A Cry

- A Cry -



  There was a sharp pain across my ribs that protected my right lung – aching and throbbing. I fought back a loud shriek but whimpered pitifully instead. The looming monster sneered at me and I resisted the urge to spit in his devil face. I had no idea what he just did to me, but whatever it was –it hurt like hell.

  Beads of sweat rolled down my face and body from the pain that seemed to envelop me, and the heater turned on to the highest was not helping me in the slightest.

  The beast struck out; punching me in the gut with his full force and I retched violently. He sneered once more before turning and exiting the small room, leaving me alone and bleeding.

  I began to cough up lumps of blood and mucus. It hurt and burned my chest and strained my badly injured ribs.   

  They had chained my wrists and elevated me a couple feet off the floor, the weight of my body pulling painfully on my shoulder joints. I was naturally taller than women in general but when the monster had stood before me it didn’t matter that I was tall or even that I was hanging above the ground; he was still taller. He had loomed over me. His immensity slowly ripping into me, with fear seeping into the torn wounds. 

  I started to quaver and gasp for breath as the room around me became claustrophobic. My heart beat fast. I could hear the pulse thud loudly through my veins. What were the monsters trying to do to me? What did they want from me?

  Life, A voice whispered softly to me. They want life! The voice sounded like it was in my ear, but at the same time, it shouted at me like the voice came from a great distance away.

  But they had life didn’t they? They could walk; they could talk. They were alive. I felt it.

  My body was torn and bloody. Some of my toenails were torn off or ripped down the middle and cuts, burns, and bruises traveled grotesquely down my legs. Names of people I loved, carved on my arms by a knife that the monster had used burned into my tormented soul like a wild fire. My nose was broken and a long, deep slash along my right jaw decorated my abused face. I tried to look down to see what he had done to my ribs, but I couldn’t move my head.

  The vomit stung my cuts and sores and I clenched my teeth to prevent a whine. The skin over my damaged ribs was not stinging, so I supposed he didn’t cut me there. 

  The door opened at the end of the room and a woman entered. She was all soft curves, with an innocent looking face framed by a mass of honey colored curls that undulated gracefully down her slender back. Her wide blue eyes however, exposed a creature lurking close to the surface, waiting for the chance to emerge and cause torment.

  She shuddered and wrinkled her nose at the acidic smell of bile, and grabbed a bucket of water that was sitting in the corner of the room close to the metal door. She threw the water on the cement floor close to where I was hanging; cleaning anything unpleasant she would have had to step on.

  She walked up to me and climbed onto a stool in order to reach my ear, her monster whispering through her lips.

  “Your life has been taken from you.” She sounded almost seductive, and filled with pleasure. “Your loved ones are gone – dead. And you are all alone.”



----



  There was a long cry; sad and mournful - quivering with pain. The forest was dark, too dark for me. I couldn’t see. Alone.

  The full moon that decorated the night sky was bright silver, but a canopy of Evergreens and Birch trees shaded the ground on which I stumbled. The beasts had set me free although I had pled for death. There was no reason to live any longer.

  A large root tripped me – at least I think it was a root – and I fell forward, catching myself on my hands and knees. I coughed and tasted blood in my mouth.

  No! I screamed silently. No blood!

  There were monsters out here as well and the loud howl of the wind prevented me from hearing anything approaching. My hands shook with fear, but my dead heart stayed stable. It never beat faster and it never beat slower than its habitual rate.

  I was an animal inside, just alike to those that inhabited these parts. My chest hurt and my right leg wasn’t working properly. I shrieked inside. I wanted light. I needed light.

  I pushed myself off the forest floor and found a tree to clutch before my leg gave way and I fell again.

  The cold night breeze carried me another scream of pain, not of physical pain, but emotional. I wanted to howl with the beast, sing his mourning song of pain and loss.

  My right arm flopped down and I had to clench my teeth from screaming out in agony, before the nerves collapsed, and my arm went numb. Salty liquid slid down my quivering cheeks, and I quickly brushed it away. It called to the water monsters, ones I didn’t want to meet just yet.

  I felt for a branch on the tree and when I found one, I snapped it off using my left arm. I had to walk on. I had to find it.

  I clasped the branch and used it to help me move. It was painful and strenuous, but I had to continue. I saw some light shimmering ahead of me through the inky blackness of this haunted forest. I stopped myself from trying to run. I couldn’t run – I would fall. But I wanted to laugh; I was more than relieved that there was light to be found.

  The light was my savior as I stumbled into a meadow. The once spring green grass was brown and withered. I didn’t care; there was light here. I could see. There was a high-pitched howl of triumph and I froze. The sound – the howl, was from right in front of me. And why couldn’t I see the beast? Why couldn’t I see him?

  My left arm lost grip on the stick. It hurt. The pain in my arm was pure agony before it went numb like my right one – useless now. I toppled to the ground holding back a sharp yell of pain by my fingertips. There came a growl from my right and I wanted to reach out my hand and touch the beast; but I couldn’t.

  Strong arms lifted me, and I swallowed a whimper of fright.

  “Who did this to you?” A gruff voice asked from above me. The beast, the creature was carrying me across the meadow- across the meadow and back into the forest.

  No! I screeched inside – panicked. No! I want the light!

  “Shh.” The beast was trying to calm me as he crossed the border of the meadow and into the black forest. “You’re safe now.” He told me.

  Was I? I wasn’t safe. Too many monsters were hunting me. They wanted what they didn’t possess. They all wanted life. Life was rare. But what they didn’t know was that I was an animal too – just like them. I had no life. My lifeless heart was proof to this. So why did they want me?

  “They won’t get you.” The beast told me. We were in black darkness, but he wasn’t stumbling. He wasn’t falling. He could see in this hell!

  Something caught my attention, something not right. I listened and heard my steady, comatose heart - and something else; the beasts’ heart. It was fast. It beat rapidly from his exertion and I quavered. He clutched me tighter and pulled me up to tuck my head in the crook of his neck before he picked up a steady jog. He had life. Nobody had life. But he did.

  I was suddenly so afraid - more afraid than I had ever been before. My breath came out in ragged gasps and I began to see white dots in the blackness.

  “Don’t you go on me!” I heard someone say angrily, but the voice was faint – fading. “I need you awake!”

  Awake? I was awake. But I was tired, so tired.

  The beast stopped jogging, and I could feel the faint bounce of his body as he descended a flight of stairs. But there were no stairs in the forest. There were only monsters and trees; blackness and death. I felt him lay me on something soft. A bed? There were no beds.

  A large hand smoothed my thick hair back and placed something warm on my body; a blanket. I wanted to sleep.

  “No,” The beast shook my shoulders. “Open your eyes, Lifa!”

  It was like an electric bolt ran through my entire body. Lifa. I haven’t heard that name in so long. Nobody knew my name – nobody. They were all dead; all the persons I have ever loved – killed.

  “I know your name. I’m not dead, I’m here.” He growled. “Tell me what happened!”

  I opened my mouth but then closed it. I couldn’t tell him what happened. I had betrayed my family, my friends. It was because of me that they were dead. Gone. And I was paying for it now. If I told him... he would kill me.

  “Never!” He snarled, grasping my hand. Never was a powerful word; a word that a person could not promise on.

  I coughed and he helped me sit up as I continued to cough. I tasted blood in my mouth, but I couldn’t stop coughing. I felt warm liquid run out of my mouth and down my chin and neck. Blood. I was bleeding internally. I was going to die.

  “You. will. not.” The beast told me through clenched teeth. “You are going to stay with me!”

  I wasn’t. I was dying. I could feel him feverishly wipe the blood off my face and neck, but already his touch was far away – distant. I was still coughing, but it didn’t hurt anymore. I couldn’t feel it. My heart was still steady, but it was getting quiet. The beast started banging my back desperately – trying to make me breathe. But I couldn’t.