V

by Jessica Wright

A dark whisper of a careless voice broke into the tightly concealed compartment of the coffin long since shut from the world. The dark whisper spread throughout the air like thick fog, settling down over the form within the compartment to caress the rims of the ears that had not been touched in over a century’s time. Ears which had not heard such a pleasure gifted to be known as sound since the time of the body’s placement into the coffin, the body being that of my own. The four oak wooden walls of the coffin twisted and turned, a coffin made completely of the roots of the great trees surrounding the grave, closing in on the body, the body that was mine. The whisper seemed to cover my whole being, smothering me with its roughness and darkness, surrounding my decaying corpse.

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2008