Of Monsters And Men | Discontinued |

Episode Six - Fevered

She keeps running, walking, crawling, until she collapses. Her vision swims and sways. The sun rises until it's directly above her, burning her skin. Any tears she sheds seem to evaporate once they leave her eyes. Her weak, pained cries sound more animal than human. The buildings, so far away that she can only see the tips of skyscrapers and the light of the city at night. She doesn't remember moving, but when she looks at her hand there's dirt underneath her nails and drag marks behind her.

Her eyes drift shut. Something touches her face, cold and wet. A tongue briefly touches her cheek. The animal continues on, trotting away from her. She tries to open her eyes, yet they remain closed, eyelashes glues together with her tears and crusts. The air becomes cooler. Her chapped lips bleed even more than before, running down her chin. The wind tussles her hair. Sweat continues to stick to her skin, tickling her as each drop travels down her face and neck. Her forehead burns hot while the rest of her thrums with cold. She has dreams of the scientists and men in black catching her and taking her back to the room. She rouses, slightly, to the feel of something on her arm. Claws dig into her side. It stabs at her cheek, eliciting an agonized, weak cry. Her arm moves on its own, slapping the bird to the ground. It makes a noise of alarm. It doesn't move. Her unfocused eyes drift back shut, unable to stay open.

Her eyes open slowly after a night and almost an entire day of sleeping, struggling to open her eyes. Ants are crawling over her, in her hair and across her eyelids, but she finds it hard to move for a long time, even as her skin crawls and itches to flinch and let her scream and slap the insects off of her. Her body is shaking and feels weak. She can hardly make herself breathe. Tears gather at her eyes at the sheer feeling.

She begins to drag herself towards the city, arms trembling and keening in protest. Her bones are weary. Her stomach constantly aches. Her tears are all dried up, now, yet her heart still aches and the Thing beneath her skin is pushing her onwards, even when she doesn't want to move.

Slowly, the city starts to form around her, from trees and meadows to a highway, to small shops, to towering apartments and businesses. She starts standing, but she isn't sure how she managed to get onto her feet. Her legs are shaking. Anyone who sees her mutters to themselves, but doesnt help. The sky gradually gets darker. She's scared. The streets are empty. Yellow light from the lights show only the sidewalks, not what lurks in the alleyways. A cat, somewhere, howls before a dogs growl and a harsh snapping sound cuts it off. She sighs when her stomach only cramps more. Her spine seems to snap in half as she cowers into herself. She keeps walking, in an odd daze of knowing her surroundings, yet forgetting it with every step and breath.

Then she steps onto a new street. The city suddenly hurts, noises throbbing into her skull. The lights blind her and horns blare in her ears and asphalt beneath her feet digs and pinches her skin and she feels wrong and something is inside of her, writhing beneath her skin, sweat dripping down her back, soaking into her shirt and crappy sweater. Bile burns the back of her nose and her tongue stings and the world is tilting beneath her feet. The Thing inside of her is screaming.

She feels like she's stepping on glass yet falling at the same time, her stomach empty and roaring and her heartbeat between her ears, temples aching, stumbling into cars and buildings and mumbling to herself. She doesn't even know what she's saying, not feeling the words tumbling from her collapsing throat. She can't even seem to breathe, stitches in her sides and hair sticking to her skin, sweat leaking into her eyes and burning her pupils

Her knees slam against the ground, skin torn from her flesh, blood pooling. That thing beneath her skin screeches again, and the blood stops. Skin bubbles back over her flesh and bile crawls up her throat, robbing her of air, leaving her grasping her throat and retching, throwing up anything left in her stomach from days without eating. The Thing hisses, and falls into silence. She's left gripping her stomach, slowly crumbling in on herself.

"Are you okay?"

She mumbles again, wiping the bile shakily from her mouth, that Thing beneath her skin and in her veins bubbling in her stomach and legs and forcing her up, her knees cracking at the movement. She's saying words that she isn't wanting to make, to say, and the voice doesn't feel like hers. She's confused- scared. She doesn't even know where she is. Exhaustion plagues her bones and her eyes are heavy, too heavy, shutting against the harsh light. Every noise is loud, so much louder than before, and it hurts her ears and her head. Her lungs hurt and her heart is pounding-- that Thing beneath her skin is writhing in her muscles and in her intestines and she can feel it. She can feel it make her move and wash against her intestines and cover her heart in itself, squeezing her lungs, forcing her to breathe. She's making noise again, but she can't hear over the aches that are melded to her bones.

"What's wrong? Are you safe? What's inside of you?"

She doesn't know if it's her screaming or not. She can hardly hear anything over the Thing inside of her. She can hear it moving. It hasn't moved so much before, hasn't made her limbs move like they are now, slowly, methodically. She clutches her stomach and gags on nothing and everything-- something smacks against the ground beneath her feet. It thrashes, a blob of putrid green that reaches for her. She stumbles, falling back onto the ground, and she can feel herself screaming and being pulled away but that thing that was beneath her skin chases after her. The man pulling her, covered in black and wearing a scowl, tightly grips her upper arms as he drags her. The Thing clings to her bare feet and sinks into her even as she kicks at it, the blob seeming to wrap around her feet even more with each impact.

"Get out, get out, get out!" She chants, screaming, struggling against the grip that pushes her to the ground and keeps her there even as she struggles, until something slams against her head and everything snaps to black and everything still aches, even when she's trapped in the dark and there's something chasing her, fighting her, forcing her to submit even as she struggles against it and screams and claws and kicks until she falls limp, crying, and the only feeling the Thing leaves her with is an agony that's in her head and seeping into her bones.