VISUAL PROMPT
Submitted by Margaret Sok
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Against the stone wall of the cave, a scraping talon sounds...
Lonely
My mind starts to spiral, who, what, where, when, why. How did I get in here?
Seconds ago, I was laying across from my partner on our queen-sized mattress encompassed by darkness of the inevitable and long “rest”. I remember feelings of loneliness, and then all of a sudden I’m here. But where’s here?
Caves of darkness, so quiet I can hear my blood flowing through my veins and feel the movement of tiny hairs on my arms.
There it is again, a talon on the hard, cold stone. Scraping just the surface of again, an unknown place. I fell to rest with loneliness, now awake with the presence of something..
Scared, I slide through dirt without making a sound. I need to investigate. Heart pumping and anxiety flowing. I have no idea what I am about to see. When I am about to turn the corner with just my eyes, I awake. Laying in the exact same position I fell, with my partner next to me, in the same queen-sized bed. And back comes the loneliness, the exact same feeling.
Somehow, what I heard in that cave made me feel scared, but also slightly comforted. The lonliness withered away when fear showed itself. It was nice; I could’ve been stabbed, murdered, punched, kicked, but at least I wasn’t alone.