literature

The Monsters Inside of Me

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It broke. It broke free. The shackles that had held it captive now lie useless on the ground, broken and beaten. Freed once again, it stands, flexing its muscles and cracking its bones. I can smell its rancid breath and its unbridled malice emanating from its ash black body. It looks up, towards the black sky as lightning streaks across the tremulous storm gathering dangerously above. A deep draw of fresh air and a dominating feral roar follows, unleashed from the dark belly of this beast. The roar, full of power and unshackled ferocity, passes through me, chilling me to the bone. All the hairs of my body stand on end, wide-eyed and electrified. I look towards this monstrosity and I can see his teeth bared in a smile brimming with enjoyment. It is savoring this moment, the moment before the kill. It turns its head downwards, looking towards me.

“Hello old friend” 

Its voice reverbs and echoes, once again coming from deep within its dark belly. Its voice rings in my head, deep and guttural, debilitating. I stare at this dark visage of anger, its eyes burn with unholy fire and a rage kept in check until now. In this calm before the storm, the only sound we hear is the harsh pounding of our beating hearts. A blinding flash and it lunges towards me, the deafening crack of lightning drowning out its feral war cry. I evade the lunge but it reacts with such uncanny speed that I have little time to run from what comes next. It grabs me by the neck and shoves me towards the ashen barren soil. I taste the bleakness of the landscape and its soot of a soil welcomes my face. A punch and I’m lying face down in the dark dirt, out of breath and out of luck. It grabs me by my hair and drags me up. I’m broken and beaten, as useless as the shackles that once held it in its place. It holds me up before it like a rag doll and looks at me, mockingly. I can feel its piercing eyes glaring into my soul, wishing to tear it apart and feast. It smiles and throws me off the edge, into the deep end. 

“Goodbye old friend” 

I fall, past the point of no return, and I hit rock bottom. I’m on the edge of faith, on the last dregs of my pitiful existence, but I’m still alive. I stand in the dark bowels of darkness, and look up towards the raging storm clouds above. This was once its prison and its home. It is the darkness inside of me. It is a monster spawned from me. It is my chaos, my unrelenting anger, my all-consuming hatred. It is my darker side and my utter failure. Oh woe, the monsters inside of me. 

It escaped from this prison and I can do the same, but why do I fail each time? Must I become the agent of hatred that it was? Must I give myself to the eternal fire of anger? I look up at the indomitable mountain before me, it’s a sheer cliff I must climb to escape from this tomb. So be it. I climb and claw at the rough side of the cliff. I scale this vertical wall of pain, rising higher and higher, towards the warring sky. In me, the furnace of anger burns with all my rage, with all my regrets and with all my hope. It fuels me with the power and with the ferocity needed to escape death. It gives me a tenacity that’s unrelenting and undefeatable. I emerge from the darkness, from the tomb I was thrown into. I now see through its eyes, I now see the freedom it so craved and I roar. I am become fury, the breaker of worlds.

I rush towards the center of my being, that is where it wants to be. It seeks to control my body and destroy life, starting with mine. I pass through ruined dreams and desolate cities, all its work. I race past painful regrets and weeping faces, my memories. In the eye of the storm, at the epicenter of all that I am, I find it standing above my soul, seemingly triumphant. It touches its black hand against the white shard that is my soul, and the darkness begins. It seeps slowly into me and then it starts to claw at my foundations, breaking it piece by piece, methodologically. It turns towards me and smiles. I look upon my old enemy, my old friend and I stare at its face which has become mine. I am as much a part of it as it is a part of me, there’s no more denying it. We bare our teeth at each other and lunge, uttering guttural roars that shake my being. This is not a battle of light and darkness, no, it is not about good or evil. This is about letting go. This is about confronting old friends and old memories. It and I have known each other for a long time. We have stared at each other in mirrors and in the reflection of crying eyes. Each blow that lands is fueled by pure hatred at each other and at myself. We trade blows with the weight of the world behind them. It falters and I put everything I have into a final blow. All that I have and all that I have ever gotten into a blow that would end the rage and the pain. My right hand strikes it and it cracks, shattering into a rain of obsidian glass. 

I hear the glass splinter and break as it lands on the wooden floor of my bedroom. My right hand is outstretched, hard against the now dented metal backing of my mirror. All the glass has been broken and crushed, lying useless beneath me. I smile. It’s over. It is gone.



Wrote this short story for :iconthescribblists: "It broke.." contest [link]

Word count is 997 words.

The monsters inside of me,
wanting to be free,
oh woe,
the darkness that will be,
if my monsters are freed.



Loved writing this for the contest. Please comment with your thoughts on the story!

This was featured in :iconwritersink:'s weekly round-up [link] !

Awakening - The Monsters Inside of MeI stare at the white-washed wall, unmoving. A single tear escapes from my left eye and rushes off my cheek with dedicated intent. In this room that I call my own, my monsters are more real than ever. They leer and jeer from dark corners and sinister reflections, taunting me. With a sniffle and a shudder, I turn my head away from the white wall and towards my broken mirror. I scrutinize the dent made on the metal backing of the mirror and I remember. I remember the shrill crack and the shattering rain of fragile glass breaking upon hard wooden floor. I broke the demon, I ended its existence and yet I was so naive to think it was over. I sat idle and watched over my kingdom but failed to see the darkness on the horizon. My inaction and my indecision cost me dearly as the monsters tore through my lax defenses and feasted upon my soul, corrupting it. Now, I sit in my prison of a room, soulless and fragile. All my mistakes and my regrets haunting me, each taking their turn to stab me. I cry Read the second issue of MIoM (The Monsters Inside of Me)

The Raven - The Monsters Inside of MeShe is a raven and she hungers for the shiniest things. She doesn’t really wear any of the shiny things she collects though. No, she can’t possibly wear them at all. She can only devour them. For you see, the shiniest of all things isn’t a material object. No gemstone, no metal, nor any of mankind’s creations can compare to the shiniest object of all, our souls. Brilliantly white and sparkling with tantalizing innocence, an untouched soul cannot help but attract attention. The gleam and shine of such a soul always finds the eyes of those who want the soul for themselves. These people seek to taint the white waters with a putrid blackness for they find such purity despicable. There is no company to be found in such folk, only misery and death. This is why I now stand, past the point of misery, facing down a herculean black raven who wants to be my death.
I run through this skeleton forest with it’s white-washed trees and bone thin branches, trying to escape
Read the third issue of MIoM

Lover's Leap - The Monsters Inside of MeMy breath is heavy. Perspiration glides off my skin. My legs move with a feverish pace. 
“Are you afraid of dying?” 
I am anxious as I scurry through ruined buildings. I am terrified as a barrage of red and black explodes above me. I am horrified, petrified and all of the above.
“Watch out!”
Red lightning rips apart the building to my left. Scorched concrete hurtles towards my fragile frame. Time slows. 
“You will never succeed.” 
The stone shatters against the doorway; it misses me by an inch. My heart races; beating ever faster. I have to get to the upper level! 
“Get out of there!” 
I make a mad dash for the stairs. It’s a scramble as bolts of crimson lightning tear through the rafters. The burning roof falls to pieces around me. 
“This is pointless” 
Up the stairs and I ascend to the higher level. Out into open air, I feel the lash of the
Read the fourth issue of MIoM
© 2013 - 2024 Timothi-Ellim
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Sammur-amat's avatar
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Overall
:star::star::star::star::star-empty: Vision
:star::star::star::star::star-empty: Originality
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Technique
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Impact

Reading the piece twice over, I have come to realize how much I truly appreciate your plot and pacing and if only one thing, I have a few stylistic options I'd like you to look at such as

A deep draw of fresh air and a dominating feral roar follows, unleashed from the dark belly of this beast. The roar, full of power and unshackled ferocity, passes through me, chilling me to the bone.

where I think it would seem more pleasant to have a semicolon instead of a period separate beast from roar, just because there are one too many periods in this first paragraph, or at least that's how i feel. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/g/g…" width="17" height="15" alt=":giggle:" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="100" title="Giggle"/>

Also here where

A punch and I’m lying face down in the dark dirt, out of breath and out of luck. It grabs me by my hair and drags me up.

where i believe a dash instead of a period should separate luck from it.

As well as

It fuels me with the power and with the ferocity needed to escape death. It gives me a tenacity that’s unrelenting and undefeatable.

I believe should read as

this monster fuels me with the power and with the ferocity needed to escape death. It gives me a tenacity that’s unrelenting and undefeatable.

Due to the repetitiveness of the pronoun "it" in that paragraph.

Here, too where

This is not a battle of light and darkness, no, it is not about good or evil. This is about letting go. This is about confronting old friends and old memories.

I believe you can place a dash instead of a period to separate evil and this and then add a semicolon to separate go and this instead of another period.

Once again, you have a really great story going on i n here and my only critique is stylistic and nothing other.
Congratulations on a wonderful piece! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/c…" width="20" height="20" alt=":clap:" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="60" title="Clap"/>