warning: blood. scary. pain and such
if you have any thoughts about the story, you can tell me!! like on discord (greying hairs#7597) or email. i would love to hear any type of feedback
okay here's the story
You walked out the door. The sun wasn’t as bright as you remembered.
You’d been in prison for 34 months. You were supposed to get out sooner, but you kept getting into fights. Well, you wouldn’t call them fights, but the disciplinary officers thought otherwise. Before prison, you never saw yourself as the type of person to get into a fight, but there, it felt… justified. You didn’t feel bad about them at all. You were only upset by the consequences.
You really walked out the door now. Before, you had just been sort of standing there, taking in your surroundings, but now you’re actually moving. You’re moving with John, another prisoner getting out the same day as you. John’s situation was similar to yours, both arrested on drug charges, but his behavior in prison had been better. He’d only been there for less than a year. You didn’t know him very well, but your releases happened to be on the same day. He looks more excited about going home than you do.
You ask John what he wants to do with himself now that he’s out. He says he wants to return to his old field, plumbing, but he’s not sure if he’d have to pick up any new training. That seems like an odd statement, because you don’t think plumbing would change that often, but you’re glad he’s got plans. You don’t. You barely held a stable career before going to prison, and you can’t imagine how much harder it’ll be now. You’re envious of John. You don’t trust John. You end the conversation and look at him weird. He puts his hands into his pockets.
You start to think about how long this path is. Why did they make the path out of the prison so long? It’s near a forest. The forest is to your right. It reminds you of the forest that you used to play in when you were a kid. You also notice that you haven’t seen any police officers along the entire path so far. You think that seems strange, because there are officers everywhere. Officers in the city, officers in the prison, everywhere. Why aren’t they here?
John tries to talk to you again and you mostly ignore him. You want to ignore him, but you don’t want to be rude, so you do answer his questions, just in an annoyed tone. You don’t trust him. You want him to go away.
You start thinking about what you are going to do first when you get home. Where is home anyways? You’re sure your apartment has been seized by now. Why didn’t your family keep you updated on that? Maybe you’ll go live with them for a bit. Maybe there’s room, now that your brother left the—
Something is moving in the woods. In the forest. The one that reminds you of the forest that you used to play in when you were a kid. What is it? John turns to investigate. John is closer to the forest than you are. John moves to the edge of the path.
Something grabs John. It looks like a man. It is a man. His hand is showing something sharp. He’s got John down on the ground. John is struggling. You want to move closer and help, but you don’t know what’s in the man’s hand. It’s sharp. Maybe it’s a shiv. He stabs it into John’s chest, and John goes for one last punch. It lands, but it doesn’t stop the man. John stops struggling, and simply starts yelling. He cries. He yells and cries for his mother. You remember that she moved away. That’s not important right now though. You try to call for help, but you don’t want to get closer to the man. You’re sweating in new places, but you haven’t left yet.
The man moves away from John’s chest, while still keeping one hand on it to press him down into the dirt. He moves towards John’s legs. They’re in the fetal position, just like the rest of John. You notice a card hanging off a necklace of the man pressing John to the ground. That’s not important right now though. The man takes his fingernails (which look sharp as the best shiv, but not as sturdy as most), and starts scratching into John’s right leg. He scratches and scratches. Your stomach is turning as you watch. John hasn’t looked at you, but you hope he doesn’t. You hope he thinks you’re gone already.
The man pulls a skin layer off John. He cut it like a wild surgeon. His hands are more steady than any surgeon’s ever could be. He looks famished. Both of them do, actually. The man peels the skin layer up, and starts… he starts… You’re finding it hard to breathe.
The man has started eating at John’s leg. He’s eating at the muscles underneath the skin. John is screaming in pure pain. It sounds bad. It sounds like red meat, pork or beef. That’s not important right now though. You start to move backwards. Your stomach is telling you to go. Your heart isn’t doing much at all.
You’re actually moving now. You’re not even looking at John, but you can still hear it. You hear a crack. It sounds like a kneecap. Why would he even want to mess with a kneecap? Maybe he’s made it to John’s thigh. There’s more meat there anyways. What are you saying? Why do you care? You know it’s not important right now, but you can’t put it out of your mind. You just need to move. You can’t help John.
You look back one last time. John has given up. His head is turned to the side, so you can’t see his eyes, but it’s possible he’s already died. Your friend is dead. Your friend is being eaten alive. You run. Who can help? You need an officer. No, you can’t. An officer would make the situation worse. You don’t trust them. Besides, your friend is probably already dead. You’re finding it really hard to breathe, but you have to keep moving.
The path looks almost done. You’ve almost made it. You see an end, but really a beginning, as its an entrance to the city. Where you grew up. Likely where your friend John grew up. You wonder how much of John has been eaten. You try to put the thought out of your mind, but it’s so hard. It is important. It matters. How could that just happen to him? Your friend is dead.
You get to the end of the path. There’s an officer sitting there with a phone out. You start to tell him about John, but he simply laughs. “I know, I’ve been recording,” he says. You get so angry you want to punch him, but you don’t want to go back to the prison either. You control your impulse and head into the city.
Everything in your body feels tight. Except your saliva, which is flowing at a weirdly intense rate. Why is that? You’re not rabid. Was that man rabid? No, he had to have killed and eaten a man before to do it at that level of expertise. Rabid animals die quickly. That man had to have been around for a while.
You’re in the streets. It’s all so loud. You wish your friend was here. You think of your priorities before your friend John was eaten. Why did that man eat him? Was he hungry? You don’t understand. You’re so confused and lost. All the stores are different now, different names, different brands. You weren’t even in there that long. All the phones have another camera, and it all seems so bright. It hurts.
You see an employment office and remember that going to one of those was one of your first priorities. You head towards it, but you have to cross the street first. It’s hard. It’s hard to breathe or do anything. You’d go home and rest, but you don’t know where that’d be. Your stomach is growling like a wild animal, and you don’t know how to silence it. You understand its worry. The light changes, and you go across the street.
You enter the employment office. The line is so long. There are so many people, and they all look just like you. Not physically, but emotionally. They’re tired. Tired seems like the wrong word for you though. That’s not important right now. What is important is what happened to your friend John. It won’t leave your mind.
You’re halfway through the line and you feel a strange movement in your body. Maybe that was your intestines? You don’t remember their exact location in the human body, but you don’t know what else it could be. You’re annoyed with having to wait so long. Why is the clock so slow? How could someone do that to John? You’re hungry. Why are you hungry right now? Think back to your friend. Wait, don’t think about that anymore. It’s so stressful. It’s all so stressful. There are four cameras on the ceiling of this building.
You make it to the front of the line. The lady asks for your name and address. You tell her your name, but say that you don’t have an address. She says that’s fine, but it may put you at lesser priority for being notified of job openings. You have no choice but to say that’s fine. This is the only way you can hope to get hired in a reasonable amount of time.
The lady tries to make small talk with you, but you don’t want to hear it. You want to ignore her, but you don’t want to be rude, so you do answer her questions, just in annoyed tone. You don’t trust her. You want to go away already.
She says she’s all done, and hands you a card. She tells you the card is for accessing any of their employment-related services, such as networking and notification of job openings. She tells you it may be up to 4 months before you have access to all services. You have no choice but to say that’s fine. You hold the card, and decide to take a closer look at it. It’s the same card that was hanging around the neck of the man who killed your friend John. You understand now.