BEAST
I can feel the intensity of my heartbeat for the first true time since I don’t know how long. As I lay in wait I can see the ominous dark figure lurking, smelling, and waiting. This cabinet in this dark and crumbling shed is cramped but strangely not. I hear the floor creaking underneath the colossus’s weight. Suddenly, silence, a piercing silence, one that would make any man mad with fear. I was suddenly imposed to look through the hinges of the door. No sooner had I done this the hinges were ripped off with the force of a thousand men. The figure lunged with great intensity. Images begin to flash in my mind as the feeling of a speeding bullet seemed to run through my back and through my chest. I realize I no longer feel my physical essence. I want to move but I can’t. My heart tells me to move but my body is locked in a strange trance like state. It occurs to me, I am literally paralyzed with fear, a fear that seems almost inhuman. Then in the absence of mind I can’t help but start to see a black tunnel closing in on my sight devouring everything my eyes touch until at last, my body can take no more and I sleep.
Dear Journal,
My name is kreshnu chakresh. Today is the day of my birth. I am thirteen years of age. My friend Chander is also celebrating for he is also turning thirteen on this day. The date is June sixth, two-thousand and sixteen. The weather is sunny and father says it will rain. The women in the tribe sense great troubles. This has me worried for the future to come. My father has told me news of a journey. There will be other boys from surrounding tribes such as the Blackfoot, Navajo and Cherokee tribes. I will write as I learn more.
As my father begins to tell me of a meeting far from our tribe base, I suddenly feel a darkness pass through my body. As quickly as it came it went but I was still not at ease. As I saw the fellow boys my age I slowly started to relax, but not to a level of pure comfort. A man calls our attention to a stage lit with lights and decorated with décor from all of the attending tribes. I can see the worry in the elder’s eyes as the man picks up the microphone. “I see many young warriors who will represent their tribes in the annual Awakening.” The voice stops and picks up again. “I know you will all do your tribe proud.” I suddenly see my mother who begins to tear up and my father not far from her side. The other kids look just as confused and startled as I would imagine I do. After the man steps off the stage, the entire forest becomes dead. The crows who are normally bickering seem silent to an unsettling degree. The walk home is uncomfortable as well. My father looks me in the eye and can’t seem to do so for very long.
That night my father approaches me with a look of fear and pride all in the same expression. He gestures me to walk with him. I step out of our cloth home and see other parents luring their kids out of their home. The sky begins to fill with smoke from the ashes of the torches. Not long into the walk my father walks over to a tree branch. He calls over more men to aid him in moving the gargantuan limb. Behind it the mouth of a huge cave is made obvious. He gestures for the children to walk in. I follow as my fellow tribe members lead the way. I sense that they are all tired and our resources and slowly depleting. Just overhead I can make out the light of the full moon shining bright over an abyss of darkness. As we begin walking toward the light of the full moon, I feel a sharp pain thrust into my neck as it rips its way through my spine. I instinctively cover my neck and I watch as the other children do the same. One after another begins to fall. I try my best to run as I sense imminent danger but my legs slowly begin to give way. With what little consciousness I had, I see the trees seemingly begin to morph into the shape of humans which begin to stand over me. With my consciousness wavering I slowly close my eyes.
