A MALIGNANT CREATURE HAS CREPT UP AND FOUND HEARTH IN THE BELLY OF HER FLESH, slithering its way around her rib—cage; developing a nest, harboring a home just as parasitic, healing itself of ailment, and striding towards the locked tomb of her ribs, caged and old and decaying. for a moment — it’s a gnawing apprehension, almost chilling — she’s scared to the ends of her minuscule arm—hairs. until it hits tiān zhēn: the creature’s been there since the beginning. an embryo, infested. a fetus, plagued. and it’s there that the creature’ll stay for the rest of eternity. seep deeper. spit parasites to now un—bleeding organs. “JUST HOW STUPID ARE YOU?!” mania sits on the tongue, an overfill of venom wrapping around words as they spill past a set of tooth doomed to long decay. it’s not her that’s speaking.. is it? it rings so close to home. she almost recalls using the line word for word for another girl. in another lifetime.