The Best Horror of the Year – Volume One

Her voice in my ear said,

look, look.

Though I squeezed my eyelids shut,

hid my face in my hands, I could still see it.

I pressed my fingernails in,

hooked my thumbs and pulled,

like so many here before. And

she said, look, and I could still see it.

I crawled to the wall,

slammed my head on the stone,

found the cracks in the bone and clawed.

Her voice in my brain said, look,

and I could still see it.

I scrabbled at the ground

turned soft by my blood,

made a hole deep enough to force

my head in. She whispered from the earth,

look, look, and I could still see it.

The mud has swallowed me.

Things there feast on what's left

of what I used to be. And she

is one of them, her mouth moving

in my skull. Look, she breathes, look,

and I can still see it.