003

I've killed before. I've killed plenty of times, I know, but this is the first time after whatever that anomaly with my memories is happened. It feels sort of like my first time killing someone--like those other times were just impersonal numbers and this is my first time truly killing someone. I know that's not true, though. What the fuck is happening with me?

I gather all the corpses and place them in a pile, then sit on the log. Just what am I going to do now? I've killed them but now I'm supposed to make an example of them. I could behead them. I could scalp them... As I'm considering the options available to me, blankly staring at the pile of corpses, I begin to feel something. Something is different. Something is wrong.

A sense of dread washes over me, a sensation of electricity jolts down my spine, and something begins to emerge from the corpses. Something black, something wispy. It writhes, licking at the air and every so often at me. Something about it is absolutely repulsive and I feel a lump grow in my throat. It feels like my blood is draining from my feet. The black grows like a flame and appears to consume the corpses. I can't look away. Every inch of my body is telling me to run--to flee as fast as I possibly can--but I'm stuck staring into the mess of a black, writhing mass. It feels like I'm staring into the night sky. Like I'm looking into an endless abyss. It calls me. Demands I stare at it. More and more, the black wisps lick at me, seemingly as transfixed by me as I am by them. It's like they're cradling me. I swear I can hear something. Something impossible. A distant scream just barely within hearing range, yet it's also coming from just next to me. From the black. I'm not even sure it's real.

Suddenly, the black separates from the corpses and rushes towards me. Run. RUN. RUN! I can't move. My legs are locked in place. The black flies through the air and straight into my chest, disappearing into my heart. It hurts. It writhes. It burns. It hurts like nothing I've ever felt. I fall to the ground, curl up into a ball, and scream. IT HURTS! Time drags on and on, this seemingly going on forever. It burns. Eventually, it stops. the pain disappears and there's no trace of the black ever having existed. Save for the pool of spit, sweat, and tears soaking my body. I crane my neck to look at the corpses and they seem totally untouched. Again, like nothing even happened. I pass out.