Bastard
He survived. Then he fed the creature.
Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash
A word rang through my mind. Bastard.
I felt it grab me. Its skin was slick like moss, but the claws were barbed. They curled around my scalp as if custom-made, pressing into my flesh. A drop of blood rolled into my eye as the unseen thing pressed me into the dirty water. The mud and muck filled my nostrils. I couldn’t breathe through the slime. My eyes stung as the filth entered them. I was blind.
The creature was strong. Stronger than me.
Breathless, bound, pressed deep into the moist mud, I lost myself. I lost everything.
Air. I needed air.
Light. I needed to see.
My lungs burned, my eyes throbbed. I could no longer tell my blood from the slime in the swamp bed. The pressing hand and I.
My head grew light. The dizziness set in. My thoughts… faded.
I needed air.
A final thought before action.
I wrapped my hands around its wrist. Muscles rippled beneath my grasp like a python. I kicked the creature’s shin with both feet.
“You belong to me, human. You don’t even know it,” the creature growled.
Mud had filled my ears. The creature’s words were wasted on me. With one last vicious kick, I pushed against its hands. Air.
A slick thumb slipped into my mouth. The claw tore my inner cheeks; I could feel the canker sores rising. I bit. My teeth sank into the chewy, tough flesh. Past the skin, the creature melted in my mouth, filling me with metallic blood.
A primal scream echoed through the dingy swamp. I don’t know if it was his or mine, but I do know the creature released me. In the distance, sobs, pleas for mercy.
It said, “I let you go.”
I shot to my feet. Large bubbles rose around the swamp. Methane and sulfur assaulted my nose as yellow blood dripped down my chin.
I could breathe, but I still couldn’t see. I heard a loud crash beside me. The scent of burnt electronics invaded the swamp.
“Walk away,” it whispered in my ear. “Coward.”
It would never forget that I’m no coward.
I swung my fists, kicked my feet. I screamed to heaven, striking the beast repeatedly. As it fell, it grabbed my wrist, pulling me on top of it.
The creature went limp, but it wasn’t enough for me. Grabbing it by its ears, thick hair entangled my fingers. It smelled familiar, like a shampoo I couldn’t place. I slammed its head into the ground over and over and over again.
The swamp fell silent.
Not a cricket nor a bird chirped.
The loudest sound was the wheezing in my chest. I stood to my feet and wiped the mud from my eyes. Through blurred vision, the water drained from the swamp; the vegetation faded.
My head throbbed as I fought for focus. It came slowly. I was in a room. My knuckles were cracked and bleeding, blood in my mouth. Not yellow. Red. Human.
Beside me, a shattered television lay on the floor. A trail of blood droplets led from it. I followed them to a crumpled mass on the floor. Long blond hair lay still, stained by crimson splotches.
I turned the body and exposing her face. Her missing thumb gushed blood all over my shirt. Even bruised and swollen, I recognized her. Did I do this? No, that couldn’t be. Anything but that.
I closed my eyes, feeling the adrenaline fade from my veins.
I screamed to the creature, “Why did you make me do this?”
She was right. I have always been a bastard.
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