the boys who kiss and bite
they are the brilliant ones
who speak and write;
The rotten wood above her head exploded under the demon’s massive paws, and suddenly he was on her, his weight crushing her into the dirt under her belly. She screamed at the top of her lungs and tried to turn to claw at his belly with her back paws, but found that his teeth were digging into the scruff of her neck. This was it. He was going to kill her. “Please…please…” She felt the words form on her tongue and knew that she was pleading for her life, but somehow the voice was not her own. A stranger had taken her place, and a stranger would die in this dirty log far from home.
But he wasn’t killing her, or even tearing at her to watch her bleed. He cooed sadistically in her ear, his hot breath sickening her to the core, “I’m letting you go.” What? Her breath caught in her throat. She could hardly comprehend the words, they were so beautiful. Before she could react to it, she’d been pulled from the log and thrown unceremoniously onto her back. A pained cry cracked in her throat and she lay stunned for a short moment before shakily rising to her feet.
There were strings attached to this deal, which only meant he wasn’t going to kill her yet. So he wasn’t being generous after all. The tears came back, and she didn’t have the energy to fight them anymore. He was only prolonging the game, prolonging her torture. Maybe he would run her to death? She didn’t wait for further instruction. If she got lucky, he would get bored and simply…leave her alone. Maybe. It was the best she could hope for.
But as she turned to run East, she was suddenly urged in the other direction. Safety was West, albeit far away. If she could make it to her forest, to her home, she could win this. And so she turned mid-stride and darted back, hoping to make it past him and run West.
they sing in clever tongues
oh, how my knees go weak
to be the one;
H U S H
five ** soul ** home ** |