monolith. zori & kaplan.
Apr 27, 2020 23:56:57 GMT -5
Post by ✨ zozo. on Apr 27, 2020 23:56:57 GMT -5
c a r m e n .
"caught in the undertow
just caught in the undertow
i've become so numb
i can't feel you there."
It's like any other boring day. Get up. Siblings up. Drag Dad out of bed. Breakfast, drag the kids to school, sit in class, leave, drop the kids off at the neighbours, head to the warehouse, get changed, say hi to Dad, get to work. Machinery, the same eight steps - press button, monitor, pull lever, check, reset lever, press button, wipe brow, breathe. Over and over and over again, sipping on my water-bottle between sighs and stretches. It's shit work, but it's work that pays.
I've been doing this for so long I can't imagine anything remotely interesting happening to me ever again. When I fall asleep at night, exhausted by routine, I close my eyes and pray to whatever force is out there that something different happens. That I wake up and the world is different. That I find myself in a situation I couldn't even fathom. Hell, that something good might happen to me. I feel myself becoming a grey girl in a grey world, dirty overalls and concrete walls and lead pencils and steam. There's no colour in me anymore. I can feel it seeping out of my soul with each day that passes, terrified I'll become so empty it'll start sprouting from my head like Dad. He's let himself bleed dry, and let me slowly bleed out too - and I hate him for it.
I love him, and I understand why he stopped caring about himself - but I hate how he gave up on me, too.
Press button, think about dinner, monitor, wonder what's left in the cupboard, pull lever, count the days since I went grocery shopping, check, I could do pasta, reset lever, someone's yelling, press button, I wonder who left the machines on again, wipe brow, bet it was Georgio, breathe-
And my wish is granted.
I hear it first. A great BANG! that throws me back from my buttons and levers. The machinery groans to a painful stop and starts sparking, and when I cover my eyes I hear - then feel - the next explosion.
I start screaming mid-way through the air. Knocked off my feet, I hit the railing behind me with a violent crack and my scream is cut short, gasping for the air that leaves my lungs. I must've landed on the concrete floor because my left side aches and throbs and my ears ring and ring and ring as I desperately try to catch my breath.
Trembling, the shock doesn't set in until the adrenaline does. There's a sharp alarm piercing through the air that fades into a dull alarm, and it takes me a few minutes to realise it was my hearing giving out, then returning. People are yelling, someone's crying, but I'm too scared to open my eyes. I just lie there, shaking, coughing on dust and smoke - until I hear a voice underneath all the chaos.
"D-Dad?" I choke - then my eyes fly open.
Where's Dad?
table by ele!