Decay II

 You can smell the decay, can’t you?

I closed my eyes for a second or two and sighed. I kept walking, listening to the soft tap, tap, tap of my feet on the sidewalk. My nose scrunched up as I could smell the rot in my mucus. 

That’s you. That’s all inside of you. Your own flesh is rotting from the inside. 

“No, I’m just sick. It’s just a cold.”

A cold for weeks? For months? Come now, dearest Destiny, you know the truth. 

“The truth that I’m sick? Yeah, I know.”

Yes, yes you are sick. You are ill, terribly ill.

“If I’m so ill, I’ll be able to die and I won’t have to hear your voice anymore.”

His eerie cackling broke through my skull and I felt it splinter into a thousand pieces. I squinted my eyes in pain. I knew my skull didn’t actually shatter, but now was not the time for logic. 

You think I’m going to let you go that easily? After all the fun we’ve had? Oh I don’t think so. The fun has just begun, sweet thing.

“And what exactly are you going to do? You are just a voice in my head. You’re not real.”

Tisk. Tisk. Tisk. Oh ye of little faith. You really think I’m just a voice? A figment of your imagination?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Let’s play a game then. A riddle.  Winner gets to scream. 

“Do I have a choice?”

Guess the riddle and you win:

What’s dead but walks,

 silent when it talks. 

and thinks it can win,

But is locked within?

“Me.”

Not yet.

A ringing became a siren blaring through my brain. My thoughts became scrambled and my breath hitched. I fell to my knees, holding my palms against my ears and cradling my head at my knees. I screamed and screamed and screamed at the pain, but no sound came out. I couldn’t speak and I couldn't move. And then, silence. The world around me came into focus and I realized I never stopped walking. I was speaking with no words, I was silent. My head throbbed and I managed to let out a groan as I came up to my car.

I win

I ignore him and unlocked my car. I turned the key and cranked the AC. The hot air comes out first, but not long after the cold comes out to lick my face. I sink back into the seat and wait for my heart beat to go down. The scent grew stronger in that moment and I was ready to vomit my lunch. 

Am I just a voice now?