Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

Chace steadied himself and tried to focus, away from the creatures attached to his skin, tiny teeth gnashing and hungry…

He staggered toward the bridge and bent to examine it. The ropes were, thankfully, hanging from the high ceiling. But they were about four or five feet apart, leaving plenty of room to fall. The pool was maybe less than ten yards long, but the wood looked so weathered that it may as well have been fifty.

Desperately he glanced at the walls again, but there was no space between the water and the walls. There was one somewhat metallic tile sticking out—but it wouldn’t help. And the doors on his side remained as still and heavy as ever. The only way was across the bridge.

His timing would have to be exact. One lean in the wrong direction, one second too long standing on a board, and he would plunge into the water again.

Biting his lip, he stepped onto the first plank. It groaned under what little of his weight he put on it. He shifted more of his body weight onto it.

It snapped and splashed into the pool. He would have to run, then.

Distancing himself from the growing pains in every part of his body, ignoring the awful twitching of the slimy bodies, he dashed forward.

Almost at once, he could tell he probably wouldn’t make it.

He held on to the ropes—which weren’t in much better condition than the wood—for support. There was no room for his feet to spread apart, and he kept stumbling over his own shoes. He heard the sound of more planks tumbling into the water and the sound of the leeches in the water leaping in and out, desperate for the warm scent that had found its way into their home.

The bridge shook violently to the rhythm of his body, rocking like a playground swing. Each step even dipped the wood into the water, covering it with leeches.

Still he pushed forward.

It was in the last ten or so feet that it happened.

Some of the worms—at least twenty—dropped off his body almost all at once, having had their fill of his blood, and fell. Thrown slightly off balance by the change in weight, Chace shifted too far to the right, forgot to step, and hit the water.

There was no bottom his feet could touch here. He treaded water madly, spitting and spraying out water and leeches that had gotten caught in his mouth.

He could feel the leeches reattaching themselves all over again, as he kicked through the water that felt so alive, now, pulsing with squirming bodies and mucus. How had he not realized what they were before?

Deciding it would be impossible to try to get back up on the bridge, he began to swim through the icy water, feeling more and more leeches cling on and be dragged like so much dead weight.

After an excruciating minute, he collapsed, shivering and wincing, on the other side. He lay there for a minute, feeling more and more leeches let go of his skin, until he stopped panting.

Blood was starting to come out from the dozens of soggy wounds he’d received, and at an alarming rate. Those teeth must have dug around more than he thought.

“I need to get out of here,” he whispered to himself.

Thoughts racing with plans of escape, he made his way through the now open door, leaving a sickly trail of the accursed animals behind him as he went.