Humanity

(Tw: death)

Ten.

Were humans really this weak? Were we always so powerless?

Terror spikes through me as I sprint, my breaths coming in shallow gasps. My heart flutters wildly against my chest. Blood pumps through my aching legs and arms. Tears of fear and desperation squeeze from my eyes, blurring my vision.

Nine.

The earth rumbles behind me. I hear a laugh.

TInkling. Bloodthirsty. Malicious.

My muscles burn. Resentment simmers in my stomach, fury blazes through me. Fury at my helplessness, my weakness, my powerlessness.

Eight.

Anticipation and a need to be faster tingles in my hands, my fingertips, but my legs only betray me, my feet stumbling over a tree root. My face scrapes against loose dirt and rocks. My mouth fills with dirt and I cough.

Seven.

Half-blinded, I painfully drag myself to my feet, trembling with terror, with exertion, with the human instinct to survive.

A wall of stone rises around me. It traps me in.

Captured. Caged. Oh so hopelessly trapped.

Six.

I turn jerkily, my breath catching with every terrified flinch. Every involuntary movement is painful and humiliating. The small sprite gives me a sharp-toothed grin, its shimmering green-blue skin sparkling with joy at the prey it caught.

Five.

My knees tremble, my mouth is dry. I can’t think. I can’t move. I can only stare as my death no doubt approaches on swift wings.

Four.

The ground opens up under me, and I scream as I drop. I scream as the earth swallows me like a hungry beast.

Three.

Unforgiving. Inevitable. I am going to die.

The sun blinks cruelly at me as the sprite peers down, waving its nimble fingers in a mock farewell.

Two.

Were humans always this weak? Were we always so powerless?

The question thrums in my aching chest, and I know the answer.

One.

I know the answer as the ground starts to close with a sky-shaking rumble. I know the answer as surely as the earth crushing my ribs. I know the answer as my lungs fill with dirt, as my desperate heart is forced to stop, as the blazing agony swallows me whole.

Zero.

Yes.