"Winged Temeluchus" by Dan Shevock

Winged Temeluchus

By Dan Shevock

          My head spins.

          No, the sky spins.

          The Cloud Spins, and my body, contorted and ruined, spins violently and rapidly toward raw rock below.

          I walked through wet fields in the soft sun of summer, enjoying the time as I took it for recreation, just being in tune with nature, and now… I descend.

          In the beautiful sky flew one speck, a small scar upon an elsewise splendid, summer sky. At first it didn’t concern me, but then the shape’s size grew, larger and larger. Slowly at first but then exponentially, like a cancer caught too late, no chemo could rescue me.

          When I recognized how horrible this unnatural being was, and that it must not be of earth, it was too late for me, but I ran. I sprinted with all the might I could muster while my brain pumped cold numbness to my trembling legs. I was in an open area, devoid of trees or even large rocks to hide behind. Rodents and birds took cover in small holes, but I could do nothing but cry in fear.

          The winged demon’s talon tears into my torso so terribly and suddenly I think myself instantly dead. Pain racks my soft skin as sanguineous fluids sail freely to the ground below. Femur, teeth and ribs all twist and snap like twigs under a fat man’s feet, or a paper airplane in the hands of a spoiled boy, screwing the sheet tightly so no other kids can take joy in his soon-to-be-forgotten toy. The broken bone pierces by ballooned lungs bringing forth an uncontrollable bellow, pitiful and deep from the center of my body.

          My bowels release themselves.

          UP! I am carried, each wing-stroke slowly lifting me miles above mother earth. I catch a glimpse of the hideous beast’s face, horribly human in nature though somewhat alien… Entirely disconcerting. It laughs heartily in heated joy, racking my form and loving the evil it performs.

          The air is now thing and cold, and I feel my head begin to succumb to unavoidable and welcome unconsciousness. The demon drops my broken body…

          And I fall, contorted and ruined, spinning violently and rapidly toward raw rock below.