Catharsis [Novel]

CHAPTER ONE

PART ONE

-DISCOVERY-

CHAPTER ONE

            The blood wakes me up.  I’m aware of little else as I open my eyes and see the gray bricks and dark pavement around me.  The dark scent rising from the pool of blood clashes with the rumblings in my stomach from hunger and a lack of food.  The idea that I haven’t eaten in hours surprises me with its urgency, and I try to swat it away as irrelevant.  I can’t remember the last time I had any food, and my stomach muscles are kicking like I’m carrying a ten pound infant.

            My hands and face are sticky.  There’s dampness on my cheeks and when I try to reach up to wipe it away my fingers won’t immediately respond.  To my surprise, they are gummed to the ground with a viscous fluid.  Freeing them with some concentrated effort, I touch my face and hair and encounter only more of the slime.  It reeks of copper and decay.  It is not a pleasant sensation.

            I’m surrounded by weak light that makes discerning what the metallic smell might be rather difficult.  My first thought, once those elusive things start filtering into my brain again, is that I’ve stumbled into old battery acid.  The metallic smell reminds me of Duracells and Energizers.  I know that can’t be true as the slime isn't hurting me at all.  Well, it isn’t hurting me - only freaking me out a bit.

            Sitting up, I lean against the metal wall behind me.  The "metal” of the wall becoming apparent from the solid CLANG I hear when I bump into it.  I notice the metal wall also has an odd, hollow sound to it.  As my eyes begin to adjust to the darkness around me, I realize the wall is actually the side of a large green dumpster with REYNOLDS written in yellow letters just behind my head. 

            Looking around, my slowly-developing night vision fills in my surroundings.  Large dumpster behind me.  Tall buildings around me.  Off to my right I hear the reverberated echo of cars passing what has to be the end of an alley.  I even see the occasional headlights streak past.  High above me I see the glowing smog canopy of the city, and just to my left is a large lump of clothes laying in the dark gooey liquid.

            The lump monopolizes my attention once I notice it and quickly arrests the visual tour of my temporary home.  Crawling over to the lump, I realize the "lump" is a man.  He’s older than me judging from his gray mop of hair and fancy, darkly pin-striped business suit.  I can’t make out much more about him aside from that he’s lying in a rather uncomfortable position.  

            Leaning forward slightly, my eyes finally adjust enough to let me see that the dark liquid that covers both him and me is blood.   A stagnant pool of congealed blood.