Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2015 21:50:36 GMT -5
JOEY▪
S
weat drained from every pore. The heat and humidity was smothering him and the strain of trying to create fire wasn't helping him. The friction of rubbing the stick into the dry end center of the other was enough to create heat, yes... but the cost of this continuos activity was becoming an impossible task. Starvation and dehydration had taken its toll on him. The vision of his brother wasn't helping either. The warped memory laughing at him as he continued to fail. Beside him was the rotting corpse of the bird he'd killed. When he saw the first rise of smoke on the kindling he started to laugh hysterically, forgetting to feed the flame and watching it die. Tears streaked down his face as he started again, his hysterics almost taking a different turn. But the smoldering shavings came back to life and he'd blow on it weakly. His other hand dug into the moist earth, his breath shaking as he tried not to cry. A million different emotions ran through him- including the desperation knowing that the bird was inedible... but whether or not he cared? Once the flame was large enough he would put the little bird over it, watching the feathers burn and char. He barely waited before tearing into its flesh.
Soon he would be regretting that decision. Vomit coated the vines under his feet, the world spinning. He picked at the chunk of bird flesh, desperation causing him to stuff them into his mouth before spewing them back out onto the ground below. His stomach ached, his head was spinning and his stomach ached. "Please..." he whimpered up at the imaged of his brother, "please help me... help me..."
A sickening smile came on his brother's face as he stood over him. "Help yourself," were the words that rang around him. He dug his fingers into his temples, tearing out his hair as he rasped out a scream that echoed around him.
"Are you okay?"
The voice came from near him. A thing that he could see through the flickering flame before him. A figure- a monster? It was there, coming closer to him. He recoiled, his palms digging into the earth to help push him away from the outreaching hands. He found the stone he'd sharpened and lashed out. The stone sliced deep and he would watch the figure stumble backwards with a cry. But it was alive. The figure cried out in pain, clutching the wound as it scrambled backwards.
Joey climbed onto it, adrenaline rushing to his head as he straddled the monster's chest. The thing screamed out as his fists slammed down on its face. Then the rock came down, bone crunching as the struggles stopped with the screaming. Goo coated his front, his face splattered... and the monster became real to him. Not just a monster-but a person. His brother's ghost laughed at him as it loomed over him. "You've done it now," it spat at him, crouching down to his level. The look in the ghost's eye was dangerous, almost egging him on to what he realized had happened.
"I..." he started, still not moving. Though the usual emotions that would follow simply couldn't process in his broken mind. He clenched the shirt of the dead person, his face contorting as he tried to think. His brother smiled at him, speaking the words on his mind he dared not speak.
"You have fire now." The words were barely above a whisper, seeding the words more firmly in his mind. Joey would look at the stone covered in bran matter and then the fire... then back to the body below him... the meat below him. "You can cook the food..."
There was so much food here too. He would never go hungry. So he would carve out chunks. Occasionally he would realize what he was doing and would hyperventilate, vomiting again before taking off more. Then he would cook a piece. This time he was smart about it- cooking it until it was practically jerky. Like that he could forget what it was... all he needed to know was that it was food. That it was what he needed more than anything. So he would take his haul back to the caves... wiping the memory from his mind of what happened here. Passing it off as whatever his mind decided this strange monster thing was. And when it came down to it... well... his brother did tell him to do it. How could he argue with that?