Swirling Dark

I sit and I stare, ripping and peeling skin with my teeth from my fingers.  She shakes me awake with a question but I missed it.  “What?” She expects empathy but I’m all out, thinking ‘did I have any to begin with?’ I nod and smile, the universal sign for ‘I’m listening’.  But I can’t help my mind wandering to it.  The tiny dot I see across the room.  A tiny dot no bigger than a nail head.  A tiny blemish in the wallpaper.  Unnoticeable to any other observer but I can’t stop staring.  I see the blackness of it, the swirling dark buried deep inside.  I get up, mindlessly and walk across the room in a daze but with purpose.  I get close to the mark, seeing it closer it feels so minuscule.  I put my finger on it, rubbing it against the hole, feeling the slight indent against my fingertip.  I feel something, a flicker of something.  I pull on the bit that is sticking out, so hard to see.  I have to try a few times to grasp it between my fingers.  I feel the grasp and then a pull.  The sliver of wallpaper peels away from the wall and now the dot has grown into a tear.  A gaping crack in perfection.  I look through its caverns, seeing another world inside.  The crack consumes me and I flinch as if in protest.  My eyes flicker at the light shining through the dark.  My fingers claw at the crack, tearing into the sheet rock below, the hole growing larger with each handful.  Suddenly I step back and it looks upon me.  The glow arising from the abyss is blinding.  I turn away in horror and awe as it begins to scream.  I cover my ears and shut my eyes, attempting to shut out the piercing sound that now bellows from the gaping crater.  Swirling behind me, I feel something dark at my back.  I jump and spin around, fast and on my heels.  I see a dark figure in the shadows.  My legs begin to tremble and my voice disappears in the din of silence that follows the screech.  It reverberates in my head, echoing even after the sound has subsided.  The dark figure moves toward me and my leg moves my foot backwards in response.  It advances again and I turn on my heels and begin to run.  But my feet move slowly, as if running through waves.  Pulling against me and pulling me down, I fight to stay upright.  I struggle to move my legs one foot at a time.  But I slip, foot twists, ankle bent and I fall.  Onto my knees, I claw my way to my feet again.  One foot at a time.  But I trip over giant rocks as they begin to appear ahead of me.  Half running, half tripping and stumbling, I begin to reach out with my arms.  I reach out in the darkness grasping for steadiness, but the floor falls from beneath me.  I claw for anything to stop the falling but everything I catch breaks and my footing falters.  I am falling, black tar cushions my fall and I begin to sink.  Pulling me down, the hot liquid fills my lungs as I’m pulled under.  I gasp and claw and wretch.  But nothing is strong enough to pull on to hoist myself up.  I begin to panic, lights disappearing, everything dark.  Until I can’t move.  Frozen in time I wait for someone or something to pull me out of this.