Sinister Fruit

Desperately rooting my ravaged fingers below the leafy spore that lay at my feet, I suddenly latched upon the cherished fruit. It had already sprouted a sturdy tap-root, unusual this time of year. It gave resistance to my pull but with a paper-thin pop an announcement of surrender was made. I eagerly peeled back the fruit’s greasy skin and inhaled the pungent aroma that exploded from within the tiny morsel. An overbearing mixture of smells dispersed jet like, as if propelled by a pressurized gas from within, enveloping me with a scent reminiscent of rotted meat and sickness. The pure strength of it made my knees temporarily weaken and quiver, very nearly betraying my standing position.

I fought my gag reflex as I chewed hungrily on the core I had ripped from the dripping skin, breathing deliberate breaths as I waited for the worst of the urges to subside. My final meal swelled within my mouth as if gaining mass, making the act of chewing a difficult endeavor, but I continued. I had began to feel the first sign of the fruits effect in my tingling limbs.

The first of the fabled whirlpools began spinning freely in my mouth. More of them quickly followed and soon multiple tornados, the consistency of pudding, though not nearly as pleasant in taste, spun freely within the swelling cavity of my mouth, their liquid tips alternately tickled, then pierced the flesh of my cheeks. A dozen or more, each the size of a candy corn, careened freely in my mouth.

The tingling that began in my limbs moved up and inward slowly. In my left leg I felt a dull vibrating ache, as if a poorly tuned engine idled within my calf, while my right leg felt caught within the vibrations of a tightened string. My arms pulsated in sympathy to one another. As though my skin were liquid, ripples rolled up my right arm, through my chest, then down the left till reaching my fingertips.

The swirling tornados, bouncing off teeth and peeling back lips as they spun with increased urgency, suddenly congregated on the surface of my bleeding tongue as if commanded by an unknown sergeant, boring tiny divots in its surface. I opened my mouth and felt an involuntary inhalation as the rippling wave in my arms progressed to my chest once again. The whirlpools rushed down my throat in a liquid fury. I felt their sinister dance inside my stomach and suddenly realized that I was probably the happiest dead man on earth just now.

The vibrations increased their intensity. My vision blurred. Images took on a doubled, tripled quality as my eyeballs shook within their sockets from the ever growing vibrations that now dominated my entire body. I put my hands to my face and felt warmth in my cheeks from the skin on skin friction. I tried to close my eyes but my eyelids were also victimized by this enveloping quake. They flitted at a speed you might expect of an electric razor.

I threw my head back and prepared for the final rush. I screamed, an animalistic noise made to sound artificial by the vibrations. In one final swell it hit. I bloated quickly, feeling immense pleasure as my body succumbed and blew outward in millions of bloody, fragmented bits.