I awake in total
darkness. I cannot move. My body is pressed hard against this
structure. I feel as if I’m going
to suffocate. As I struggle, the
structure I’m entombed in sways back and forth. I can hear the sound of water as it slowly drips, and I can
smell the scent of lilacs.
Every muscle in my body
starts to ache. I’m trying to
move, trying to break free. My
body is gripped with pain. Claustrophobia
is setting in, and I start to hyperventilate. I’m losing consciousness…
I awake again and notice
the tightness of the structure is even more binding than before. It is crushing me. Is it shrinking? Or am I growing? I feel my body begin to morph as my
skin begins to leak secretions.
The walls of my cell become damp with this sweet yet sour, smelling pus
as it pours out of my skin. The
structure begins to give way as the pus eats its way through the walls. Streaks of daylight invade my eyes,
drilling in like lightning bolts.
How long have I been here?
The darkness is no more.
As my eyes adjust to the
daylight, the cool morning breeze flows through the openings in my cell. The walls start to flake and
descend. I find myself hanging
upside down as I finally gain physical control over the rest of my body. As I shake and stretch, the structure
separates from me and falls to the ground. I release my grip and start to free-fall. As the wind blows, I catch onto it and
I frantically ascend back into the air in a fluttering, uncontrollable
motion.
The wind whips me into
many different directions. One
moment it is pushing me towards the earth, and the next, it is whipping me back
into the sky. Out of the corner of
my eye, I see a blur of a hand reaching out to snatch me out of the air. The force of the breeze from a child’s
hand throws me into a whirlwind of flight as the pursuit rages on. As the earth below changes from a soft,
grassy green surface to a concrete grey, I feel a force alter my flight,
pulling me into a horizontal slipstream in the opposite direction.
The small bones in my
captivatingly beautiful wings start to shatter as I fight against the current
of air that spins me in a vortex.
At the center of the vortex, I collide with the front grill of the
gigantic mustard colored dump truck.
My wings and my body instantly turn into nothing more than dust, leaving
only a blur of my colors on the grill.
Steve looks up from the
radio, and at the last moment, he sees the toddler bounding into the street in
pursuit of the butterfly. He slams
on the brakes, but with no hope of missing the little girl. The toddler keeps her focus on the
butterfly, when the passenger front side of the truck hits her. The truck devours her the moment it
makes contact. Her spine is
shattered as she is thrown forward from the force of the impact. The studded tires catch up to her and
rip her open as they screech across the pavement in a desperate attempt to
stop.
I strain to see through
my dirty windshield covered with bug carcasses. I see the mayhem of the toddler disappearing under the
wheels of the truck. I quickly
pull my car off to the side of the road in disbelief of this tragedy. The dump truck driver jumps out of his
cab, looks at the front of his truck, then at the mangled body lying underneath
the center of the chassis.
I frantically jump out of
my car, leave it running, and rush over to see if I can help. The driver looks up at me and dashes in
full stride towards his cab. With
lightning speed, he hoists himself back up into the cab. I slip on the bloody road as I hear him
throw his truck back into gear.
The truck flies past me, knocking me back into the ditch as he speeds
towards my car. The crash sounds
like thunder and twisting metal as his truck bends my car into a pile of rubble. Grinding gears, he throws it in reverse
to back up then slams it back into gear in a forward dash to flee the scene.
Blood is running down my
face and oozing from my wounds as I climb out of the roadside ditch. I see cars approaching from the distance
as I run toward the toddler’s mangled body. As the cars near me, they veer into the center of the road
so as to avoid running over the tiny, mangled body.
Why won’t anyone stop to
help? They just swerve past us and
act like their only concern is getting remains of the young girl splattered on
their freshly cleaned cars and SUVs.
I run over and scoop the little girl up into my arms. Her body is moist in my arms. Her brilliant sky blue eyes flicker
with life as she tries to speak, but only gurgles emit from her throat. I search my surroundings and start to
run across the field towards the hospital just beyond a group of condos. The morning air is quickly becoming hot
and sticky as I struggle to reach my destination.
As I enter the hospital,
the crisp air conditioning washes over my body as I realize how strangely
deserted the lower level is. I run
across the white linoleum floor, still feeling the little girl gasping for life
in my arms. I slam the buttons on
the elevator, and watch impatiently as each little light blinks to life as the
elevator approaches to open and let me in. The lobby becomes black as the light dims to nothing.
The elevator doors finally open,
spilling light across the room with a welcoming glow. I enter it, and the doors slide shut as I turn to the wall
to push the button, but I only find one.
A heavy metal version of
“The Sound of Silence” plays in reverse over the interior speakers I push the
single button and the floor begins to vibrate as we start to ascend. I look down at her as she starts to
cry. I raise her up and kiss her
forehead.
As her eyes open wide,
they burst and become pools of blue liquid. She reaches her tiny mangled hand up and caresses my
cheek. As soon as I feel her hand
upon my cheek, her skin turns to the liquid blue. Suddenly, her whole arm fills with the blue liquid, filling
up like a water balloon, and then bursts.
The liquid fills the
bottom of the elevator soaking my feet up to my ankles. The blue solution continues to take
over the rest of her body. As each
body part fills, it bursts, empties into the elevator to the point where I swim
upwards to keep above it. The liquid takes over holding my breath, I scramble
to reach the top, but it seems to move farther and farther away. I look back down and the elevator seems
to be nothing but a glimmer of light at the bottom of this watery blue shaft.
I feel my lungs ready to
explode, and they cry out for oxygen as I swim faster trying to find a surface
to break through. At the last
moment, I feel my hand reaching up and hitting the cool damp air as I pull
myself to the surface. As the air
fills my lungs and refreshes it with oxygen, my body tingles into almost an
orgasm. Dawn breaks with the sun
rising just over the mountain.
I find myself in the
center of a round pool of liquid.
I swim to the edge. There
are seven nude bodies with each of their throats ripped apart. Their heads are floating in the pool,
while the blood drains into the pool
I try to find an exit. I crawl out over a female body that
still feels warm to the touch, but life has left its shell I get to my feet and
look across the barren landscape, nothing in sight except for a three-story
shack of a house off to the west.
I trudge across the land
that is filled with protruding tree roots sticking up out of the ground, but
there are no trees for them to belong to.
As I get closer to a shack, I see a flash of light coming from the
attic, as if a mirror is catching a stream of sunlight as it sways back and
forth. In the thirty minutes it
takes me to walk to the shack, the sun does not seem to have moved from its
location behind the mountain range.
I grasp the door handle, and it rattles in my hand as I try to turn it. As I enter the smell of oil-filled dirt
fills my nostrils making it hard to catch my breath.
The entrance is small and
narrow with only a hall leading towards a set of spiral stairs the flash of
light I witnessed moves in no certain rhythm. It seems to be shining through some source of water, as the
light streams quiver and run across the wall. As I climb the staircase, my fingers sink into the handrail,
which is moist and course like a sponge.
There is an atrocious smell as I get closer to the top, and I start to
gag, but the light is beckoning me on.
I cannot turn away. I must
see what I’m being lead to.
I enter the top floor to
see a figure sitting in a chair facing the opposite side of the room. Do I wait for the flash of light to
survey the room, or do I just continue on? I creep towards the hulking figure in fear of what I may
find, and I enter the figure’s field of view. He shudders and raises his arm, pointing toward the sky that
is visible through a hole in the roof.
Then, the flash of light fills the room revealing its face. No skin makes up the hideous face, only
mud with crawling insects and worms.
I look up to the hole in the roof and the sky is filled with a white
glow. Everything blurs out in a
white hot flash.
I awake in bed and sit
up, coated in sweat. I reach for
my glasses on the nightstand and squint to see the clock. 3:34 a.m. I lay back down with my arm behind my head and recollect my
thoughts trying to piece together the night’s visions. The bed starts to shake, and then the
whole house and sky become instant daylight spewing white light throughout my
room.
I jump from my bed
Fumbling through this blinding light, I run through the hallway finally
reaching the front door. I see
everyone running around like they have all gone mad, pointing up at the sky. Many are wearing only what they went to
bed in, while others are wearing nothing, but that was the least of their
concerns. I look up into the sky.
The beauty I see brings tears to my eyes it is breathtaking. Our solar system fills the sky with
planets and stars so numerous that it feels like we can touch them
Our universe is
collapsing upon itself… it is our end.
The end of everything we know, and yet, it is stunning. Then, once more, we all turn to dust.
Kipp Poe Speicher
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