The Descent
By acm76
- 142 reads
I woke up in the ditch, which was situated at the nadir of a long,
seemingly infinite road. I tasted a rich, dry soil lingering in my
mouth. I tried to wipe it away but it was everywhere. My eyes burned
with the rage of a hellish inferno as the sweat trickled into my eyes.
Or was it rain? I looked up into the sky but saw nothing but an empty
canvas of a dark, indistinct expanse. Across an infertile field I could
see the image of Death stalking me. And in doing so it had enveloped
the sky, casting a thick, black shadow into the pitch darkness. The
night was devoid of celestial life. Here, there is no Earth and there
are no heavens.
I stumbled down the barren road looking over my shoulder incrimately
for Death. A stiff wind blew at my back. I knew this to be the force by
which Death stalked its victim. This knowledge seemed like it had
always been with me. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees and they
rattled together with a haunting distinctness that chilled me to the
bottom of my soul. I looked over where the sound seemed to be
emanating, but there were no trees there. I heard there piquant sound,
but here there are no trees.
I stayed ahead of Death but I could always feel it behind me, calling
me, watching me. I made my way to a car that was parked off to the side
of the desolate, gravel road. I tried the doors but they were always
locked. Inside I saw a camera on the passenger seat, and there were
pictures of me. My family. I don't know their names or their meaning
here, but I know that they were mine. Here, there are no names. I
looked across the inhospitable field and saw a tiny shadow walking
towards me. It was Death. I hurried to keep ahead of it. I continued on
with a frenzied pace and reached a dilapidated, foreboding house that
emblazoned the foremost recesses of my mind. I smelt a frightfully
beautiful fragrance of a thick chorus of April flowers. I went around
the corner to the garden to see their ominous colors, but I found
nothing there.
I stood next to the house of prodigious evil, its windows broken and
gables protruding into the darkness ravenously seeking to quell its
need for gratification. The wonderful concoction of spring flowers that
had permeated my senses only moments earlier slowly dissipated. Here,
there are no flowers.
I returned to the road and saw Death getting closer. I made my final
exit off the path and sensed the presence of another soul. It reached
for me and clasped my hand into its own. I felt the soft skin of the
entities fingertips, and it slowly led my hand across its features. I
felt the coarseness of its neck, and the refined quality of its cheek.
An enormous rush of emotion took control of me upon feeling the
pulsating vitality of another being. I turned quickly to discern the
identity, but when I looked to where it should have been there was
nothing more than darkness. Here, there is no one else.
I came back to the road and saw that Death was now so close that I
could almost touch it. I crept forward on the infinite path but my legs
seemed to no longer move with the swiftness that I commanded from them,
rather, they trudged slowly, eventually coming to two huge gates which
stood at the entrance of a dim, macabre palace. Death stood next to me,
adjacent to the mighty gates. It appeared to me as a dark and shadowy
figure, not solid like those of flesh and blood, nor transparent like a
specter. It opened the gate with no apparent force or volition of its
own and led me in with an embittered hand. I realized now that it was
not Death but rather a lack of life. I looked far ahead and saw a
daunting palace of Armageddon, decorated by a crimson, blood-red and
surrounded by a million souls trembling cowardly in its intimidating
presence. I saw from the corner of my eye all the things that I held to
be my own. The truths by which I had lived my life by. Then in an
instant they were gone. I fell cowering to my knees and gently placed
my face into my hands. I wept loudly but no one heard my cries. No one
eased my pain. Here, there is no relief of troubles, or anyone else to
suppress them. I raised myself from the black, unforgiving ground and
lifted my head from my hands, and found myself again at the nadir of a
long and endless road.
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