Vampiric

The sounds

I have no idea how long I’ve been here. Although, I’ve come to enjoy my sharp pains. Welcoming them, I’ve been using them as a measurement of time. The pain returns every 60 seconds or so, now. Counting endlessly. Sometimes more intense pain in longer intervals, sometimes less. I feel like I’ve counted billions of seconds by now. Keeping track of how many hours in minutes I’ve counted by scratching tiny lines in the wood grain. I’m running out of room within my reach. 

Recently, I’ve noticed sounds coming from beyond the box. Crawling, worms tunneling through the earth surrounding me. Yes, that actually makes a sound. I’ve grown envious of their free range movements. f*****g bugs have freedom. I’ve already concluded a hard realization that I’ve been buried alive, but I try to entertain myself. Surprisingly, I only think there are about fifty worms creeping around me. Yeah, I’m that bored. What else is there to do in a box? I can barely move, I don’t breathe, I’m basically a blinking, thinking corpse! Referring back to the movies I’ve watched, I think I’m a zombie. Something like Billy from Hocus Pocus, the dead husband of one of the Sanderson sisters. Decayed but still conscious. 

I’ve also been hearing someone lurking around my grave, which now I feel almost territorial about. Who the f**k is that?! Who dares walk on my grave? I literally get enraged when someone steps on my grave, it’s like they are stepping on my face. Disrespectful! Probably one of my fake friends coming to piss on my grave. My teeth grit together, I’m mentally screaming at whoever is above me to leave my gravesite. My regular screams don’t work. 

When the steps are directly above me, specks of dirt fall in my box. I’m hit in the face and eyes with pieces of earth. Shielding my eyes does no good, I only get flakes of skin in them instead. The lid of my box bows with the pressure from above. Pressing back on the lid is useless with my bony arms. Besides it’s like millions of pounds of earth are above me, just waiting to take over every inch of space in what I assume is my coffin.

Now when the crunching foot steps of above get close, my pain erupts. Coming in fast waves, pulsating through my body. Only reactive to the vibrations of the person above me..

This happens for what I feel like is days but who knows, it could be minutes? Hours? Weeks? Months?? And why the f**k is this person constantly walking around or close to my grave?! Don’t they know I’m trying to have my peace in resting?! Damnit! I feel like a grumpy old man yelling at kids to stop playing on his lawn. 

Out of nowhere, my piercing pain stops. It’s been ongoing for so long I had almost forgotten what it was like without them. I feel like I’ve gone insane, further than my already tortured mind has ever gone before. And now I wine in desperation for my sweet pains to return, but nothing happens. I try to hit myself to cause a reaction. My weak self inflicted blows do nothing. I pick the skin from the bones of my legs until there is nothing left to pick. I’m just destined to sit in a desolate box and state of mind. Hopelessness returns to taunt and consume me once again. I welcome Death, but it never comes. Just playing the memories I have in my head over and over. Thinking of things I could have done differently. Missing the feeling on sun on my skin. Feeling the breeze of a perfect summer day. I miss the smells of outside, the rain, wet cement. 

My thinking is disrupted by the sound of rumbling of earth being broken above me. Am I being dug up? Is someone coming to reclaim my body? To make sure I’m alive? Or worse, make sure I’m dead?

I can’t help but feel anger and excitement. ‘Someone to save me!’ My naive mind thinks one second to ‘Who the f**k is trying to disturb my peace?!’ The next. 

More rumbling, the sounds of a shovel sticking into the ground, pulling mounds of dirt away from my resting place. My pain is worse than it’s ever been before as the person sends vibrations through my ground and digs through my dirt, hurting my worm friends! 

Finally, the top is ripped open. 

I see a cloud of dust emerge from my box before I slam my eyes closed to avoid seeing the figure standing before me. I can instantly smell the earth I’ve been in for so long. The smell is marvelous! I can feel cool air on my decrepit skin! 

I lay still, waiting for their next move. I feel myself trying to hold my breath, even though I don’t breathe anyway. 

“I know you’re conscious, I can feel you. Stop playing f*****g stupid!” I hear a mans voice say angrily, my ear drums feel like they could explode from the impact of the loud voice. I open my eyes to look up, seeing past the man, taking in the dark night sky with millions of stars in my view. The moon radiating luminescent beams through the sky. The man scoffs as I ignore him. I’m too enthralled with the feelings of nature stimulating my senses for the first time in ages.

After a short moment of taking it all in, I can feel him over everything. He’s angry, which makes me angrier! I feel like I’ve sensed him before. Who the hell is this guy?! He’s already interrupted my serenity and now he’s trying to ruin my moment of freedom?! Screw that! I can smell him, he smells like dirt and death. I can almost taste him. Radiating with animosity and impatience, which I feel back even more intensely. My eyes lock on to him, he’s staring at me in disgust and I stare back with hatred. I’m sure my current state is not pretty, and I feel rabid. Like I could go crazy on this guy and tear him apart. He’s blocking the sight of the moon, looking like a giant from my position. Dark hair, darker eyes, they are almost black. The dark silhouette is surrounded by the shining stars of the night sky and the bright light from the moon. But I’m f*****g sick of the dark! He stands there, waiting on me with his shovel in his hands. He tosses it to the side, as he shouts “Get the f**k up! We don’t have all night!”

I try with everything that I have within me, every ounce of will I can gather, “I.. I can’t.. j-jerk.” My voice sounds like a death rattle, no longer sweet and soft like it used to be. The unfamiliar voice that escapes me is rough and scratchy. 

The man scoffs again at me and jumps out of the freshly dug hole, allowing dirt to fall on to me. The dirt is cool and soft, unlike the dirt in my box that was dry and powdery. As he moves away, I feel less anger, I’m calming down. Moments later he returns, I could feel the angry vibrations of him stomping towards the hole long before he got here.. which just pissed me off all over again!

The man throws water on me, my body quickly soaking it up like a sponge, almost in an instant. The cool water is so refreshing, feeling my skin suck up every last drop. He leaves and returns again, repeating the process, multiple times until I’m soaking wet. My skin is rejuvenated, my eyes, moisten. My throat no longer dry and full of tumbleweeds. The dirt washing from my skin. My body repairing itself, utilizing the molecules of the water to repair cells, veins, almost like life is pouring itself back into me. The water is the elixir of my being and I wish he’d never stop dousing me in it. I’m still not able to move much, but I’m slowly starting to reanimate. Hairs on my arms stand in attention on top of the bumps tingling all over my body. Feeling static from the electricity emanating from my new movements. Every muscle twitching in my body, reacting to the hydration. My organs are still dormant but I’m better than I was. 

Finally the man glares at me from the top of my hole. He reaches his arm down “Let’s f*****g go now! We don’t have all night!” 

Reaching for him, my joints cracking and popping beneath the weight of my body. My muscles screaming with the exertion. I’m yanked from my position and freely moving for the first time.

I’m free.

I’m left standing on my own, balancing on the edge of the hole I just emerged from. My bare feet in the blades of grass. The bottoms of my feet feel the vibrations of my worm friends beneath me, the coolness of the dirt, the grass feeling like satin, the air smoothly moving through my hair. My hair dancing around my face. Looking down at the grave that was once mine only moments ago. Being free is fantastic but I also want to crawl back into my box. Now I have to face life again. I catch a glimpse of my body, and it’s back to the way it was! My beautiful, curvy body is back to the way I know and love it! The mysterious man forcefully wraps a soft blanket around me that feels like the softest cotton I’ve ever had the pleasure to be wrapped in and pushes me into a car. 

Sitting in the passenger seat naked beneath the blanket, feeling such bittersweet emotions. Reluctantly, I try to get a glimpse of the man from the corner of my eye. He looks angry, annoyed, like I’ve disturbed him. But this jerk disturbed me! His posture is hunched over the steering wheel, speeding through what looks to be an empty field that seems to go on forever. My eyes taking in every sight I can see. The wheat being crushed by the speeding vehicle, bugs splattering against the windshield and making a splat sound. The ride is rough, my breast bouncing and the rest of my body jerking in it’s seat as I try to maintain my balance. My first free involuntary bodily movements since the box. We continue to speed through the dark night, the man not relaxing or slowing down until we hit the main road. The ride is much smoother now, tires on the road like a hot knife through butter. The man starts to drive slower, a small sigh of relief escapes me. 

His glare snap towards me. 

“What?!” He mutters.

“Nothing!” Restraining myself from looking at him. My mind floods, I have so many questions! I can barely contain myself. Holding on to the words scratching to escape my mouth, my chest burning. 

“What!” The man screams at me this time. I gasp a bit, releasing the sound that was the last thread keeping me from unraveling, I seem to lose all control. 

“Who are you? Where are you taking me? Why are you doing this? Who the f**k are you? Why are you being such a d**k?” Screaming, my anger has boiled over. Fire ignites inside me, uncontrollable, burning rage as I lash out. My vocal cords feel like they shatter with the outburst. Yanking on the car door, slamming my fists on the dash board in front of me, slamming my feet on the floor and thrashing around. Throwing my arms around in all directions, I hit the mystery man in his arms and legs, anything within reach. Making contact with him sends fireworks through me. The pain inside me erupt again, impaling, shooting pain, almost enough to make me pass out. I feel drowsy and light headed from the tantrum.

“Ugh!” The man exclaims. “You sound just as bad as when you were being buried in the first place! Can’t you stop your s**t for two f*****g seconds?!” 

I’m in shock. This is the man who buried me. Or at least he was there when it happened..

“Look, we’ll be there soon and then I’ll answer your f*****g questions if you stay quiet for the rest of the ride, got it?!”

I nod my head in agreement, forcefully trying to douse the fire within me is almost too much to bare. 

I stare out the window and watch the trees pass us. I can feel my eyes getting heavy. A sharp pain, which is follow by a feeling of nausea. 

My body rocks with the movement of the car, on coming waves of motion sickness. My eyelids get heavier and close. I feel the projection from the pit of my stomach all the way up my esophagus, rushing over my tongue and out my mouth. 

“Oh what the f**k! Why didn’t you say something?!” The mysterious man scolds. 

His words soften a bit but then he gets angry again. I vomited all over the car. It was mostly water and dirt mixed with this slime of some sort. The vomit is pitch black and has a heavy smell like tar.

‘I’m sorry’ I whisper, looking away from the man. I feel his tense presence relax at my soft spoken words. My body relaxes with his. He sighs but doesn’t respond to my words. He pulls over to the side of the road, he exits the car and comes to my side, opening the door. My body weak and limp. 

“Come here, I got you” He says, holding his hand out for me. Managing to pull myself out of the car with his helping hand and the blanket I originally had wrapped around my falls to the ground, exposing my nakedness. Normally, I would have scrambled and covered up in embarrassment, but I’m too weak to care. He wraps a new blanket around me, just as soft as the first and I’m placed back in the car, much more gently than before. My heavy eyes close and the sleep I’ve been wishing for so desperately finally consumes me. I sleep for the rest of the way..