In Silence

Darkness suffocated my surroundings inside the box. I could smell mustiness from the stolid air outside my prison. There was a small slit opened just above my focus of view. There was no padding for my bones, only hard, coarse wood restricting my movement. Well, wherever I was I was only waiting to die unless I found a way to escape. I tried to insert my fingers into the small slit, but it was no use, so I pushed my knees up trying to break free with all of my strength but this proved futile as well. My next plan involved kicking the area in front of my feet until a hole appeared and eventually with much effort I broke a gash in the acrid womb, letting the dusty air permeate the vicinity. I inched my body forward until my feet reached another barrier. Probing the wall with my feet, I deciphered the matter to be some sort of metal, possibly aluminum. Now, with the entirety of my legs protruding, I had more strength to kick and push at the metal area in front of me until it finally gave way and my ankles rested on a ledge of some sort.
    From my restricted view I could discern shapes in the area just before my feet. There was a light flowing through a mesh matter detailing specks of dust riding the waves of air onto rectangular-type structures in the rotten smelling room. I inched forward until I was free and reluctantly set my feet before the abyss. I rested my feet onto the cold concrete floor and stood up to survey the strange surroundings. As I stretched my stiff body, my hand brushed against one of the long rectangular objects that owned the room. I used it as a guide through the blackness until I stopped when the front of my shoes struck the base of some stairs before the exit.
    Even though the light grained through, there was no decipherable scenery from my perspective though I could smell the grass which must have been wet for the air was humid. The door proved tenuous as it swung open with one weak push, sounding loud in the brutal stillness. As the light attacked me, my brow cringed at the unfamiliar brightness, and I could not define myself for several moments. When my eyes calmed, I was shocked to see what had imprisoned me for the past frightful term, a sepulcher! I was within a coffin locked inside a vault for the dead! A troubled look formed on my physiognomy as realization led me to believe that I had been at death's door. Yet I had not entered and was in fact alive before these unnerving circumstances.
    The situation brought many thoughts to my swimming brain: had I died or had I been pronounced dead due to a coma indeterminate from death? Was I now, in fact, dead and had awaken in the afterlife to walk in silence before the world's cacophony? I did not feel dead or undead for that matter and my body was tangible and not in spirit form, but did spirits ever realize they were deceased? The possibilities raced through my head until finally I had to sit down from the heaviness on my brow. I sat upon a gravestone and let the issue flourish until a pain grew solid in my head. I stared up to the sun hoping for some much needed guidance yet silence was the only reply; I decided to leave this place and search for an answer to my situation in the land of the living. To the world outside this plane of non-existence, to the town.
    As I walked out of the familiar quiet of the cemetary and into the streets a growing trepidation began to build within me because of the silence assaulting me on all sides. I was still not convinced I was alone, left to rot in my mobile grave of the forgotten. There had to be someone available to plunge into the mystery before me, and I was determined to reach to the ends for the conclusion. My first chance arrived when I came upon a gas station a few minutes from my starting point. In broad daylight, there had to be someone working the place; I entered the small establishment with the best hopes in mind.
    Inside I was once again assailed by the muteness of the surroundings. The place was deserted as far as I could tell; with empty shelves staring back at me, I went through the entire store searching for a sign of life yet it proved useless and the eery silence chased me from the premises. Though as I stepped past the threshold, I heard a quaint whirring from behind the check-out counter to find a small radio hooked in the wall. I picked it up and ran my finger over the AM/FM only to hear the dead quietude which filled the streets, not even the sound of static emanated from the speakers.
    I continued my search through the oncoming town when another thought occurred me: there were no sounds of wildlife, no dogs barking, no cicadas chirping, nothing but my footfalls on the street. It was as if all beings had gone from this plane and left nothing but their emptiness, condemning the land to solitude. The streets were absent of all the sounds and smells known from a bustling city. Only the scents of the wilderness ruminated from off the map.
    The lack of life and signs of vacancy weren't the only things which swam through my mind; I pondered the theory of this supposed afterlife. If wandering around old haunts was the inevitability then where were the rest of the lost souls on their trek through eternity? Was each soul alone in death as I'm sure many, if not all, had experienced in life, the singularity of existence on the overcrowded level of civilization? Was man in fact born alone and sent to suffer the same loneliness in death? "It receives you when you come and dismisses you when you go." Man was surely to fade away, lost without contact with others. He only grows and truly exists when interpreted by others, for only another can mirror the struggles within us all. Without his peers, man is merely a lifetime awaiting to be extinguished by the elements; for did not Adam have Eve and does not your voice reach other's ears? Man is alone against the world, searching for himself in others, looking to find himself and be with himself. Yet he strives to be the best and in doing so, creates the greatest solitude of all. Yes, man has paved his own downfall with his own two hands; the isolation and selfish demand has broken all his ties and begotten the hell which has become his home.
    My continued venture led me to a familiar place on the limits of the town, a house resting on the banks of my memory as if it only ever truly existed there. The long dirt path brought me to the front door of the white sided and black roofed home. I stepped up to the threshold but could not see in for the place was dilapidated; the windows covered in grime, but I boldly entered into the darkness for that is where the answers lie. As soon as I did I noticed a shift in myself and fell to one knee. The stuffiness which engulfed not only the innards of the house but mine as well folded me like a stack of cards. I arose and continued despite the heavy feeling, determined to understand more than ever from the growing familiarity of the surrounding decor. There were shapes formed in the abyss but I ignored them due to a light shedding its sight upon a staircase. The ascent proved dangerous for the creaks which increasingly emanated from beneath my feet were gaining sound with each careful step. Yet the creaking danger was nothing compared to what stood before me at the pinnacle of the stairs: a hole the length ten feet across, the depth absolutely equaled death to its prey.
    The weakness had spread to my legs and was truly painful with each step, yet I decided to take the leap no matter the consequence. I placed my feet at the edge before the staircase, took two desperate steps before leaping and with all of my might stretched my entire body out, hoping to reach the other side. I floated for a moment between the two extremes in utter hopelessness until my hands grasped the ledge on the far side; I barely pulled myself up from the hole and lay convulsing upon the floor. When my senses returned, I arose ready to delve deeper into the hallway when hope held my hand, leading me to a doorway on the left side. I walked in to find a bed containing human form beneath the bed spread. I warily reached for the covers to reveal the mystery beneath when the awful weakness put me to my knees. I tried to stand but it was no use, my legs had numbed, but I was still close enough to reach the sheets.
    With the rest of my strength, I shed the covers from the form --- ! The body lay there dissected of beauty and oxygen, dead upon the bed. He did not stand for the need removed itself. The corporeal dream ended with the evanescence of his final reality, leading him to the abyss one last time.

                        Those damned to live in death must die as well.