The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Push
by Nina D’Arcangela

A quick hit, that’s all I need. The needle still in my arm, I drift with the flow as I sink deeper and deeper into the chair. I sink so deep, the world swallows me, makes me the nothing that I am. Infinitesimal, I scratch at a tear in the vinyl; it seems like a gaping chasm, one that will swallow me whole if allowed. I turn and walk the other way.

What feels like hours have passed, yet I’m unable to reach the other side – the landscape taking on the cast of forever. Still I trudge, dragging my wounds with me to the next patch. Its darker, cooler, comforting. A spot to lay my head down but for the sticky residue.

Looking to my left, I spy a boat and crawl to it. I climb inside and my mind tells me the waves are coming too strong, the tide about to tip the spoon. I fight the gale with all I have to give, but it sways and bucks until I find myself beached upon the cushion’s shore. The tide has dissipated, left me stranded. Brighter light floods the room as a Goliath steps through the door to my soul.

“Hungry?” the beast booms. I shout and scream for it to stay away. Hot lava burns my body as the monstrosity grins, placing a bag of fries in my lap. I try to run, but the cushion has becomes marshmallow pulling me further in, no under – under what I wonder? Smothered by the all encompassing ‘mallow, I succumb to the darkness that has been calling to me. I don’t fight it. I float, I drift, I sleep – at least until the next push.

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Fiction © Copyright Nina D’Arcamgela
Image courtesy of Pixabay