Just another night in Las Vegas. The Sin City, as many once called it; A citadel to quench the thirst for quick gratification. Gambling, sex and bright lights are the three pillars that keep Las Vegas standing as the multi billion dollar business it became over the years. It is around 11 P.M. The sky is already pitch black, with few stars in sight. Inside one of the monorails leaving the MGM Stadium, a tall, slim and pale teen is sitting in his chair, fiddling about with his phone, listening to whatever song came up in his headphones. Amidst the night life revelers and highly seductive women, the teen stood out like a sore thumb. His hair, a complete slicked back mess, was strangely complementary to his rugged white shirt, black cargo trousers, dirty sneakers and a deadbeat look in his face that showed just how utterly careless he was about himself. His plain white shirt was part of the regular work attire for those who worked at the MGM Stadium. A nametag on the left side of his chest shyly showed off his name: Elias Lascaux, general assistant at the Red Lace Gentlemen's Club.
"Damn."
Elias muttered to himself, as he saw the time on his phone. He stood up from his seat, holding the bars of the monorail as it made its way to the last stop. As Elias stood up and patiently waited, his attention was completely stolen by the mesmerizing scent of a lavender fragrance. As he curiously looked around to see the source of it, his eyes were quickly bestowed with the sight of a gorgeous female hellspawn. A feminine and voluptuous figure with bright red skin, characteristic of her half-breed race. Her forehead, nose and cheeks had a few yellow spots, which would be the equivalent of human freckles. Her face was delicate, with small yellowish eyes, a small curvy nose, delicate and smooth lips. The hellspawn wore a purple top with the logo of a somewhat unknown metal band, that showed just enough of the best parts of her flat stomach and highlighted the inviting silhouette of her body. Elias was completely frozen in place by her sight. What started as a relatively cute sign of admiration turned into a strange demonstration of desperation and social unawareness quite quickly. As Elias stared at the hellspawn, almost fainting at her mere sight and smell, the woman promptly turned her face to him and asked with a confused expression:
"May I help you?"
Elias's heart was thumping, threatening to jump out of his chest through his throat. A bothersome sensation of heat filled his entire body. His mind could barely form a single sentence. After what felt like hours inside his mind, Elias finally mustered up the courage to reply.
"N-Nothing. I-I just…I just wanted to say that I…I think you're really pretty. Maybe you could add me on Instagram or…Whatever?"
The awkwardness was palpable. As soon as the woman heard the sentence, she cackled and took a step back, as she looked him with disdain and replied with a mocking tone.
"Yeah, thanks, but I'm not into that. I mean, I'm into humans…Just not the weird ones. I appreciate the attitude, though."
She took another step back, distancing herself from Elias, laughing to herself and peeking over her phone occasionally to look at Elias and laugh even more. This lasted for about five minutes, until the monorail finally stopped at the station. Elias's face was even sadder and deader than before. He turned up the music on his phone and made his way home on foot with haste, exiting the station and walking about three miles until he finally made it home. He took off his headphones, reached for the keys in his pocket and opened the door. The family dog; A Labrador called Jonah; Rushed to him, sniffing his pants and trying to lick his face.
"Jonah! Hey, Jonah!"
Elias played with the cheerful dog for a minute and then proceeded to the living room. The only thing that caught his attention was a note at the table that read:
"DINNER READY; MICROWAVE; DON'T BE STUPID"
Elias sighed as he read. He knew well what that meant; His mother and stepfather were out again, for the third week in a row. He opened the microwave, seeing the half of a lasagna sitting on a glass tray. Deep down he felt a spark of joy, but he was unable to express anything if not tiredness and frustration. As he set the timer to heat it up, he changed into a random pajama and grabbed a spoon with his dinner, eating as he turned on the TV and mindlessly stared into a random TV show.
As he received a phone call, he paused the show and answered the phone with a dead tone.
"Hello, this is El-"
Before he could finish his sentence, a loud scream perforated his ears.
"HELLO? THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ME?!"
He was so distracted that he didn't even bother to check who was calling. That was Rudy Judd, one of the rainmakers in Vegas and owner of the Red Lace Gentlemen's Club. As Elias finally understood how much of a trouble he put himself into, the image of Rudy Judd quickly came to his mind; A tall black man with dreads, a Jamaican accent that made his English total rubbish. He always wore white camo pants, black military boots and a purple jacket with a white wife beater and orange aviator glasses. And, of course, the main accessory of his look…A loaded handgun peeking through his waist. People say that, during the political conflicts in Jamaica, he used to work as hired muscle for politicians, and that he killed twelve people there, one of which was hacked with a machete while still alive. Not only that, but the Red Lace was a known hotspot for the cocaine trade, and Rudy was high on drugs ninety percent of the time.
"ELIAS!"
As Elias reminisced about Rudy, he finally improvised something to answer.
"I-I'm sorry, Mr. Judd! I didn't notice it was you."
Elias said with a noticeable fear in his voice.
"Listen to me, white boy. Why do you work for me, hmm?"
Rudy's voice was imposing. Elias replied, still cowering a bit on the couch.
"B-Because…I can't work anywhere else, sir."
Elias replied, ashamed. Rudy gave a small laugh, and proceeded with the humiliation.
"That's right, you little prick. Now, do you care to explain why the FUCK there were fifteen used condoms on booth four? FIFTEEN, ELIAS!"
Elias remembered…He didn't forget to clean booth four. He was just so fed up with cleaning semen and spilled drinks all afternoon that he just thought that he could get lucky and leave it for another assistant to clean.
"I…I thought Luke was going to clean it, sir."
Rudy slammed his desk, something that was audible on the other side of the call.
"LUKE GOT FUCKING SHOT IN THE GUT, ELIAS. HE'S IN AN INDUCED COMA. WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT MEANS."
Elias couldn't believe he made such a blatant mistake. The whole reason why he was working overtime was because his coworker Luke got shot and the other assistants called in sick after the water on the eastern part of the city caused a widespread lead intoxication epidemic.
"…You're right, Mr. Judd. I can work overtime tomorrow to make up for it."
Rudy sighs.
"Come in earlier tomorrow. You're deep cleaning all this mess and you're running the bar at night."
Elias hesitantly complies. He hated working at the bar; He always spilled expensive drinks and broke cups. But, his job and probably his life were on the line.
"Yes, sir."
Rudy then hangs up. Elias rubs his eyes, thinking about the horrible day that he just had; Not as if the other ones were any better. He leaves the lasagna tray on the ground, giving the leftovers to Jonah, that happily ate it all.
"You must be hungry, huh? I wonder if that useless hag left you any food at all before going out."
Elias pets Jonah until he finishes eating.
"Good night, Jonah. Sorry for not playing much with you. I had a rough day…Rougher than usual."
Elias climbed the stairs to his room, turning off all the lights. He laid down in his messy bed and snuggled himself in his favorite turquoise duvet. He laid down facing upwards, staring at the ceiling. The night was quiet and getting a bit cold.
"What am I even doing?"
Elias says to himself, his voice echoing throughout the empty bedroom. He tries and tries to sleep, but no success. He turns and turns for a whole hour, not being able to catch a single wink of sleep. Tired, he stands up, storming out of his room and making his way to his parents room. He crouches near the bed, reaching for a metal safe with a numeric keyboard. He struggles a bit to carry the heavy object to the kitchen, where he opens one of the drawers and gets a roll of adhesive tape. Elias calmly places the tape on top of the numeric keyboard and flashes it with the light of his phone, revealing many fingerprints through the surface.
"12…05…19…The day he met my mom. Ironic, huh, you piece of shit?"
As Elias dials in the newfound code, the safe clicks open. He pulls it to the side, revealing the content inside; A handgun, three magazines of ammunition and a cleaning kit for said weapon, all laid down systematically in a black foam.
"Been a while since I held a gun. He got this stupid safe after I tried to end it all a few months ago. But, it's not like he cares either. He just doesn't want the cops giving him trouble again."
Elias remains talking to himself in the kitchen, curiously fiddling with the empty handgun, trying to remember a tutorial he saw on how to operate it. His habit of spewing random revolted commentaries was a way for him to remind himself of how his own voice sounded, something he often forgot due to the long periods of silence. After some struggle, he finally managed to insert the magazine into the magwell, loading the handgun. He then pushed the slide back carefully, watching as a single bullet got chambered. He slid his thumb on the safety of the handgun, which promptly clicked, signaling that it was loaded and ready to fire. After a few seconds of thought, he placed the weapon on the side of his forehead, trembling, trying to fit his finger on the trigger.
"All you gotta do is have a single moment of courage, Elias. That's all it takes."
Still trembling, he glanced at his reflection on the kitchen window.
"Nineteen years of nothing. It all came to this. This how it ends…This is how it ends."
Almost like a mantra, the gun remained placed on Elias's head, with his finger mere centimeters away from the trigger. For a second, he thought that all his suffering could be ended with just two pounds of force. As he closes his eyes and bids farewell to his miserable life, he hears a soft whimpering; It was Jonah. A dog probably couldn't understand the depth of a human emotion as profound as sadness and the desire to not exist. But, what he could feel was the weight of the possible death of his owner, his most valued figure in life. For a split second, all the determination in Elias's heart just ceased to exist. He placed the gun back in the safe, still trembling from the adrenaline rush. He crumbled to the ground, sobbing until he ran out of breath entirely. Jonah laid down beside him, snuggling into a ball, trying his best to comfort his owner. As Elias cried himself to sleep, he slept on the floor until the next morning.
As the sun rose and the alarm on his phone rang, Elias woke up, grabbing the device in a rush. The alarm had a name, indicating its purpose: "DOC". Elias had to go see his psychologist, something he hadn't done in a while. Deep down, he didn't care about the therapy; He considered himself impossible to save. But, if he wanted his meds back, he needed to go back to therapy. Elias had a morning like any other in his life; Alone, he went through a quick bath, put on his work uniform, rotted in bed for thirty minutes and then went out, saying his farewells to Jonah. As he jogged to his therapist's office; One of his only forms of exercise; He went through the reception and into the room, where his doctor was already waiting for him.
Doctor Jennifer was a wonderful woman. Although Elias had some rather compromising views of women, Elias was not attracted to Jennifer in a physical sense, but rather a mental or spiritual one. Doctor Jennifer was a hellspawn, just as the one that dismissed Elias on the monorail. That memory triggered him a bit, but, in the end, it was his fault.
Jennifer was a very tall woman, about seven feet tall, hovering over Elias. She had long legs and arms, long curly white hair and wore pink glasses with strands, something quite classy but adorable at the same time. Elias never saw her outside of the office; She always wore her typical white dress with black high heels, making her even taller than her natural height. Besides her imposing looks, she is a sweet and caring woman, that would do anything for her patients. That is what made Elias so compassionate about her…But, of course, he could never even dream of confessing any of this to Jennifer.
"Hello, Elias!"
She stood up, looking down on Elias, hugging him with a strong grip. Elias can't help but force out a little smile.
"H-Hey, doc."
Jennifer sits back on her huge chair, making a stampede as she moves around on it.
"Long time no see! How have you been? How's your mom? And your stepdad? And Jonah?!"
She held the arms of the chair, excited to hear about Elias's life.
"…Awful as ever, doc. Hate to ruin the mood, but…Yeah."
Jennifer's smile faded entirely. She fixed her glasses using her index finger, looking at Elias with a more serious expression.
"Okay…Guess we got some work to do, then. Tell me what's bothering you. But, miss me with all that self pity that you usually have. I want facts only."
The commentary was rough and straightforward, almost offensive. But, Jennifer knew that if she wasn't firm and assertive, Elias would just indulge in another hour long rant about how he is a victim of fate and how the world owes him so much for all his mischiefs in life. Elias knows that she's right, so he must face his failures without being condescending as he usually was. He sighed and thought about for a few seconds…And then, started talking, using all his focus.
"My dad died of something I don't know nothing about. My mom remarried with this asshole named Lieberman that cheats on her and treats her like shit, but she never lets go of him. They had another kid. My younger sister, Valorie. They do anything for her. They're always travelling, dining out…She's about fifteen now. She's smart, popular, probably has a boyfriend or something. They treat her as a godsend, while I'm just a failure."
Jennifer is carefully taking notes. As a hellspawn, she uses her hellish descent abilities to write on a piece of paper with just the heat of her nails, engraving what is written on the paper. She looks up, listening carefully.
"Elaborate…Why do you consider yourself a failure?"
Elias looks at Jennifer, holding his hands, a way of relieving stress.
"I was never smart in school. I only passed grades because my mom would tell the principals I had some sort of mental condition. I was short, skinny, kinda weird. I used to spend all my time playing videogames and reading, so I didn't sleep much…I was a walking sack of disappointment. I never had any friends, never had a girlfriend…I never kissed a girl. Never held hands with one. Never went to prom…I guess I never said more than ten sentences to one. E-Except you, of course."
He stuttered, a bit ashamed. Jennifer smirked, continuing to take notes.
"I know enough about your past. Many depressed people have the exact same life as you. Absent or dead parents, no friends, no significant other, no human warmth, academic failure…That's all past you. Let's talk about the present. How's your professional career?"
Elias looks around, trying to avoid eye contact.
"My grades couldn't get me anywhere. I also didn't go to college or technical school. I'm not experienced or skilled in anything specific either. So, I had to look for any job or my stepdad would kick me out. I managed to be accepted at Red Lace."
Jennifer gave a slight laugh, covering her mouth.
"Forgive me. Red Lace? The prostitution joint?"
Elias looks down, sad, trying to laugh it off.
"Yeah. It's a shitty job. I have to clean cum from perverts, wash dirty panties and hear the same fifteen songs all day. And I earn about…Six and a half bucks an hour. Not to mention the moaning…Ew."
Jennifer crosses her legs, trying to think of a conclusion.
"And you don't see yourself in a better profession?"
Elias leans back.
"No. No I don't."
Jennifer looks profoundly at Elias's eyes.
"So, you're 19. No friends, no girlfriend, working a terrible underpaid job that is considered a health hazard. You have little to no education, no family to rely on. Most women would tase you if they saw you on the street. You probably are as invisible as an ant."
Elias swallows a bit of saliva. He never imagined he would get all of this thrown in his face like that…Not by her, at least.
"I already know all of that."
Jennifer places her hand on Elias's shoulder.
"You have nothing. So you can be anything."
Elias's eyes, dim beforehand, lit up a bit.
"A-Anything?"
Jennifer turned his head to the office window, showing the day outside. The sun was bright in the sky, something unusual in Vegas. A small flock of robins were living in a nearby tree.
"You have no family to disappoint. No friends to hold you down. No girlfriend to get mad at you. Honestly…It's like you've just been born. You can be so, so much more."
Elias looked outside.
"It's…A nice day."
Jennifer nodded.
"The sun is shining and the birds are singing, right?"
Jennifer snuggled closer, manifesting her own form of comfort. As Elias looked down, he could see her black, thinly laced bra, barely holding her breasts in place. Her breath was sweet and comforting; It smelled like a bizarre mix of sulfur and raspberries. Her arched tongue moved in a hypnotizing manner, almost begging to devour the lust of whoever was fortunate enough to try it. Elias, in an act that not even he understood, lunged towards Jennifer, closing the distance and pressing a passionate and unskilled kiss against her lips. She immediately recoiled back, not letting that slight contact between their lips last for more than a fraction of a second. As soon as Elias opened his eyes and realized his mistake, Jennifer swung at him with wild force. Her open palm formed a deviously strong slap, strong enough to send the slim Elias flying across the room. His face was left totally dented, and his nose was gushing blood nonstop. He barely had the strength to stand up, as he ridiculously tried to get a grip on a nearby wall to get back on his feet. Jennifer's face was lit with a mix of anger, confusion and disgust.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
That resonated with Elias. How sick can someone be to try and kiss a woman without any consent just because she was close enough? How desperate for affection do you have to be to open yourself to anyone that shows even a remote glimpse of kindness? Elias stands up, trying to stop the bleeding. He looks up at the doctor, with tears in his eyes.
"I know what's wrong with me, doc. I try to get fixed. I'm beyond saving."
Jennifer's face seemed slightly calmer.
"You need help. Not just therapy, you need psychoactive medicine."
Still looking at Elias with trepidation, she wrote a note on her notebook and ripped out a page, giving it to him.
"Prozac, Cymbalta, Sinequan…The usual. It should get you through."
Elias looks at the paper, letting some blood droplets hit the paper, slowly turning it red.
"We…Won't be seeing each other much, doc."
He limps towards the door. Jennifer stares at him, feeling a little pity deep down.
"No. We won't."
Elias limps through the reception, ignoring the security guards alerted by the noise and the concern of the other people present in the scene. As he wanders through town, face dripping blood and the look of a complete maniac, he strolls into a drugstore, slamming the prescription on the table. Without exchanging a single word, a scared worker reached for the medications prescribed to him. Elias left the drugstore again, now crumbling in tears, he makes his way back home. As the door opens, Elias sees Jonah, peacefully asleep. He presses a soft smooch to his forehead.
"You be strong now, buddy. I'll miss you."
Elias silently walks through the house, making it to the kitchen, where he once again grabs the handgun, right where he left it. He puts the gun on his waist and opens the kitchen drawer, also grabbing a knife. He walks to the door, looking at Jonah one more time, before closing the door. Elias wanders through Vegas for hours and hours. Far from the neon struck city, now stranded in the Mojave Desert, Elias walks through the sand wasteland, before finding a dune. He sits on top of the small sand mountain, looking at the city from far away. He draws his gun, resting it at his thigh, contemplating the view.
"Looking from here…This city is not that bad."
He turns off the safety of the handgun, holding it to the side of his forehead.
"Mom…I wanted you to love me. I really did."
Elias starts breaking down in tears. His meltdown, totally silenced by the vastness of the desert, is merely a weep amidst the whistling winds. The cold polymer of the handgun sends shivers down his spine, as his finger slowly fits into the trigger.
"Fuck…Fuck all of this. I can't do anything right."
Elias takes the handgun away from his forehead, reaching for the kitchen knife. Almost like a muscle memory, he grabs it and lifts his sleeves, like a sick ritual. His arms and forearms were unrecognizable from so much self harm. So many cuts that the skin was barely visible. He grunts, throwing the knife into the dune.
"No more half measures."
Elias reaches for the handgun once more, now placing it at his throat.
"I deserve this. All of it."
Elias closes his eyes, contemplating the soft breeze of the desert.
"This is how I die. Alone. Miserable. Not a single achievement by my name. Not even a burial…Not even a gravestone. In a few days, Elias Lascaux will be nothing. No one will remember me."
The desperate cries of Elias were interrupted by a loud, crackling gunshot. The recoil of the handgun made the weapon fly from his hand, into the dune, disappearing into the sand. A hole was blown into his throat, leaving his trachea fully exposed. As blood squirted like a fountain, he instinctively tried to stop the bleeding, plugging the hole with his fingers; No success. Elias fell to the ground, crawling into the sand, leaving a bloody trace behind.
"I…Don't Want to die…Mom…Help me…I'm scared…I'm scared…It's cold…"
The weight of his decisions smashed his heart and soul. As the adrenaline rush passed, the inevitable future fell upon him; He was going to die. As the bleeding took all of his strength and the sand became heavier and heavier, Elias couldn't help but relive all the worst moments of his life; Until he remembered that they were all of it. Not a single smile ran through his memories. And so, alone, cold and bloodied, Elias died. No one saw him, no one heard his cries and no one was going to find his body. No letter, no heirloom, no legacy; No grieving. Elias Lascaux was no more. Like a grain of sand to the wind.
But when the material body dies, new doors are open. Time simply stopped flowing. Elias was…Dead. But he could still feel like he existed. He didn't have a body and couldn't feel anything. But, with certain struggle, he opened his eyes. As his senses slowly came to be, there he was…Nowhere. An infinite amount of black water. Blackish faceless figures as far as the eye can see. And there was Elias, shoved between them. All of those poor condemned miserables were trying to reach for a single spark of a light, coming from an oil lamp on the tip of a wooden boat, that was being rowed by a hooded skeletal figure. As one of them reaches for the boat, the hooded being spins his wooden oar, ramming it against the shadow's head, launching it into the black water once again.
"Fall back! Fall back, I said! Those who do not wish to haggle shall not set feet on my boat!"
The hooded figure said in a deep voice, accompanied by an extremely classy and enriched dialect. Elias, still not understanding a thing, managed to use his only functioning line of thought to form a simple sentence.
"I want to haggle!"
The boat made a steep turn, and the hooded figure rowed towards Elias. As the skeletal presence rammed his oar against the heads of the other shadows, he pulled Elias up, sitting him on the boat near the oil lamp.
"Greetings, child. I am Charont, the rower of Limbo. I am here to give lost souls such as your own a light to pursue; And a chance to haggle."
Elias looked at his hands, noticing that, just as the other ones there, his body was nothing but a shadowy husk.
"Hell…This is…Hell?"
Charont stood up, throwing dried sticks on the lamp, strengthening the fire.
"Not exactly. Hell is composed of many depths. This is Limbo, home of the forgotten and the suicidal."
Elias curled up, trying to process his fate.
"My…My punishment is…To be forgotten?"
Charont leaned closer.
"If you are here, you were never remembered in the first place. These doomed waters will be your home. Forever swimming, trying to find the light…My boat's light, your only guidance in eternal darkness. No sound, no sadness, no pleasure; Just hollow. This is Limbo."
Elias didn't have a face, but if he had, he'd probably be totally terrified. His voice, his only form of communication, trembled.
"Y-You…Said something about a h-haggle. I-I don't know much about…Demons. My family were LaVeyists. We didn't have much of a basis."
Charont laughed, as if he'd been wanting to hear that in a long time.
"Suicide is a sin. Not any sin…The worst of all. The Old God says that committing a crime against your own life is unacceptable."
Elias remained confused.
"The laws of the Old God matter?"
Charont wisely replied, fiddling with his oar.
"If it wasn't for the Old God, there would be no demons. No Hell. No sin. The rules of the Bible are the very own rules of the afterlife."
Elias slowly understood what was happening. In a world taken over by demons and the satanic, a concept such as Hell was greatly banalized. When he died, Elias pictured himself in the Hell preached by his religious neighbours; A giant brothel with naked hellspawns indulging in all the seven deadly sins forever. But, it turns out, promises can't always be kept.
"…So, following the logic of the Old God…I must…Repent?"
Charont cackled.
"It is too late to repent. You must wipe away your debt with the universe."
Elias stood up.
"Debt?"
The Charont resumed his rowing, taking Elias through Limbo.
"There are two types of acts that can be committed by a sentient being; A sin and a virtue. Think of it like this; When you are born, your sin and virtue counters are zero. As you grow up, they grow and go down as time goes on. Peeking through the skirt of your neighbour? One sin. Feeding a needy person? One virtue. But, there are sins and virtues that have a significance higher than one. Homicide, for example, is worth fifteen sins each. Suicide, that is your case…Is worth a thousand sins."
Elias lost his balance, almost falling in the water.
"A-A THOUSAND SINS?"
The Charont stopped the boat, looking at the doomed souls.
"All of this follows the rules of the Old God. Life is about balance. Sin is good, but virtues are too. To walk the path of the right, you must learn how to walk through the path of the wrong. You should always have a balanced sin and virtue count. As for you…You have a thousand and three hundred sins and two hundred virtues. With that amount of sin, you're not going to any hellish brothel. You're staying in Limbo with me."
Elias stared at the black water. All of that was so much information, but he still absorbed it the best he could.
"…Let's haggle, then. How do I wipe away my debt?"
The Charont stands up, touching Elias's shoulders.
"You'll have to see for yourself."
Elias stares the Charont deeply.
"I accept it."
The Charont grabs his oar, ramming it against Elias's head.
"Your haggle is accepted."
Elias passes out. Again, even though he was not awake, he could still tell that time was flying past him. When he finally came to his senses, he could feel…A shortness of breath and space. Like he was either drowned, confined or both. Maybe he was back in the black water? No, that wouldn't make sense. Elias tries to feel his surroundings, only to be surprised by a wooly texture. Was he in bed? No. He couldn't see anything. That's when the realization came; He was buried. Worse than buried…Buried alive.
"No. No, no no. No. HELP! HELP ME! HELP!"
Elias's screams couldn't be heard by anyone. How was he alive? What would happen if he died again? The gunshot hole on his throat became a disgusting X shaped scar, reminding him of his own act. As Elias spanks the coffin to no avail, the shortness of breath and space start to kick in. He hyperventilates, trying to emit any form of sound so he could be heard. No one did.
Suddenly, Elias gained a level of strength he could never comprehend. One that didn't belong in his body or the body of any regular human. The coffin was completely destroyed, starting a dirt flood inside of the tight surface.
"FUCK. FUCK. HELP! HEEEEELP!"
As Elias finally figured out that cries for help wouldn't take him anywhere, he invented a quick plan. Slowly but surely, he used his bare feet to scoop out large portions of dirt and throw it to the side of the casket. After many repetitions, his feet were already raw flesh. The pain made Elias grunt and tear up with each scoop of dirt. Finally, the casket was almost full with it, and Elias could try and move. He hardly flipped his own body, crawling to the makeshift tunnel he just dug, and started crawling upwards. As he crawled, he clawed his way through the dirt; Luckily softened by the rain. After a suffocating hour, already with no nails and mutilated hands and forearms, Elias dug up the last layer of dirt, seeing the moon and the rain. He punched it, finally reaching the surface, climbing out of the grave. As the cold rain bathed his naked, bloodied and mutilated body, for the first time, he couldn't help but feel thankful for being alive. He looked over to the gravestone of his coffin, looking for the name. The gravestone was marked as Hudson Brooks, a 39 year old man who had died a day before.
"What…Is…Going…On…?"
Elias muttered, fainting due to his wounds and sheer exhaustion. His head, now akin to that of a caprine, slammed the muddy dirt on the ground. His eyes flickered, and his already frame shrinked even more with decaying brownish skin.