Brimstone by Peter van der Walt

Author:Peter van der Walt
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781070618685
Publisher: Rowdy Parrot Limited
Published: 2019-12-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

In Your Dreams

Oh, hey there.

You thought I forgot about you, didn’t you?

You think I’d just let you go about your life… cleaning up chemical messes, facing up to the reality that this little saloon of yours won’t fly commercially? And the kicker: pathetically looking for some sleazy anonymous hook up?

I’ll be here to remind you. It all came from a mud pit.

You can go right ahead and bond over burgers and shakes like some kid at the mall, with his dyke surrogate mommy all you like. You take all the self-help courses, chamomile tea and rose quartz you want. Talk to a shrink even, so you can build yourself some kind of cognitive framework to cope with things.

The truth is that you’re still here in the pit.

And if you forget because you’re under all that lovely weight of an inheritance you sure as fuck didn’t ask for, but got anyway?

Well every now and then the two of us get to go on a little trip.

Back to you, your lungs on fire, gasping for breath but not drawing any.

Back to you, your veins and your synapses stinging as if hornets swarmed inside you.

Back to you, pissing yourself.

Back to you, losing a fight. A pretty important one at that.

You’re lucky to be alive. How many times did doctors say that?

Lucky. You and me, we get to go back.

All the way back, to the truth.

Because you yearn for the fucking truth don’t you. Even though you’re running around town and woods thinking you’re getting somewhere.

Getting away.

But this mud pit is true baby.

And you know it.

True in a way that most regular truths aren’t. Truer than a headline, or an object of worship, or an emotional little narrative you tell yourself about your past.

Whatever the hell you do or achieve in this world, wherever you go, you and me still get to go back…

Snake poison cooking every vein and every synapse in your system. The torrential downpour and the red clay ground drenching you, oozing at you, clawing into your mouth and sliming down your throat.

You know you are about to die. This isn’t a fucking movie, there’s no last minute save.

You are fucking dying.

And suddenly you know what few people alive know. That death is never dignified.

Just that, remember?

Just that little moment in your life. In the timeline, just a blip. But you and I know, it’ll really be every little moment from then on forward.

You can outwalk me when you are awake, but you have no defense when you sleep. And no matter how far you walk, I’ll be right there, right there. You can flex your muscle and your money out there all you like. The truth is in here.

Truth is, all your little skills, all your technical expertise, all your training, all your experience, all your motivation, all your integrity – couldn’t save you from the mud pit. Why the hell would any of that matter now?

You and your unit – skilled warriors all – take a hovercraft to a Philippine island.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.