Quoted By:
Every syllable takes a little bit more out of you until there’s nothing left… you’re <span class="mu-i">hollow</span>. A husk drifting through a kelp forest at the bottom of the sea that is…
Well, wherever you are.
Your senses return to you one by one like switches in a fusebox. Flick. Your skin bristles at the deathly chill gnawing at its exterior.
Flick. Your nose takes in a colossal breath of air–bigger than you. Bigger than a whale… and in that life-giving gasp you catch a whiff of something familiar…
Tobacco…
<span class="mu-r">Flick.
“For they marked the spot…. Where his bones were lain…”
The voice crackles and rumbles like a thunderstorm on the horizon… and yet it’s gentle. Mournful.
“Fling a handful of roses… o’er his grave…”
Nostalgic. Like the wailings of a businessman marinating in a sweat-filled suit reeking of cheap booze at a karaoke night.
You can’t tear your ears away.
“With a prayer to God… his soul to… save…”
For the first time in hours, you see a shape–red as an ember on a BBQ and flickering like a candle in the breeze. Every blink you make just fuzzes the image even more, but once you piece things together you can’t unsee what you see:
A cowboy–hat and all–smoking a cigarette without a care in the world. Though you can’t seem to discern his face beneath the shadow of his lid’s brim, you know he’s smiling at you.
“Bad luck, kid,” He remarks like a father comforting a son after a lost little league game, “You lasted a few hands an’ that’s better’n most, but…” A fresh plume of crimson smoke coats the room. “Well, ya can’t blame the game, now can ya?”
It takes you a minute to remember how to speak–your sluggish jaw now limber and ready to gab. What’s… where are we?
“The end of the trail, so to speak,” Replies the man in red as he shakes his head with a disappointed sigh, “Game’s over, kid–you’re bust.”
The man looks skyward–his cigarette smoke drifting high above your head into the wild black yonder. “An’ just when the night was getting started…”
What say ye?
>Seriously, what happened?
>Who ARE you?
>Can I have a smoke?
>Can you help me?
>Where are my pals?
>Write-In!</span>
