Creatures Like Me

Chapter One - In Memoriam (of the Circus)

We were in a dark place. I fell through layers of thoughts and consciousness. Garbled words flickered through the slowness. I was here. What was here?

Adira.

A speck of moonlight shone from a trapdoor above. I could hear hydraulic pounding in the distance.

Adira.

Blood dripped from the trapdoor onto the steel floor. I think we were in the earth. A foxhole? Why were we in one of those?

"Adira!" cried a woman.

"Why so loud?" I whimpered.

I watched the blood spatter against the ground with a rhythmic beat. The door rattled as the hydraulic footsteps grew closer. My arm flopped numbly in the air as I lifted it from my chest. I was covered in blood. I twisted my fingers in the moonlight. Slick and shiny. Drip. Drip. Drip.

"Adira," hissed the voice, "stay with me."

I'm here. Mechanical whirring echoed from above. Then came a round of gunshots and the screaming. Bloody terror ringing out into the Badland forest. It mingled with the blood dripping onto the floor. I could only hear the shrieks of women and children for what seemed to be hours.

It was only a minute.

Then, there was nothing. Just silence.

"Adira!" the woman twisted my face towards hers.

I knew her. She was friend. Oh, but she was in danger. The TINs were here. They could kill her.

"Run, Mags," I whispered.

"You need to stay with me, Adira. Rafa is almost here."

"Fine. Just you go."

"No, no, no! Stay with me. I'm fine."

Life was heavy. I was tired. Sleep. Too much blood. All the blood.

"Adira."

Adira!

Adi-

The voice faded. I felt like I was falling. Fading. Like a long sleep. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know. I-

"Much better."

I jolted awake.

Wind jostled my wisps of long hair away from my scalp. A long narrow dining table was laden with raw meat before me. A stranger sat grinning at the other end. They were a queer fellow who toyed with a plague doctor mask as they spoke.

"Well, go on then. Enjoy."

"Where am I?"

We were atop a grassy hill with no signs of civilization in sight.

"Oh, nowhere in particular. To be honest, you are where you always are."

I tried looking at the stranger. I tried seeing their face, but every time I looked it seemed like something had changed. I felt as though I was looking at a dream. I recalled that I knew them but yet I could not see. Like there was nothing I could view but darkness.

"Who are you?" I stammered.

"Life. Death. It's all pretty mundane, isn't it?" they sighed.

Chair tipping backward, I stood suddenly. I was in the foxhole. Where was the trapdoor? Where was Mags?

"Oh, relax, Adira," the stranger chortled. "Mags is all right. The problem is you. Sit your ass down before I tear your throat out."

I slowly reset the chair.