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 dark.
Pitiful.
Why is 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… a singular lump of light!
Come here.
I hurl myself forward, shoving aside each and every obstruction, desperately fighting against this weight that would see me buried.
My lungs summon a guttural heave, then plows my left hand forth. Its nails split, wrists crack, 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—
Thud!
White-hot pain sears across my crumpled nose. Crippling cartilage screams aloud, crushed against a smooth but unyielding surface…
Bone!
Yanking my hands back, forearms catch—entrapped.
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, its teeth clamp down on the bone in a merciless vise. Chalk‑dust grit grinds across my enamel, working, faltering, then failing hard.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH FUCK.
My jaw, gripping itself once more, chews my skull against the blunt impact of itself.
Just try break me. I hiss, froth foaming at the corners of my mouth.
I forbid it.
I bite down, 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.
Get back in there, worm.
Biting back those empty words, I chew on them, raw, mashing back my visceral disgust into many pieces, serving it to those shadow beings instead.
Come on...
Come on...
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 this veil, my hands outside continue their flailing; for someone, anyone, to just release me. Please!
...
Thud.
My forehead slams against the protruding bone.
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.
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.
Funny how all your worries melt away when you just, stop, thinking.
My lungs deflate, my body follows. My mind wandering so as it burns reads at this new text etched within the behinds of my eyes.
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.'
Is this my memoriam. How awfully fitting.
Pound. Pa‑Pound. Pound. Pa‑Pound.
Who scheduled this construction at my burial? I'll end ya.
Picking up a nearby thing, I throw it vaguely, directed at the sound.
Bouncing off the bone, it lands with a faint clack. However it did nothing as the sound persists not moments later.
Pound. Pa‑Pound. Pound. Again
I just died and now you want to disturb my mangled body. I have nothing but clothes for you pervs to part from my body, do you wish to take the last of my dignity too. Shoo Shoo.
I lift my pinkie finger attempting to wriggling around and avert my gaze, but, it doesn't happen.
Fine, continue your digging then, like I could even care. I close my eyes and rest my neck back down.
…
Pound. Pa‑Pound. Pound. Pa‑Pound.
Wait, digging... My head swiftly perks up bashing itself against the bone.
Ouch. Letting out a raspy groan I scrunch up my face opening my eyes once more.
I apologise for my ignorance; please, save me. I will even make your job that much easier, just call it my deposit, please, please, please get me out of here and I will, I will compliment you with my fullest sincerity.
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, I can be loyal too.
My mouth muscles, taut, tear with tension, weaving a pained twine across my frayed face; compounding this, the rush of being dragged from your neck then shoulders up still tries piercing loudly, only to be crushed and muffled by that precious bone stuck in your throat.
"Here!"
"I'm here!"
My voice cracks, barely bursting through the mounds of dead weight.
The world spins.
The world falls.
Tumbling down then out, I land on the bony tail above my butt.
"My back." I groan out cupping my injured butt straightening myself out.
Laying still and staring above, the darkness looks back down on me with its oppressive maw.
Wiping my eyes of their bloodied tears, I continue watching the sky, noting how some plumes of smoke rise from the ground beneath. Following their path in reverse, more piles and pits reveal themselves to be filled by bodies of the dying dead.
Shifting my neck causes my head to fall over.
My ears, both battered and bruised by the relentless hammering of blood rushing, listen against the charred ground of black powder.
Footsteps?
Approaching.
Soft, rhythmic or light; What type of person is this?
Tsk, too quiet.
Then, as if answering my query, my ears pop with a shattering chime, rending the silence asunder.
Chaos pours in; filtered through the sounds and scents of morbid nature, all covering some two voices barely discernible as they converse 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 knees, my senses grow with increasing clarity. Gradually, those wisps of foreign sounds and smells settle down in my weary body, forming the world around with me at its center.
Minutes of continued processing turns my blood increasingly cold.
Screaming?