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 the leathery confines. My body writhes, desperate for escape: wriggling, jerking, kicking, scratching—then, finally… some light!
Come here.
Reaching forward I hurl myself toward this pale but 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 up 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 flowing air beyond.
HAHAHA! Freedom! Delectable, delectable, just one more squeeze until—Thud!
White-hot pain sears across my crumpled nose. Its crippling cartilage screams aloud, crushed against a smooth but unyielding material…
Just what fuck is this? Where am I?
I yank back my hands, they catch. Caught tight on the round curvature I feel from this belly-sized cage, I spit.
YOU DARE DENY ME UH!
Fine...
Let my mouth do what the hands cannot. Ivory over flesh. Desperation hath no dignity nor shame and nor do I.
My emerging smile is carnivorous, it digs its teeth down on the catchment in merciless vise. Chalk‑dust grit grinds across enamel, working, faltering, then failing hard.
My teeth, you'll regret that!
What remains of my mouth trembles, gripping onto the surface in a front bite, I using the blunt impact of my jaw to adhere to this rough and decaying 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!
My eyes shut, my mouth moves, and from it nearly wriggles out a prayer that tries to escape.
Byack in there, worm. There is no god for you to reach out to.
We are alone here.
Biting back on these words, I chew on them in consideration. Raw, mashing their guts with visceral disgust, their remains spray out towards the darkness 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 figures from before. They don't even seem to speak my language.
Damn it.
Damn it all!
Thud.
My forehead slams against that protruding thing.
Again.
Thunk.
My lips quiver. My vision blurs.
Useless.
A sob slips 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.
I let out some chesty air and slump back down. The light dims, this world grows lighter as if all the burdens have suddenly lifted.
Entranced by this 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 wanders so as my body continues sweating from this heat that increasing beyond.
Words, they carve themselves behind my eyelids. I see them and their structure.
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, my living death.'
My final words. How awfully grim...
I breath out once more before my eyes roll further back, to black.
Awareness strikes but the sensations leave. My form melts, joining with this collective entity called the pile.
I enjoy this, as my identity fades so do the problems of the mortal world.
Bliss.
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Pu‑Pound.
Who is it! Who started construction at my burial? Ruining my death, I'll won't stop haunting you even after I kill you.
Grasping at a nearby object, I throw it vaguely, directed at the sound.
Bouncing off, it lands with a faint tumble. However, that's all, nothing seems to follow up from its landing as the loud noise rakes on again not moments later.
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Again
I just died and now you want to disturb my new grave. I have nothing but clothes for you little snots to part from my body, do you wish to take the last of my dignity too. Shoo Shoo, extricate yourselves from my vicinity before you have to smell my shit as it falls out from my dead body.
Lifting my pinkie I attempt to wriggle myself around and avert my gaze, but, it doesn't happen.
Fine, continue as you please then, like I could even care. My neck rests back down completely limp.
…
Pound. Pu‑Pound. Pound. Pu‑Pound.
What even are you doing, Digging? huh...
My head swiftly perks back up, I feel as the tip of my nose bashes itself once more.
FUHK
Letting out a raspy groan I scrunch up, my face opens once more.
I apologise for my ignorance earlier; please, come save me stranger. I don't really want to die haha, it was just a joke, a fun game if you will, I would never disrespect a hard labourer such as yourself, I will even make your job easier. Pplease, please, please. Just get me the hell out!
A smile creeps itself onto my face, then, as if just raised from their slumber my hands open up, reaching up I grasp around violently.
Hahaha… Leverage.
I cast my chin against the rubble to make it pop. My jaw hangs loose, hooking around once again.
Gripping, pulling with my spine as a leash, I rein in my most rabid bite.
Woof, Woof. I've been told I make a good dog. Come over here now and I'll show you why.
My butt wags as my mouth muscles tear, taut with tension, weaving some half-matted expression of phony submission across my face. Compounding this, the rush of being forcefully pushed from my neck then shoulders up scrapes throughout my entire body from my legs, causing the surroundings to crack then collapse 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 cheeks. My body straightens itself out with an awkward stretch.
Laying still now, I stare to the endless sky above, its darkness stares down on me with its empty gaze.
Wiping my eyes of their bloodied tears, I continue watching, noting how some plumes of smoke above are coloured with a purple gloom as they rise from the ground beneath. Following their path to their causes origin, there lay more and even more piles, then pits too, chock filled in with the bodies of the dying dead.
Shifting my neck around, my head wobbles over. The grounds wet dirt sticks to half my face as I look forward, watching those remains lit up by that pale and green light burn to chalky ash.
I breath out, my jaw tightens, spitting out that mysterious object.
So... it was someone's rib.
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 face move to block my thumping ears.
These ears, all battered and bruised by the relentless hammering of my own rushing blood, catch a faint squeak of quiet sound from resting against my palms suction.
Then, I hear it. Footsteps, approaching.
How do they carry themselves; soft, rhythmic or light? Too quiet. Can't hear I just hope they're not responsible for this mess, or else..
Then, my very ears pop like shattering glass, rending my silence asunder. Chaos pours in; filtered through the sounds and scents of this world's morbid plane, between which I catch two barely audible voices as they chat in the nearby.
Oh great ones, please have mercy on this pathetic lamb! Lead them to where the grass is green and food is plentiful.
My senses grow with increasing clarity. Gradually, those wisps of foreign and strange elements settle down into my weary body; forming the world around with me kneeling at its center.
Minutes of this continued penitence are interrupted by a piercing sound, that turns my blood instantly cold.
Screaming?