Word Count :: 574 uuh...this is kinda icky...
She was so tired, exhaustion closing in on her mind and forcing her to close her still slightly swollen eyes. The girl wanted to fight it, wanted to keep looking at the snow colored man, he who had taken such good care of her in so little time, without even knowing who she was. A few passing thoughts fluttered through her mind, wondering how she’d ever repay him and the man who’d gotten her away from the coyote and the ants. There was no way, none at all that she knew of. When he asked for her name, she parted her jaws a few times, intending to spit it out but unable for a while. Her throat hurt so bad from the crying and fighting she’d done with the first male, it was hard to breathe without pain. Finally she shrugged it off and licked at her lips before parting her mouth again to speak successfully, ”I’m T-tawny…” was all she managed to say before clamming up again and going still.
The fight against darkness was lost and she spiraled into bad dreams. Her body was too heavy to move; otherwise she’d be thrashing with the things playing out in her mind. The images were so much worse than what had actually happened. Tawny watched as her brain conjured up the happenings of what could have been had the dark male not shown up to steal her from the coyote.
The smelly creature began gnawing on her hand, chewing until he tore through flesh and crunched on bone, ignoring her thrashing and screaming. He continued to work his way up her arm until he’d consumed up to her shoulder. Next he sat up and licked his chops, lifting his hands to her face and dragging his nails over her eyes before piercing them and pulling them out slowly. She screamed and howled, still somehow able to see as he pushed both eyes into his mouth and bit down, chewing and popping them like juicy grapes. He was laughing, cackling as he watched her body convulse with pain, leaning over to drag his sharp claws over her form to rip more tears into her flesh. As impossible as it seemed, fire ants bubbled up from the gashes and poured from her empty eye sockets, furthering the horrifying sight. The ants began to eat away at her skin, burrowing deeper until they found her internal organs, opening up her body for the coyote. He grinned and reached in, grabbing her heart and pulling it out…
Tawny sat up with a raspy scream, tears pouring down her cheeks, body shaking violently. Her hands ran up and down her frame, feeling for ants or holds in her torso. There was nothing but semi-clean fur and bandages tied around the sore wounds. Sobbing quietly, she crawled off the soft bed on her hands and knees and made her way around in the dark. She kept hitting things but followed her nose, seeking another inhabitant of the caves. Finally she found him by his scent in a bigger room, stretched out on a bed with a blanket pulled over his frame. Not wanting to wake him for her own comfort, she crawled up onto the foot of the bed and curled into a tiny ball, trying to make herself as small as possible. Sleep didn’t come again though; she refused to fall back into such a horrible dream.
Image courtesy of krystian_o@Flickr; table by the Mentors!
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