Arif Hodzic

I focus every part of me on keeping my jaw clamped tightly shut.

There is no point in that.

He sighs in my mind, and it's like a strong wind from a sewage treatment plant fills my skull.

The stench of his evil is almost too much to bear.

I shiver with happiness.

It laughs, and all of the rats on me laugh with it, including myself.

The rats coding inmate Zero silently judge us.

Two rats shift on his face and cover both of his eyes.

Two on me do the same, yet I can still see everything.

It takes a deep breath, and my lungs inflate almost to bursting.

The rat finally manages to get past my lips.

It squirms its way over my tongue and down my throat.

Even if I could scream, there would be no point.

A dozen more rats follow right behind the first.

My throat begins to swell, followed by my belly as the vermin fill me.

But we true originals.

Inmate Zero sighs again, and my bowels loosen.

I can feel the rats gnawing at my guts.

They have pushed out of my stomach, and while some head for my liver, some keep moving downward, crawling over my intestines as if they were ropes on a ship.

I nod without moving my head.