It was trapped between two lungs.
Florence + The Machine, Between Two Lungs
What is this? What am I about to read?
i
Blood flooded the battered veins of their beleaguered bodies. Sight was granted back into their skulls before the muscles in their eyelids were strong enough to lift. So they sat for the first few moments of life, blinded by birth, afraid and vulnerable to the din of sensation cascading over withered plains when they’ve drunk up the absentee rain. Then the first breath – and the world was burning.
Coming alive was effortless for Chela. She opened her eyes to ascertain the source of putridity, noxious smog clinging to the air. The space was dark save for a shaft of light pouring in from behind, but that was enough for her to begin drawing the scene. From a decrepit, wooden armchair stationed against one wall, Chela found herself positioned in the center of a long corridor amongst corpses. Dozens were positioned upright in their own individual chairs, lining either side of the dank room, each beside their own intravenous drip.
She was instantly aware of the ritual that had been mainlined into her veins, and she was neither grateful nor comforted by its effects. This act was not born of fear. It was arrogance, and now that pride seared through her body. She did not hesitate to remove the needle from her arm, and her impatience was rewarded with a bloom of pain that glided down deep bruising, bursting in the palm of her hand with a silvery flash.
Hubris pounded through her chest, beating her heart, her lungs, the very core of her bloodied with a tainted blood. But, she thought looking down at the glint in her hand, perhaps this pain will be useful.
Tabitha felt the moon’s presence before she could see it. Rather than casting its reflected warmth on the surface of her skin, she felt a radiance growing within her, a space for belief and sanctity to fill her up. In those moments, she knew the moon in ways she never would have imagined possible, could see its blazing brilliance, a more commanding spectacle than the inner-workings of the sun and stars could muster in their collective beauty. When she opened her eyes, the sight cast by her mind lingered in the barred windows of the wall opposite her. Although she had observed it countless times throughout her career, this was the first time she sensed life in the astral object, as it bulged in the sky with emergent intensity.