The taste of sulfur, (where is home?)

In the middle of the world there is a place that no one goes to, land long forgotten by the maps or the books, land that does not want to be remembered.

In the middle of the world there is a place that would not fit any and all definitions there is of beauty, land empty of anything but monsters, land filled with all the ugly things that stained God’s creation.

The monsters, however, are anything but stupid, they have heads full of ideas and hungry bellies, so when food runs out in the middle of the world, monsters find a way to get out of the middle of the world, and eat.

People aren’t yummy, per say: too many bones, too little taste. But they do the job, they fill up the stomachs of the monsters, so the creatures really can’t complain.

And when the people ran out too, the monsters ate each other.

The thing about monsters is that their heads may be full of ideas, but their eyes, like their bellies, are empty and really don’t care for anything other than hunger.

Sam had been born 14 years before the monsters came, he had had a family: a mother and a father and a jerk for a brother, he had had a life before the bellies of hungry monsters decided that people too were food.

The taste of sulfur came right before the monsters did, bitter at the back of Sam’s mouth, a warning that he didn’t understand and that no one else seemed to have. But the taste of sulfur was too bitter and no matter how hard he tried to swallow it, it wouldn’t go away. So, driven insane by the taste of a warning, Sam one day ran away to wherever the taste of sulfur told him to.

Little did he know that at the very same moment he decided to listen to the taste of sulfur, the monsters had found a way to get out of the middle of the world and into every country with hungry bellies and dripping fangs.

Sam’s legs had been too exhausted after the first few miles that led to nowhere, but the taste of sulfur, god, the taste of sulfur tasted of danger, of the primal longing for safety.

Sam hated how little he had known about fear until the taste of sulfur came: he hadn't known how horribly thick blood went when it was charged with too much adrenaline that ran through his veins and felt like oil in his body; he hadn't known how muscles went rigid; or the way eyes refused to focus because they were always too hyped trying to find a threat. All because a taste in his mouth told him to be scared.

The day Sam thought his body would give up on him, he found a ghost town lost to loneliness and dust. "Here" the taste in his mouth said "safe".

Sam broke into the first house he saw, he wasn't surprised to find it empty.

Sam let himself think for the first time since the taste had come: mom would be worried sick for him, looking for her son and yelling his name out in the streets, and then Sam could almost hear her as if she was right there, broken and desperate, screaming his name with her sweet voice gone raw. Dad, well he wouldn't cry, but he would miss him too, Sam figured. He would swallow up the tears that loosing a son brought and would kiss the top of mom's head, promising it would all be alright.

Not once did Sam thought of going back to his family, the taste of sulfur had been clear: "here", "safe".

Home wasn't safe.

That night, Sam cryed himself to sleep.

Meanwhile, everywhere else, monsters where having the time of their lifes.

Mom hadn't been worried for Sam as she pointlessly tried to run away from the horrible creature that had minutes before ripped off her husband's head. "God, let my boys be safe" she prayed before having met a dead end she couldn't run through.

The next morning Sam woke up with a complaining stomach that had been empty for too many days.

A stray dog came into the town, sweet and docile.

Sam hadn't like the taste of dog.

Weeks went by before the taste of sulfur said Sam could go back home.

Sam wasn't sure how to go back to where he had ran away from, but the taste of sulfur, a taste that he had once hated but had since then become the only company in Sam's life, showed him the way.

The streets had been as empty as the ones in the ghost town, if it hadn't been because of the taste of sulfur, Sam would have smelled the scent of rotting meat too.

Sam should have been scared but the taste of sulfur kept saying "home, safe" so Sam went home.

"Dad's bones are in a corner", the taste of sulfur told Sam.

“Why?” Sam asked the taste of sulfur.

“The monsters killed him”

“Monsters?”

“Yes, we were running away from them.”

“Oh” Sam said “What happened to mom? What happened to my brother?”

“Mom’s dead, too”

“Am I the only one left?”

“Where is home?” the taste of sulfur had asked.

“I don’t know” Sam said.

Sam cleaned up the house of every blood stain and threw away dad’s bones. He emptied the abandoned grocery store from every bit of food.

The next time he found a stray dog, Sam petted him and named him Sparky.

Time went by, Sam forgot how old he was and the faces of the people he loved.

The taste of sulfur never went away “where is home?” It kept asking.

“I don’t know” Sam told it every time.

And one day, the taste of sulfur said “home, it has finally arrived!” Sparky seemed to agree, he barked at anything and everything, and waved his tail so much Sam though it might just fall off.

Sam had learned that the taste of sulfur was never wrong, so he went outside the house and waited for home to come. And what the fuck did that even mean.

Sam’s brother walked down the streets, “Josh!” Sam called him “did the taste of sulfur tell you to run too?”

Josh began to cry when he saw his brother “god, Sam, they’re all dead. I thought you were dead, Sammy”.

“I thought you were dead too, Josh”

“We are home” the taste of sulfur told Sam.