm.
Insanity!
How could I even consider tempting them. They don't even speak English.
Damn it.
Damn it all!
From beyond the view, my hands continue flailing, for someone, anyone, to just drag me out. Please!
...
Thud.
My head slams against the protruding bone.
Again.
Thunk.
My lips quiver. My vision blurs.
It's useless.
A sob sticks to the back of my throat.
This smell, the pounding of my skull, the rash burrowing into my back. I… I-uh just can't.
I'm done.
My eyes dim, the world grows lighter.
Entranced by my abyss, I stare. In it, comfort and familiarity settle.
Minutes pass. Hours pass. Well… that's what it feels like.
Time flows, or maybe not, I don't really care no more.
Funny how all your worries melt away when you just, stop, thinking.
My lungs slowly deflate, as text etches itself from behind my eyelids.
A poem?
Yes… one of mine right.
'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 scheduled their construction at my burial? I'll kill ya.
Picking up a nearby thing, I throw it vaguely. directed at the sound.
Bouncing off, it lands with a clack.
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Pu‑Pound.
This again. What is it! Digging?
Digging!? For me?
…
I'm sorry for my rudeness earlier; please. I will even make your job that much easier, call it my deposit, just please, please get me out.
I cast my chin against the rubble to make it pop.
Hehehe…
My jaw hanging loose, hooks around the bone.
Gripping, pulling with my spinal leash, I rein in my most rabid bite.
Woof, Woof, fuckers.
My muscles taut, tear with tension, weaving a pained twine across my fraying face; compounding this, the rush of being dragged from your neck then shoulders up still screams aloud, only to be crushed by that precious bone stuck in your throat.
"Here!"
"I'm here!"
My muffling voice cracks, bursting through some mounds of weight.
The world spins.
The world falls.
Tumbling down and out, it falls against my bony tail.
Ouch.
I breathe out. The unveiling darkness greets me with its oppressive maw.
Wiping my eyes back open, I watch the clouding fog rise, then smoke, followed by the countless piles and pits filled by bodies dying from dead.
Leaning over I fall to the ground. My ears, both battered and bruised by the relentless hammering of blood rushing, listen against the charred ground.
Footsteps?
Close and Approaching.
Are they hard, soft, rhythmic or light; What type of person are they?
Tsk, why so quiet?
As if answering my query, my ears pop with a shattering chime, rending this silence asunder.
Chaos pours in; all those sounds then scents of a morbid nature ring out, masking some two voices barely discernible as they speak nearby.
Oh great earthly fathers, please have mercy on this lamb! Lead them to where the grass is green and food is plentiful.
Bowing down on both my knees, my senses grow with clarity. Gradually, as the wisps of foreign sounds continue invading my ear, the world begins to form around me, turning my blood increasingly cold.
Screaming?