She was sitting in her trailer in front of her TV, and she was dying. She was dying of a black mass sitting in her chest, stealing her oxygen. Every breath in was torment, every breath out ended in coughing. She had a hard life. When she was well she was a waitress for the Moonstruck Diner, catering to trucker and the occasional family trying to futilely bond in a cross-country road trip. She wasn’t too proud to deny turning a trick or two for petty cash to those same truckers. That was when she was, while not good looking, passing fair. Now though her face and body had been wracked by illness and time. She had her first scare when she was 36. Back then she was a pack-a-day kind of girl, until one day she got what she thought was pneumonia. Several trips to the doctor and extensive testing revealed a small mass in her left lung. The doctor explained the next steps, but all she could see were the dollar signs, dollars that she did not possess. The doctor was sympathetic though, and suggested an alternative. A pharmaceutical company, Syncorp, was now accepting volunteers for a potential cancer elimination study. She fit their requirements, and after being properly vetted she was fixed up with specially treated cigarettes, designed to fight the cancer. And for awhile, they worked. Her cancer went into remission. The tumor shrunk, and eventually disappeared altogether. Syncorp continued to supply her with cigarettes, and she was cancer free for another 15 years. But now, the cigarettes no longer had any affect. The cancer, gone for so long, was back with a vengeance, corrupting first the left lung and then the right. The company still provided her with free cigs, but she knew it was only time now. Her favorite soap was on, and her TV dinner steamed off the tray before her. She brought a steaming morsel up to her mouth, and almost dropped it as a coughing fit ripped through her body. She heard a small tearing sound, and felt fluid fill her mouth. Pushing away the tray, she hobbled to the bathroom and spat in the sink. Bloody phlegm splattered, and with it something round and hard plinked against the porcelain. She stared at it. At first she thought a tooth, but inspecting her mouth with her tongue she realized that was incorrect. With one long, chipped nail she touched the object. Spindly limbs shot out from the sides and shoved itself away from her finger. She gasped, and that started her coughing again. Once more, she heard a slight tear. She spat into the sink, and another hard mass rolled around the porcelain, coming to rest next to the first. The new one sprouted legs as well, and, to her horror, two eyes stretched out on stalks from the top of each of the masses. They looked at each other, and then looked at her. It almost seemed to her as if they were waiting for something to happen. The woman opened her mouth to scream, taking in a gulp of air. This induced the worst coughing fit yet. She hacked so hard she heard a small crack, and knew she had just broken one of her own ribs. She took in another breath and let it out explosively, bending over double. A great popping like fire crackers rumbled from deep in her body. She dropped to her knees, and leaned forward onto her hands. Coughing onto the floor, little bloody objects hit the tile and skittered away. She fell heavily onto her side, breath coming shallower. Red bubbles burst as she exhaled, and as her sight grew dim, she could feel little pinpricks up her throat, and out her mouth. by Im_StillAlive ~Yukio
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000