Monsters

Inside the coffin, the girl strained against the lid, every limb and joint sore from the struggle. "Help me," she cried. It was dark and so very, very quiet.

"Let me out!"      "Help me"      "Please!"

A shuffling sound could be heard from above. A soft chipping noise made its way into the coffin and into the terrified girl's ears. Soon after, soft thuds striking the lid signaled that the diggers had finally unburied the casket.

Muffled voices, whose words she couldn't make out, still brought hope and comfort as the girl anxiously awaited for her rescuers to bring her to safety..

"Thank goodness, this was a shallow grave," one of the diggers said as the men lifted the short casket out of the ground. "Otherwise, we might never have heard her cries. Who could bury a child alive?"

The coffin was nothing more than a rectangular box, constructed from a few pieces of heavy plywood nailed together. Confounded by the cruel actions of her unknown assailants, the men prayed inwardly that they had not arrived too late to save the little girl inside.

As the lid was carefully pried open, a light stench of sweat and vomit oozed out. One man retched. Another man started crying.

As they removed the cover, the concerned looks shared by each rescuer quickly curled into horror and disgust.

"Oh my lord! It's a monster!" one man snarled. Another man whose hands still held a shovel stepped forward and swung down upon the little girl's body, killing any hope for survival. Trembling, her slender frame curled painfully like a caterpillar under attack.

"Quick, the cover!"      "Don't let her out!"      "Hammer the nails!"

The girl screamed as the heavy plywood shrouded her with darkness again. Sobbing, shaking, she squeezed her face into her arms until she felt the box lift up into the air. Then she stretched out her limbs and braced herself once more for the tumbling descent into her grave.

The men hefted what dirt that shovels and hands could push into the shallow hole in the ground, burying the box in less time than it took them to unbury it.

"We should never have come here," they gasped in agreement once the work was done. "Evil spirits. They call out for us here. We're all lucky that this monster didn't take us tonight."

Within the box, hidden beneath loosely packed soil, the little girl wailed. Her arms hurt. Her legs hurt. Her head hurt. All twenty-one limbs shuddered from the sorrow and pain wrought upon her by the ape-like monsters above ground.

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Day 1 - Prompt: MONSTER!