Sunday 9 October 2011

Extract from The Animal Series


I shall become a wolf.

I shall shed my skin and replace my teeth with platinum fangs and pull out my fingernails and hammer in new claws of copper. I shall pluck out these useless eyes and replace them with yellow marble slits. I shall cut lay lines into my skin and peel myself free of this muscle and these veins and bones and this stomach that sits like a rock. I shall become cold and sleek and hard. I shall no longer be fragile. I shall replace my heart with clockwork. I shall fear no more.
I shall become a wolf.

          ---

My skin wants to eat itself.

          ---

I got skinned by a black cat with gunmetal claws. He smirked at me and said it was time for my debt to be paid. I fought with all the strength my wasted body could muster but he climbed down my throat and settled in my stomach, before he clawed his way out and tore my guts to shreds. As I lay bleeding on the rug, he took my skin clean off.

He took my skin, and now I'm just cold.

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