Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25769703-20141127101407

“Solomon! Wake up!” A voice cries out to me.

“It is time old friend…”

“Joshua…” I said crying with unease.

“You know what this means, I heard the news, I watched the planes… We must escape now.” He whispered.

Our lives would be in great peril if we escaped, however it would be our salvation.

“For too long we have been slaves Solomon, too long!” Joshua says abruptly as the truck stops.

“We are of black skin, we are brothers yet we are cast aside put under a leash and punished for our contribution to community… we pick the coco… we build… we make… we die… and no one can do a think about it.”

“For too long I have been in chains Solomon too long!” Joshua cries to me.

The batons of the officers slowly passed the side of the truck; the clangs of the metal were getting louder… until the back door opened. Joshua held my hand “we must escape!” He kissed my hand as we exchanged nods. Joshua untangled his binding’s hours before.

He charged, carving the two men with his jaws and cutting deep into their necks. I was frightened at the sight of my best friend mauling the two men with horrific results. He did not stop… First their necks then their hands, then legs, then groin, then chest… He finished it all with a ‘Curb Stop’ crushing their skulls into the dirt.

“We have become the savages!” I cry to Joshua.

“You must be strong now! No crying.” He shouts dragging me by my bindings.

He did not release me, I thought we were brothers.

I guess, once a slave always a slave.

~

I don’t know what time it is, I am still naked… roaming like the savage I have become. Joshua is not the man I once knew. He lacks humanity; he is wearing boots while I had nothing, barefoot with each passing step I bled more and more.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Joshua… I’m cold, old friend” I cry grasping my throat.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I have not had water in two days!” I continue.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Shut up! The reality is hard. Water is a delicacy, a weakling like you are not entitled to.” He screams.

<p class="MsoNormal">I am slowly rotting away, Joshua’s inhumane actions makes me realise how primitive and simple the human mind is.

<p class="MsoNormal">Joshua is staring at me, glaring with eyes focused on me and nothing but me.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I have forgotten the scent of my wife, her touch.”

<p class="MsoNormal">He slowly touches my face, putting his hand on my neck, squeezing. He begins to smell me… “You smell like a woman.” He throws me to the ground placing his knees firmly in between my legs.

<p class="MsoNormal">He ties my mouth…

<p class="MsoNormal">That day was the longest day of my life. Joshua…  did a terrible thing.

<p class="MsoNormal">~

<p class="MsoNormal">Three days without water, three days I have not slept. Joshua’s glare intensifies, my scars begin to scab and my blood begins to dry. I want water to clean myself, I need water. And soon enough I explode “Joshua! I need water!” I shout. I could no longer fall to my knees, or walk normally without the intense sensation in between my thighs.

<p class="MsoNormal">He drags me by my bindings. “There is a sinkhole we go down and get water,” he begins to sniff me once again.

<p class="MsoNormal">In my mind I know Joshua is gone. The pictures I had with him burned away in my mind, he is not my brother… He is just like the people who put me in shackles. As we approach the sinkhole my mind is made up, Joshua will die today.

<p class="MsoNormal">I open the sinkhole, slowly entering, the ladder is unstable. The walls are infested with holes, I freeze. Joshua lifts me back to the surface and that’s when I struck. Throwing the sinkhole lid on his head, he falls back grabbing my leg and as he is going down I hold onto the lid trying to force myself out of this mess. However, it is too late the sinkhole closes and my finger is trapped in between the lid and the road. Joshua is dangling below me holding onto my leg bindings. It is dark, there is no hope.

<p class="MsoNormal">~

<p class="MsoNormal">“See what you do Solomon!” Joshua screams. I begin to hear a noise, Joshua shines his flashlight. I saw my fingers being slowly eaten away by arachnid like creatures. My fingers were no longer holding us up; it was my wrist bindings that were caught on the ladder. Beneath us was sewage water slowly rising… We were trapped I had little room to even breathe.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Solomon I can’t swim…” He said as he continues to dangle beneath me. Slowly insects were burrowing through the holes. Emerging, one leapt onto Joshua’s face slowly burrowing through his skin. It formed a hole of its own.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Joshua, we were never meant to be free… Once a slave always a slave.” I cry trying to recollect my thoughts, there is no hope.

<p class="MsoNormal">But this was only the beginning, the insects noticed the stream of blood pouring down my backside, as the followed slowly burrowing through. I want to die, they were devouring me slowly and painfully.

<p class="MsoNormal">~

<p class="MsoNormal">The flash light begins to flicker. By now Joshua’s face is covered in holes, his skin is filled with holes as tiny insects emerged from his skin crawling up my legs to create more holes to lay their eggs.

<p class="MsoNormal">Joshua removed his jacket, showing the thousands of holes on his body. The rope began to untangle, the water had reached Joshua’s hips.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I remember, the girls dancing. I remember our family” said Joshua.

<p class="MsoNormal">These are Joshua’s last words before the insects burrowed through his eyes. He fell into the water as my bindings had been cut. He drowned and died just like the many slaves that were thrown away in the Caribbean.

<p class="MsoNormal">I Solomon am a freeman for the first time in decades. But now it is too late, I no longer had the ability to move my hands or legs I was stuck idle as I watched myself being eaten alive. There was only darkness the flashlight had died along with Joshua. However there was one light, the tiny hole on the lid of the sinkhole. I wish there were no lights… so I could no longer see myself being eaten alive.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<ac_metadata title="(Short story thinking of a name) Criticisms please"> </ac_metadata>