Dead Trees

  I see diamond leaves and wilted trees. The dead foliage appeals to me. It smells like lemons and an ammonia sting. The burn goes straight to my nostrils, surging up with an aggravating pain that had my eyes watering instantly. Snow had begun falling ten minutes before and already my body was wet with the melted chill. The cold helped ease the ache of rope rashes on my wrists and ankles. My naked body was all bruises from the way I had been dragged along the forest floor. Even now, tied securely against the tree, the bark that bit into open scratches on my back only caused mild shocks of irritability. Nothing was hurting too terribly in this cold. But I had shivered so hard I could not stop the urine. It was hot, steamy, and now dripping from my knees to the silvery ground.

 

Closing my eyes I listened to the world. Cracks of trees above flowed in a whimsical way with bird-song. It was all a condemning melody in ringing ears. I felt like my body was skinned from the way the cold made my flesh tingle. It was slowly growing uncomfortable and I had been standing for hours now. The peace in the night was shattered periodically by my staggering memories. A rough hand over my face. A terrible burning in my nose. Then the swirling colors, a face coming from the darkness. Hands on my body, ripping my piercings out. Even the most private one I only showed lovers. I remembered the pain. My hair being pulled, my jaw forced open by a nasty tasting finger. Latex. I could remember the feel of it against my tongue, choking me. Everything was such a blur that left me bleeding, unable to move my body, and ultimately tied up to a tree in the middle of the woods.

 

Once again, I gained the courage to test my mouth. Without a tongue to push at my lips I couldn't feel how many stitches laced them shut. But, I was never one to lie down and die with fear on my face. Without using caution or slowly working my way like a loose tooth, I flexed my jaw and kept up at it. The stitches loosened and ripped through my flesh, but I kept stretching my mouth open. The flopping piece of what was left of my tongue could taste the snow and blood. It wasn't until gargling cries of pain drooled down my chin and the stitching snapped that I took in gulps of much needed air. The pain was frightening, the tears steadily poured down my cheeks, and I didn't dare close my mouth again. The wet of blood and saliva slid down my throat and onto my chest in a cold trail.  And I was almost glad my tongue couldn't accidentally touch the holes in my lips.

 

Hysteria was on the rise. Branching from a place deep inside of my chest, causing my heart to race and my mind to shudder. I couldn't stop now. I wouldn't stop now. Like I had never even felt pain before I thrust my tied wrists against the tree and arched my back. With this new room I was able to rub my ropes against the jagged tree knots. With the rotten angle it was hit and miss for an hour. Unable to see if the rope was tearing, I relied on the long heavy scrapes against the tree. The rope was loosening, slick with a wet I knew wasn't merely melted snow. Suddenly after a quick pull one of my hands slipped free and I screamed from the way my shoulder cracked in protest from moving. I had been tied up so long the color of my arm was pale, and the muscles were tight from shock. My other hand came free and just as quickly I pushed past the stiffness and brought it to my face to see how badly injured I was.

 

My right hand was smeared with blood and mud. The knuckles chafed and the skin ripped up along my palm to the point it looked like raw ground beef. I raised my left hand to my face and stared. I stared until tears began to blur the image of a bloody stump. The cauterization was dry now. Crusty even. Trembling violently my whole hand went down to frantically tear at the ropes on my ankles. Kicking them away I was able to let the weight of my body pull me to the ground and slip under the rope that had tied me to the tree. I was screaming in the end. Whether from the horror of missing my hand or the pain of the rope passing over the raw wounds on my stomach. Stitches from varies incisions and my insides felt like lumps. Lumps of swollen infection. I slowly pulled myself up and took a timid step away from the tree, even my legs burned with pain but I could still see I had all my toes. Thankfully.

 

The snow was about an inch or two on the ground now and I couldn't tell where I had been dragged in from. I took a step forward to begin walking but a small sound stopped me. It was from behind the tree and I stilled to an absolute frozen stance. A part of my conscious mind was paranoid from my attacker coming back and the other was curious. I had heard no other sounds these many hours. It came again and I backed up against my tree, then slowly peeked around the side of it. Lips parted even further, drying now from the cold and cracked when I shut them tightly. Hand covering them to keep from crying out. There were at least fifteen more trees with bodies tied to them. Some bodies hung lifeless, their corpses half decayed. Stitches along their chest and stomach were burst open from dehydrated flesh stretching over bones. Their fluids were sticky and ark against blue skin, and various limbs inflicted with the same cauterization as mine.

 

The sound came again from my left and I swung my head around, face pale from the numbing horror I was seeing. Another woman with her wide eyes stared at me, her stitched mouth moving enough to let out the long moans for my attention. I limped to over and her eyes pleaded, and I could hear the begging inside of them. It took over an hour of my tender fingers tearing at the knots to get her free. We got everyone free. I left the woods that day without my uterus, and spleen. The others were the same way. Gallbladder. Kidney. Hands. Legs. We got free.