StoryMask.com

Birth

By Ben Marroquin
StoryMask.com

The puddle of blood tainted vomit stuck to the side of her face like a tangy paste, maybe I’m dead, she thought to herself.

Buzzing droned around her, greeting her to consciousness. She felt tugging on her fingers and abdomen, as butterfly like sensations fluttered inside her. Jolts of pain caused her to finally move her stiff limbs and open her eyes. Small blurry forms scuttled away, melding into the shadows of the old abandoned brick building. A mass of flies took flight as she got to her knees and sat there, her eyes adjusting to the dimness around her.

What the hell, she thought to herself taking in her surroundings; puddles of blood, empty syringes, and a bloody tarp adorned the cold hard concrete ground. Her stomach quivered as a feeling of emptiness overcame her. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out as she looked down at her body; her chest was split wide open. She tried to close her chest with gnawed hands, but couldn’t find the strength. Seeing light, blood-covered rats scurried out of her wounded chest, hit the ground with a wet plops and disappeared into the shadows.

This can’t be happening… can’t be real… it’s a dream, a nightmare, she thought desperately. A gentle fluttering sound followed by a soft light caused her to look up into the rafters of the old building with wet eyes. I must be dead, she thought. There was just no other explanation for what her teary eyes were seeing.

Perched on an old wooden rafter above was a softly glowing ethereal being. Her first glimpse told her it was some strange type of owl, but now that she had overcome the initial shock, her eyes were able to better see. The being had feathery hair, a strong athletic body, alien like legs, and taloned feet and hands. Her majestic wings, for she had a womanly shape, wrapped round her body. The being stared down at her through large dark inky eyes as soft melodious sounds emanated from the beings small black beak like lips, the world around her melted till only the softly pulsing being remained, capturing her full attention.

A blinding flash of light struck her, filling her vision with sunspots, sunspots filled with images of her past. The sunspots spiraled in front of her, then came streaming into her eyes as her memory came flooding back:

The evening was dark with storm clouds as Bella Reed took refuge in the old abandoned brick building, warming herself by a small fire that she started in an old rusted bucket. A far away look clouded her eyes as she stared at the fire, remembering a time not long ago when she lived a normal life like other teenagers, before she ran away almost a year ago. The sound of a clanking can and a whispered curse snapped her out of her trance, making her aware of her surroundings. Two figures could be seen lurking just outside the circle of firelight, causing her heart to jackrabbit.

“Chase, Fingers, Rayne… is that you?” Bella asked rising to her feet, moving her dark hair out of her eyes. She began inching closer to the darkened doorway. For 6 months she had been running from town to town, always running farther away from home, from her painful past; till she finally ended up in the city of Paradise and made her home in this abandoned building. A building already occupied by other runaways that, after several months time, she got to know and began to grow comfortable with, secure. But these shadowy figures didn’t respond the way she had hoped, instead they chuckled as they parted, both taking different routes to box her in.

Their laughter sounded familiar, but her instincts told her something was wrong, so she burst to the doorway. Her stomach exploded in pain as her breath left her gasping and her knees buckled, dropping her to the concrete ground. She vomited as another figure stepped out from the darkness of the doorway holding an old aluminum bat over his shoulder.

Bella felt hands grab her ankles as the other two began pulling her back into the room, her face dragged through her vomit. “Dammit Chase! You didn’t need to hit her,” the girl said angrily as she dropped Bella’s ankle. “You heard what he said, he wants her uninjured or else we won’t get paid. You better not have injured her insides you idiot.”

“Calm down Rayne, she’s fine. Just knocked her wind out is all. No harm, no foul right Doc,” Chase said to the man walking out of the shadows. Bella lifted her head, her arms wrapped round her pain-wracked belly, confusion evident in her eyes. She could see Fingers laying out a large tarp as a man in glasses and a hat handed Rayne something from his bag.

“We’ll see in a moment,” the man said looking at Chase. It was then that Bella remembered whom the man was; her doctor from the free clinic a few blocks away. She felt a prick in her neck as Rayne injected her with the syringe the doctor had given her. “Now put her on the tarp so I can get to work.”

“Doc, I don’t want to see this, can you just give us our payment before…” Rayne was saying as the doctor reached into his bag and pulled out 3 vials of payment.

“Remember, just like before, get rid of the body before sunrise…” Those were the last sounds Bella heard as a strange darkness took her.

Bella’s ethereal eyes popped open, revealing shadowy hellish creatures surrounding her body. Clacking filled her ears as they began clawing and raking at her spirit flesh, grasping and pulling, ripping her out of her body. Panic and fear swelled up inside her, causing her to thrash about, as the creatures carried and dragged her towards the cold dark pit; a pit that perfumed the air with a putrid sulfuric scent, emanated heat, and filled the room with screams of agony.

(work in progress)