“Even the frogs are quiet”
Dark moist soil squeezes between my fingers. The Earth is damp, worms feasting on decaying swamp matter, but the dogs are already upon me. I can hear them howling in the distance. I don’t have enough time to bury the body.
I drop the clump of mud dragging the body. Feet sinking into the ground with a wet sick sucking sound. Soil oozing between toes. I couldn’t find shoes. I don’t regret. It feels good being this close to the Earth. Being one. Like my dreams. All my dreams.
The dogs bark. There are many. They will tear me apart. They will send me back, and take the body, but I will hide it before they find me.
The smell of the swamp is putrid. Must be something with the night. Frogs croaking, shadows slithering. Gases rising in the cold moonlit sky. There is a lake deep out here, though the thick underbrush. This will slow the dogs.
The beautiful moon dances on the still mirror surface. So perfect, so utterly speechlessly perfect. I see her calling to me. The silent song I’ve heard for so many years- in my dreams, in my waking moments. Now I find her. Now I go. This is where I will hide the body. So perfect.
I break the calm cold surface with my muddy feet sending ripples out to her. They shatter and shake her reflection. So much like my scattered mind. Thoughts racing and dancing, impossible to hold onto. That’s why they give me all those pills. Big red and yellow ones. So difficult to swallow. How hard it’s become to keep a clear thought, so hard to stay focused. But tonight, this last one, this thought, my final idea. I will bring the body to her and she will embrace me. And they will not find us.
The dogs are close. I hear shouting. They know my name. And do does she, out there, in the cold dark surface.
My feet sink deep into the muck. The ground beneath the water is murky and hard to walk. Each step is impossible concentration. Dragging the body through the mud and sediment is difficult, But, she’s still out there, calling to me, dancing off the ripples I send out to her pale glowing light. I lift each foot and sink deeper into the cold muddy bottom. Soon the body will be buried and the dog will not be able to find me.
I feel things crawling up my legs. Leeches and creatures cling onto me. Little black demons, vampire parasites of the dark waters. If only I can reach her light. It becomes hard to see... the surface... I choke and the decaying waters fill my nose and mouth. Guide me- I beg out to her. Something long and dark swims past my face. She will protect me.
I can no longer hear the dogs. She is a faint and distant glow, nothing more than a pin prick in the sky so high above me in the darkness, on the other side, so far away. So much further away. She has abandoned me... this is not how I was promised. The cold silent waters hide the body and the lake’s surface is still once again.
Even the frogs are quiet in the depths below
