the alive

Patricia

She's been shot in the thigh. Left shoulder. Right ankle. Someone's punching her where the bullet entered her leg. Digs fingers into the hole. Pulps her muscle and worsens the pain of her femur fracture.

Leonards swarm on top of her. Hold her down for slaughter. Beat her body upon the floor before the remnants of the portal.

Broken glass and metal and a cloud of concrete dust coat the room. Bullet shells lay everywhere. Did what she had to do. Now the payment.

They're destroying her with their fists and clubs. Knees and steel toe boots. Her face is pressed upon by an armour forearm. Her jaw pops. Eyes grow wide. Struggles to fight back. A traitor Ghost kicks her ribs with a boot of steel. Fractures her chest and breaks a bone apart. Pain in her lungs. Winded like her respiratory anatomy is in ruin. Soul cries to escape in the scream that won't exit her broken mouth.

They lift her right leg and stomp it at the knee. Do the same to her left. She'll never walk again. A Leonard breaks all her fingers backward on her right hand. Her left is stomped into something unrecognizable.

Knows this is the end. The Leonards and Ghosts are going to kill her by beating her to death. Can't tell if they're raping her or not. Can't feel that part of her body anymore.

Her vision vignette darkens. Shadows of her life creep across her knowledge with every second.

An armour grip fastens around her throat. Proceeds to choke the twenty one grams from her body.

Patricia's at the precipice. Stares down into the back of her mind as her concept knowledge that deciphers the manifold collapses and drops like landscape crumbles of memory and emotion. Falls into the abyss of a reality that is now beyond her comprehension.

Then everything stops. A scream like a falling shadow drops beyond her remaining intuition. A vocality pierces the dying sky of her mind. Drips like a rain drop moon into the darkness below. Slight beacon from the heavens of her death.

Gunfire. Boots. Vulgarities. The sound of the osteal crunches from cartilage joints like chicken bones. The iron grip upon her throat ceases completely. Still can't breath.

Screams echo in the coming midnight of her existence. Red covers the snow of her breath like a freshly dead rabbit.

The whole room shakes violently like the entire world collapses into God's hungry mouth. Devours the world. Chews existence and swallows such reality only to shit it out. Rumble. Defecation. Silence. Dead silence.

Fingers. A hand touches her forehead and cheek. For a moment, it's like she can feel fingerprints. Recognizes the soft and hard of her dead sister. Maybe Paula's come to take her to the shores of the next life.

Patricia's eyes are wide open. Can't witness anything except black stars. Can't blink. Breaths drowning blood. Lungs are torn by pierces of fractures. Heart thumps slowly. Catches a small wheez of breath. Numb.

Hands lift her up. Fling her over a shoulder. Pain and movement. Another particle of breath. Fast like time slips consistently through itself. Bounces of pain echo through the insensate. Stairs. Doors locked by the weight of the earth's collapse. The world's a coffin. Her eyes are drill holes in the lid.

Torpefied thoughts. One lingers. One little breach of light in the darkness of what's left of her life.

Gurgle of breath.

Janice. In all her epilogue. Remembers Janice. Holding Janice. Being held by Janice. Talking about the inclement weather of each other's souls. That hole in the ground during the war. They hated each other and did battle. Fell into slick and sweaty love. Found they didn't hate each other. Fell into the hole and filled the bullet holes in each other's hearts. Made love. Truly found each other.

Gurgles.

They...loved...