As the darkness closed in I couldn’t help but wonder What was it worth? This life, this
being? Why are we incarnated into these mortal vessels and forced to endure
this world? All of this death and the sense that you don’t belong. What of this
world and all of its beings? What are we to do with this life and experience of
this? I guess I will find out soon enough. Dirt walls surrounded me, I had been
kidnapped, thrown around, and bruised. Thrown into a hole in the, earth god
knows where. I looked up at them and yelled to let me out, screamed for help
but no one came to my rescue. They laughed at me as I tried to claw my way out,
kicking, jumping, and scratching. I probably looked like an animal in a trap,
helpless against the tomb they had built for me to die in and be trapped inside
forever.
They had dug the hole
deep enough so that I couldn’t climb out. When they threw me in I had broken an
ankle while landing. They started shoveling after I stopped struggling, I tried
to brush the dirt off of my body but they just threw more on top of me. It had
started to pile up on the ground beneath me, a timer telling me of my impending
demise. It piled up on my feet and legs, I stood up on my good leg to gain more
time. The dirt kept piling up agonizingly slowly. It was soon up to my waist. I
tried to pull myself out, but I was stuck. My broken ankle ached and pain
sprang through my foot and up through my leg. As the dirt piled up to my chest
I tried to brush it away from my body, shoving it to the side so that I could
continue to breathe a little longer. I continued to dig as much as I could.
Eventually I started to be completely covered. I started to choke on the soil
entering my lungs, I could barely move because of the pressure of the heavy dirt
on me. My tears made mud stick to my face, more dirt piled on top of me.
I pushed dirt off of my face the best I could but there was
always more. I couldn’t step on top of it, my feet just sunk into the earth. I
tried using my hands to pull my body out but they sunk in too, and the weight
of the dirt on my body was too heavy to lift. It had been hours since they
started, their shovels only held a small amount of dirt. They were almost as
exhausted as I was. My breathing became
heavy and labored, I barely had my head uncovered. I felt the grit in my teeth,
and tasted the bland, musty flavor of the dirt going into my mouth. I couldn’t
move more than an inch with any part of my body, the dirt was packed so
heavily. Dirt stuck to my head and face from the nervous sweat I was emitting. I
coughed more from the soil in my lungs, and more rained down from above. My eyes
hurt from the grit and sand in the dirt, I tried to keep the dirt out of them
but it was everywhere. I could feel the bugs crawling on me, all over my body
underneath the dirt. Ants bit me as I struggled to unearth more of my head, I flinched
at the sensation.
They had almost completely covered me, a few more shovels
full of dirt and I would be suffocated. I felt more pressure as more dirt piled
onto me. Another shovel full fell on my face, I spit out some dirt and inhaled
some. I started coughing profusely, the dirt again entering my lungs. I tried
to wiggle my arms and legs to try to get out, it was no use. The dirt pulled
loose was quickly filled in by more. I yelled again, my voice was hoarse both
from screaming so much earlier and the dirt in my throat and lungs. They scoffed
at my efforts. They knew they weren’t getting caught, not today at least. My eyes
watered from my coughing and the dirt scratching them. I kept struggling,
grasping at straws to stay alive. I shook some dirt off of my head.
I looked up at the
sky for the last time, it was so beautiful. The stars shone so brightly, we
must have been pretty far out of town and away from everyone else in this
world. I breathed in some fresh air, dirt was the only smell. I looked up again
and got more dirt thrown in my face, I didn’t care at this point. I shook it
off again and looked up at the stars, I saw the big dipper. I’m not much of an
astronomer so that’s the only constellation that I recognized. I saw the north
star, and a few more bright stars. Maybe they were planets, the sky was lovely
tonight. Maybe in other circumstances I would get a telescope and look at them,
but not tonight. Tonight was my last night, decided by the men shoveling dirt
onto me. A tear fell, then another. Soon enough I was crying, asking myself why
this was happening.
It was too late for that now. I coughed and sputtered as
things started to go dim. The dirt had covered my eyes; it was all around my
head. I tried to shake it off but not much fell. I couldn’t see or hear
anything. I struggled again, trying to free myself but I lost hope very soon
this time. It wouldn’t work, it hadn’t so far and I was exhausted. I said my
last goodbyes to the world and was covered completely by the soil they threw. I
couldn’t breathe, I struggled for air but there was only dirt. More and more
dirt. I inhaled more and more of it and coughed. Tears fell from my eyes into
the dirt. My chest felt so compressed, my lungs felt like they were shrinking. Every
time I tried to suck in air my chest felt like there was a vacuum in it, trying
to pull something in but there was nothing. I started to feel lightheaded and
dizzy. The lack of oxygen would cause me to lose consciousness soon, I cried
and coughed and tried so hard to gasp in any air that I could. There was
nothing but dirt all around me, for all of eternity there would be nothing but
dirt. I slowly fainted, and that was the last of my life. All ended for a sick
joke that I didn’t even understand.
Original work by P.H.
