Silence roared in my ears like
the static on a broken TV. All around me voices whispered unintelligible words.
The air was sultry and oppressive; I felt it closing in on me like a choker worn
too tightly. Even though it was so hot I couldn’t stand it, chills crept over
me like icy spiders looking for a place to nest.
All around me the world was dark and muddy, like an old sepia
tone photograph that had been distorted. In the distance I could make out
figures, shadows against a dimly lit moon. I thought I recognized these figures,
though I could not be certain. I tried to call out to them but only a faint moan
escaped my lips. My heart began to pound in my chest. A million thoughts flooded
my mind. I felt something come loose inside my head.
Holding my hand below my chin I spit and saw a tooth had
fallen out. I searched out the vacant space inside my
mouth with my tongue. The space felt like a vast canyon inside my head and I
began to panic and I felt another tooth disintegrate and come loose. Rapidly,
more began to follow and I found myself continually spitting out lost teeth.
Somehow, there always seemed to be more on the way out.
The ground on which I stood was hard dirt, dead and dying
grasses and weeds scattered through it. I was in the middle of a wasteland where
nothing living could exist for long. A permanent winter had descended on this
place; all around me was the stench of death.
The whispering in my ears grew louder, more confused, as I
tried to run. My feet wouldn’t budge at first, and then slowly gave way and I
began to move at a death march, excruciatingly slow. My legs were two inflexible
cement posts and it took all my will to force them each step. Still, I did not
seem to make any progress across the deserted field. I fell onto the damp,
clammy ground and through my arms over my head. With my hands I tried to shut
the voices out.
“Scream! Just scream!” I thought to myself, but each time
I opened my mouth all that came out was an endless stream of lost teeth. I tried
to breath, but something was tightening, keeping me from taking in air.
Helplessly I lay there waiting, trying to shut out the voices
and the screaming wind inside my head. I knew that something would come for me
soon, I could smell smoke and death and blood in the air. My heartbeat hammered
inside my head. A pressure formed in the base of my skull, crushing my soul
forward.
I struggled to move, but nothing helped me. I was bound to
the ground by some unseen force. My skin began to crawl and everything I came in
contact with was unbearable. My clothes were so rough they burned, the ground so
cold it froze my heart inside my chest.
I began to cry. The tears that streamed down my face and
dropped to the ground stung like acid, but I knew they were blood. My blood
being pulling away to feed some unknown, unwanted force that held me captive
inside my own head. A single word became apparent to me in the cacophony of
sound.
“Feed! Feed! Feed!” The voices hissed and chanted. A
burning sensation started in my stomach and worked its way up into my brain. I
tried to resist, tried to call out for help, but I was too far-gone. The world
went dim, dangled by a thread, and then all was black. Time and space were dead.
