The Monster Below

The huffing and puffing continue. For how long have I been running? A minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, or even a century? Yet the beast will not just let me be. Sometimes, it feels like the race is over, other times, the ugly-headed beast comes charging with a howler. Why no one is coming to my rescue remains a major mystery. Are they really powerless or they are just being cowardly? There is really no time to find out. For now, I have got a race to run in order to stand a chance to live.

I headed into the nearest jungle in hope of meandering my way and tricking the beast into losing my trail. For a couple of seconds, I thought I have succeeded, never in my life has speed been much needed. That would have been easy if only my system will not run out of ATP. Heart beating fast, sweat running sea, legs getting weak, something drastic has to be done or we will call it a day. Inspiration becomes needed, eureka moment, where art thou!

Just when I was about to give up, life gave me another chance to live up. A gaze to the left, on the western side, lies a ditch, just by the hill. I needed no second invitation, I dashed for it, with all the strength left in me. Do I just jump in? No, someone must have seen my plight because there lies a rope leading to the bottom.

I took the solace that the rope has to offer, downward I headed, just in time to escape the clutch of the ugly-headed. Halfway down the ditch, when my eye has completely adjusted to the dim, I stayed afroze, confused, surprised, dazed, cannot believe what my eyes are seeing, another monster lies at the end of the rope, on the southern side.

Above me, on the northern side, a beast awaits. Below me, on the southern side, a monster is relishing its next meal. Eastern and western sides are just walls of red earth. Fine! I will just hang on the rope long enough to deter the beast above and I can climb out back to safety. Alas! I was wrong.

Just when I thought everything is temporarily settled, just when my body was gathering energy, a glance northward and all hope was lost. Therein lies 2 rodents, alternate colours, one black, one white, gnawing away at the rope which happens to be my last hope.

With a beast upward, a monster downward, dead-ends at both left and right and two naughty rodents taking turns to eat away at the rope I hung, its high time I said my last prayers, 'cos in a matter of seconds, minutes, hours, maybe a few days, it will all end. I have resolved to take the easier route, to become a meal to the monster below.

And surely, the time does cometh, for me, and for everyone.