Dark Side of Me

I was running. At first my legs carried me fast and far; over pavement, through deserted, narrow streets, buildings passing by as indistinct but uninterrupted panels of gray, ready to bury me under their heaviness like the sides of a coffin. Something inside of me, some bloodthirsty savage began taking hold of my body and, threatening to paralyze me in retribution for my sins, grew like a shadow at sunset. I willed my legs to accelerate, to run faster towards a destination, any destination, where I could escape from the suffocating encumbrance of concrete and steel rising up around me; and the monster rising up inside me. 

I ran for quite some time before I realized it was snowing. Thick white flakes fell down around me, settling in my hair and climbing up around me as tall, exaggerated drifts. Like Atlas and his celestial sphere, I carried the city's desolation on my shoulders; an unassuming emptiness, however ripe with it's own unyielding density that bore down on me and sent my feet crashing through the crystalline ice. It reached the height of my hips and I could no longer run at the force I had been. Slowing down, the blur of metal, concrete, and glass became clear and well-defined. The buildings became giants observing me with intent and disapproving eyes. An overwhelming urgency spread throughout me; my heart beat faster in an unavailing attempt to provide my limbs with the blood needed to get me out from under their gaze. 

The snow disappeared and my legs gave way. My eyes left my body and I saw myself slow down, my ankles gradually melting into the asphalt. Now without feet, my knees buckled and I was sent hurtling into the earth ahead of me, all the while my body parts slowly becoming indiscernible from one another, liquifying, and yet still trying to make ground. My frame unfurled; reduced to a puddle, my toes found themselves laying nearly a kilometer away from my head. I felt more removed from myself than ever, a thin stretch of water; my skin, muscles, blood vessels, bone exposed for men and giants alike to catch glimpse of and assign value to.

I could do nothing but watch as my illegible spill of flesh lost all worth.

This wall won't hold forever.

Your time has come, it's now or never.