Wednesday October 11th, 2017

The exercise:

Write about: the devil's noose.

This afternoon I was asked to clean a room at Destination Osoyoos that I'd not previously had access to. After I was done they wanted me to close the blinds, which didn't seem like much of a request.

By the time I'd finished fighting with the cord I thought otherwise.

I usually have a shower after I get home from work, which gives me some quiet time to process my day. Tonight while I was in there I started thinking about those blinds and how much I hated the person who tied up the cord, whose tie job I casually referred to as 'the devil's noose'. I liked it so much that I had to make a prompt out of it.

So here we are.

Three days to go!

Mine:

The rope around my neck is impossibly hot. It should be on fire, the way it's burning me. I can almost hear the skin crackling like a steak on a frying pan doused with too much oil. The smell is... I don't want to think about the smell.

I twist this way and that, use my fingers to try to force a gap that can be used to loosen its grip on me. But there is no relief. There is no escape.

The devil's noose has a hold on me and it isn't letting go.

"Are you... comfortable?" a deep, rumbling voice asks. I can feel the echoes reverberating in my chest.

"No!" My voice is hoarse, rasping. My mouth is drier than grains of sand on a midday beach. The pain is... exquisite.

"Exquisite?" His laughter is a monstrous thing. "You flatter me."

"Get out of my head."

"Make me."

The challenge forces my eyes open for the first time. My regret is immediate and immense. Everything is on fire. I try not to look at anything too closely but I still see tormented faces and blackened bones.

I am surrounded by misery.

"Surrounded," he says. "And very much a part of it as well."

The noose tightens and I fall to my knees, clutching at the burning rope with both hands. I can feel the skin on my palms blistering and peeling away. Escape is hopeless but I will not stop fighting. I cannot stop. I must not.

"Oh, you will," he says with that terrible laugh. "You will."