I\u2019m squatting on the knuckle of a giant earthen hand, whose fingers are lazily swaying in a lake of fluid mercury.\u00a0 The deep blue sky is littered with the ivory skeletons of soldiers clashing with the endless vertebrae of serpents.\u00a0 I feel like a point of light.\u00a0 Sometimes, I forget I\u2019m even here.<\/p>\n
Someone\u2019s behind me.\u00a0 It\u2019s her\u2014Impossible!<\/em>\u2014standing away from the shore, watching me.\u00a0 I scurry over a bed of skyward faces, their mouths gaped open.\u00a0 Falling to my knees, I embrace her, resting my head between her pale breasts.\u00a0 Oh god, I loved you so much…\u00a0 I did this because of you…<\/em>\u00a0 Her skin becomes bone, unyielding, cold.\u00a0 Cracks worm up her body.\u00a0 I look up at her.\u00a0 Her chiseled face looks straight away.\u00a0 Chunks of her head are missing.<\/p>\n Pulling away, I\u2019m startled at the sight of my arms, surprised I have a body.\u00a0 The pinpricks inside my arm are still bleeding a little.\u00a0 Bubbles under my skin travel to the punctures, slowly at first, then faster.\u00a0 Much faster.\u00a0 Snakes geyser out of the holes, snapping at my face.<\/p>\n Pain slices through my chest, dropping me on my back.\u00a0 I open my tearing eyes to a blood sky.\u00a0 Purple lava spurts out of the side of a nearby hill, threatening to overtake me.\u00a0 Tribal drums beat in the distance, the beat in sync with the throb of pain.\u00a0 She finally moves, peering down at me, smiling, her head whole.\u00a0 The beat grows irregular.\u00a0 I smile as I cross the thin line between everything and nothing.<\/p>\n David Downey ###<\/p>\n
\n1997<\/p>\n