Disease

Edited version.

High above the foundations of the earth, nothing of the terrestrial world affects us up here. Surrounded by my brothers and sisters, we find peace here in the sky contrasting to that of despair and misery they hold ever so close on the ground.

Close together huddle my siblings, never before reaching these heights. Flying; feeling the freedom of the sky. I knew it would come to this but never this soon. The grounds folk once held us as part of their society. The images that we saw will plague our hearts and minds forever.

The clouds grow dark overhead, the sun diminished behind the blackened wall. We pull together, stronger as a unit then alone.

Remembering the pain of the land, but I cannot block it out. The humans scream, always screaming but never anything worthy of a voice. Blood lined the roads casting red patterns over the footpath, futile to wash it off, returning each night. People did not seem to care, their faces blank, no remorse in their hearts, just pure greed in their blackened souls. Maybe this caused the deterioration of my mind. I would not quite say I was clinically insane, however, I would not deny I remained unchanged.

Lightning streaks across the sky, illuminating the clouds above us, greys and blacks convert into blues. Fear ignites in my siblings, etching their souls. If this storm gets worse it will force us to return to the earth once again. Huddling close together; the warmth transfers from one to the other. We know time stalks us, waiting for its opportunity. Flashing before us, lightning breaks the darkness which envelops us.

Bitter wind rips through the middle of our little group, forcing us northward. We fly with the wind, relinquishing all strength to the element too futile to fight it. Sleet rain rushes at us from behind, like pins and needles piercing your essence. Knowing this as our paramount hindrance, contrary to which broke the stable mind that I once held comforts me.

I resided in a major city; I cannot remember the name, they became all the same to me, living in the gutters while the rest of the world walked on by. The city drenched in shadows, generated by the high rises. These grey square blocks for building loomed over everything. Damp musky air wafted from the structures whenever the front door opened infusing with the smell of human and animal urine that inundates the streets. The foul odour became immune to the nonchalant humans. They act as if normality surrounds them, entwined with the fumes.

Quivering, my siblings huddle close together. We will survive this ordeal; we survived the underthing, we can survive anything. The storm ferocity intensifies, not much time left now. Terror still hangs in the air, my brothers and sisters retain their positions, not wanting to return to where they came. The peacefulness which resides untamed upon the air stream in the sky contains a glimmer of hope, of happiness that no longer serves the humans below.

Another crack of lightning flares over the clouds, the fork of lightning emitting a purple hue onto the dark canvass. Thunder follows with a bellowing roar. Shuddering, our little family over the edge, we cannot hold onto our wits any longer.

Falling, falling, a feeling of hopelessness shot through me penetrating my core, the same feeling of hopelessness I felt whilst lying in that gutter waiting for some sort of relief. This sensation drove my defences down and let the madness blanket my mind. The pure indifferent cruelty to anything else in the world sent the spiral of despair thundering into my head.

Fear, for the first time since that gutter, pummelled the barricades surrounding my fortress. Close to the brink of insanity before, I will not return there.

Still falling, faster, wind rushing up to meet us, terminal velocity reached. Why cannot we stop falling? Peering around to see if I can see my kin, screaming, their voices drown all other sounds from my ears. They can no longer withstand the sheer pressure of the wind. Portions of them cleaved from their bulk, sights like the back alleys. Disfigured bodies bewildered, the lack of blood now the only contrast to the lakes of pools dried to blackened slime on the soles of the shoes of the perpetrators.

Psychosis batters my mind propelled by fear, cracking the lining of my mentality, the hole large enough for it to begin creeping its way inside.

I cannot let this insanity overcome me again. Must block out the screaming, must block out the images.

Breaking through the last layers of the clouds, the only obstruction between us and the ground, I cannot look. I desire nothing less than to elude that abhorrent place. Accepting the inevitability of my situation; I must let the madness in before I return, my only salvation. I will not witness the horrors of the world if I possess no stable mind.

Conceding to the assault of my consciousness I welcome the fear. It filters through the reopened wounds protecting my mind. Fear no longer pains my soul as it starts to become an element of my being. Still ignorant of my surrounding, not realising I could not hear the screaming anymore, becoming aware of the environment. An iron grey figure rushes up to meet me.
Black.

Rolling to the edge of the tree limb I gaze over the horizon. Lush green foliage spread out in front of me. Birds singing quiet songs as insects chirp in rhythmic harmony. Flowers bloom under the canopy of the leaves, the sun unapparent hiding behind the clouds. Animals scurry from bush to bush searching for a morsel of food.

The sun begins to puncture the dense clouds above, impaling the forest with golden rays of hope. Raindrops own a peculiar life; you never know where you will land after a storm.

WC= 985