19/01/2023
The Recluse
By Xavier Yrrah Ziegenhohn
You wake up, your eyes dried as you look around. It's 11:39 am.
How embarrassing.
You get out of bed, almost step on a rat that scurries across your bedroom floor, and walk over to the bathroom.
You wash your hands in the mud colored water and stare at the mirror in front of you.
It's been cracked by... ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.
Well, that's not such a bad thing. Let's face it, you look like a pig.
You slump to the floor, bawling all because YOU know you're a disgusting mess, yet you constantly keep on with your pathetic life, refusing to admit that YOU are the cause, YOU are the problem and YOU cannot be bothered to find a solution.
How pathetic. Crying on the floor, your eyes starting to bleed.
You stop, get up, dry yourself off with the damp gray towel, previously covering a dead, bloated rat, its eyes
popped out on the floor, presumably from when you stepped on it a few months ago.
How it hasn't become rotten or hasn't been eaten? You don't know.
You're too stupid to know.
After all, you'd rather obsess over your appearance than than actually take care of yourself.
Trying to distract yourself from the puddles of tears and blood on the floor, you look over to the bathtub, seeing that it hasn't been used in an embarrassing amount of time.
How fitting. You look like scum, so it's only right that you smell like it.
Shaking it off, you go to the kitchen, seeing cracks on the floor and on the walls, and the bucket you left there last night has been filled, the floor flooded with the excess.
Looking over at the table, you see the milk you forgot to put away has spoiled, attracting pests.
You open the pantry to find nothing but junk and that bag of trail mix that's been sitting there for...
Well, ever since you've bought this place.
Oh well, no food here.
So, you decide that you might as well go back to bed.
After all, what's the point of staying up if you don't have food to eat?
As soon as you turn around, you see a blood red substance crawl across the room, and stop in front of you.
You jump back, the substance edging towards you.
It speeds towards you, as you're frozen in fear, seeping through your eyes, the feeling is disgusting, agonizing even.
As soon as the first bit of it oozed inside you, something else takes the wheel.
You fall to the floor, involuntarily kneeling as the rest of that ooze climbs in.
๐๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฅ. ๐๐ต'๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฆ. ๐ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ. ๐'๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.
As soon as every last drop enters your body, you black out.
You wake in your bedroom, horrified to find a rat with a large chunk of it's body missing in your mouth, blood dripping on the floor.
Seemingly, as if you're not in control, you involuntarily swallow the rat's remains whole.
Yum. The flavor overwhelms you, scaring you, yet also comforting you.
Looking outside, you see a bird that flew in has sat near you.
As if you're acting out of natural instinct, you lunge on the creature, grabbing it, then squeezing it so hard it bursts, blood and innards fly across the room, but most of the insides drip into your mouth.
๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฑ. ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฑ. ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฑ.
You can only taste the poor bird's carcass as it is devoured by something... ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ.
Something that isn't you.
Then, you quickly crawl to the walls on your hands and feet, making quick work of the remains. Licking the walls, a sense of gluttony overtakes you.
mmmmmmmmmmm yummmy mmmmmm
delIcioussssss
ScrumPTIossssssss
Glurp. Glurp. Glurp.
scrEEP CReEEEp Eep yummm
You have grown accustomed to your new life. Well... to some extent.
Sometimes whatevers controlling you lets go.
It seeps out through your eyes, the same way it enters.
Whenever it exits, it's like you're crying.
Crying in horror, because you're at mercy to this... abomination.
Now, you've adjusted to the beast. You love the taste of the birds, the rat's shrieks of terror as they face their tormentor.
But, the farther you look back, you can't remember if the beast was real.
Was there a real predator?
Or were you just coping with something?
Your interaction issues, perhaps?
You know it's not real. You refuse to admit it.
You refuse to see the light.
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐๐.
๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐๐'๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐.
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐'๐ ๐ผ๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐.
๐ฝ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐.
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐พ๐ผ๐๐ผ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐.
๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐.
please... god.
why must you let me suffer?
what have you brought upon me?
You're done with it.
Done with the denial.
You know what you're doing is your own.
You cannot hide it.
You are bored with the taste of vermin. Bored of the squeaks. Bored of the squirms.
You hunger for more.
One day, when you look outside your window, you see children playing with a ball outside, across the road on the lawn across, until the ball flies over the road and into your lawn.
Well...
isn't this fun???
a boy goes over to your lawn to retrieve the ball.
then, you hurry down stairs, desperate for more flavor.
You open the door and run towards the child in a delirious rage.
You grab him by his neck and run back indoors.
The child's discomfort, will soon be eased.
