Hallucinate not
~~~~~~~~~
When you come to, you felt snakes coiling and writhing inside your stomach.
You screamed but not a sound came,
your throat tearing and contracting with every syllable you'd utter,
with every breath you took.
You tried to move but the stinging pain rendered you incapacitated,
bursting like fiery fire from deep within your bones.
You could hear your own blood sloshing and running in your veins.
Then the snakes inside you growled and you thought, in panic,
maybe they weren't snakes at all.
You placed your hand on your belly and—ah.
Yes, they were moving.
Cold sweat escaped your pores
and you darted your hand around to find something sharp enough to pry them out.
You found nothing and, as substitute, you closed your hand into a fist
and punched your stomach hard,
again
and again,
but the growling still didn't stop.
It was an hour later,
while you were still laid out on the cold floor,
your tongue lolling out and your pupils flitting about,
when you realized your stomach was growling because you hadn't eaten anything in over three days.
You smiled widely, stupidly,
and huffed out a laugh that bordered hysteria.
You sound like a hyena at the end of its life,
spending its remaining breath to giggle at its own poor expense.
You rubbed soothing circles along the abused skin as if apologizing for what you've done.
You were only hungry.
How pitiful.
