085. Blood, 1

(Rose)

It's too late. I've killed her. That part my decaying brain understands and names with absolute clarity. I struck them both. I'm still pushing them down because what's boiling around her looks dangerous. The girl falls down with the monster that is swallowing her, my weapon still stuck into them.

Without thinking, I close the trapdoor in a rush, before the woman and her other child see what I've done.

You're lost now Rose, in more ways than you could ever imagine.

I hear my brain telling that to myself...

I feel very cold, but I sweat a lot. When I recover my sight which I had lost for a few seconds, I see that they haven't realised what I just did. I think they haven't seen me murdering her.

They're going through the smaller door opened to the field, to escape.

I swallow with difficulties my saliva. I still hear monstrous growls below and screams inside my head. Despite shivers hurting my spine, I move. I follow them, feeling more sick than ever before in my life.

I still have to escape, and survive. I give it all.

~

The day is beautiful, but we cannot see it. Surely not me.

The blood is drying over my clothes and in my hair as we leave the farm. Behind us, I can see someone else being crucified, shred apart by monstrous shapes.

The horses too are in pieces in the courtyard and along the path. I think it was horses, I'm not sure. The corpses are splattered with a layer of petrol oil that appears to be boiling fast. The fumes are acidic. I can't stop to try thinking about what's going on.

In front of me, Ann and her daughter are running slowly. Which child is it? That question rips something in my brain. It hurts...

We climb the hill. We find a tree with someone against it. We get a bad feeling about it but go anyway toward it.

He's already dead, of course... Sticks are piercing his chest. His head is half missing. I can't look. There's this mould that grows over it at a speed we can see.

He suddenly yells at us and moves. We panic and run away. I think I soiled my underwear but that's the least of my worries now.

Ann has dropped a bag but we don't pick it up and run away.

We pass the train tracks again. There's no words coursing through my thoughts, they're forgotten right now.

Further, far, we see another house, and smoke.

We go for it. Behind us we hear flesh being torn apart.

We run. We're still exhausted. Something like a giant dog is after us, and catching up.

I'm behind, I tell them to give me a knife or anything. I tell them to help me.

But they keep running and don't even turn their heads to look at me. I feel desperate. Murky emotions rise from my stomach and clench onto my throat.

While I panic and keep my pace as best I can, I voraciously search for anything that could make a weapon on my path.

But there is nothing but grass. I have nothing but my weak self.

It's right behind me. It's a wild beast hunting me, about to devour me, to rip my flesh and organs apart before tearing my head out. My head will be crushed like a grape between its jaws.

I take my jacket off. I don't remember when or where I picked it up and wore it. I'll try to cover its head with this. That's all I can do now...

I see some stones on the ground. I jump on them as if they were gold. I turn back and it pushes me down violently.

I push my jacket on its face and grab a good stone. I'm lucky. It bites my left shoulder through the jacket. I scream and hit it again and again. It lets go, but strikes me in the head suddenly. I feel dizzy from the shock, I'm almost letting go of my stone.

I felt abruptly an anger slipping through my throat and flooding my head...

I smack it again, with more strength. I hit the bone above the eye. It's hurt and steps back from the shock.

But I'm still infuriated and want more. I smack it again on the face. It grabs my arm holding the stone.

I don't care, my other hand is free while his is near the ground. His eyes are so big. I want to see blood. I want to see it suffer. My fingers are tiny but full of hate.

I plunge my hand around that eye and gouge it out, crushing it as I rip it off.

I want to vomit but I'm also excited about it. I want to laugh because that thing that killed and terrified us is now screaming in pain and terror as if the roles had been reversed.

I do laugh a bit, nervously, as I free myself from its grasp. It's screaming and bleeding over the dirt, panicking.

I began to leave but my stomach couldn't follow me. I vomit suddenly everything I had along the way. I'm horrified by what I've become.

Still, I manage to seize my chance and run away again. Behind me, it's now screaming with a softer voice like a child would.

Something within my chest keeps moving, twitching. At what I've done. At how I felt.

I don't stop to think about it, but I felt something dark running through my blood more freely now.

~