Salamander
This outfit seems particularly interesting to you, the bumpy surface, the webbed fins. You can’t help but think to yourself about how this experience seems like one like none other,
“What is this?” You ask yourself aloud, thinking how regardless of what’s ahead of this road for you, it must be better than the situation you’re already in. You take in your environment while staring into the shattered mirror. A rusty sink is before you, to your left a decrepit wood framed window complete with an annoyingly loud fan-ventilation system. To your right a scratched up metal door, you swear you see bullet holes scattering the length of the door. Covered in graffiti, the handle barely hanging on, and rust making its way up the length of the metal quarter-round along the bottom.
You hear the buzzing of the lights overhead as they flicker, the steril lighting in this gas station bathroom fills your stomach with anxiety and nausea. You look at your wrinkly skin in the mirror, bloodshot eyes yearning for a new beginning. Bony hands aged by the sun run along the warts embedded in this costume, the texture reminds you of a freshly plucked chicken. Your empty stomach growls causing your mind to go back to the last time you had a good meal. Flies buzz around the vicinity, causing a harsh annoying kind of sound in tandem with the buzzing of the light fixture swinging above you.
The sound of the ventilation fan almost drowning out the two more subtle yet annoying sounds overwhelming your senses. You’ve had enough of staring at yourself in the mirror, it’s the same thing every day, so today you’re doing something different. You hold the outfit up to you stretching it out, examining the blended values of green, against a harsh black pattern. Its striking emerald eyes entice you. You can’t seem to wait anymore, so you align the suit with your body, and step in.
You leave your pants right on the floor, feeling the skin of the suit bristling up against your leg hair. Your socks wet in a puddle on the ground, you take care to not get the slick suit wet. Upon slipping your arms into the sleeves you can already feel it constricting to the shape of your skinny frail body. The zipper zips smoothly, “One thing that went right today.” You say to yourself as you stand up straight, causing the outfit to tighten in certain parts, it feels enjoyable. You begin to feel it compress in all directions; crushing your body causing you to hunch over slightly, as the tight latex-like skin begins creeping up your neck and over your head. The sink begins to rise higher and higher, you slowly shrink out of your own vision in the mirror, the last thing you see is the bright greens and dark blacks begin to overtake your body.
Slick slimy hands reach up to touch your face, you pull out handfuls of your silky brown hair out in clumps, examining a moist leather-like texture atop your head. Looking once again at your hands, you’ve noticed that they’ve began forming a sensitive webbed membrane sprawling between your knuckles. You try grabbing at the sink before it’s just out of reach but you can feel your skin begin to secrete a thin mucus from your fingertips. The loss of traction causes you to struggle as you cling for your life onto the edge of the sink, your futile effort resulting in your slow descent over the edge of the porcelain.
In the moment when you’re airborne you realize how small you’ve become. You brace yourself for the impact on the cold hard tile, wincing your eyes shut your heart races as you expect the feeling of the floor strike you. Your world begins to change around you, the ground seems to swallow you up in a raging vortex, almost choking you as the forces overwhelm your body. Your head flies back and the trauma of this event causes you to begin drifting off into a deep slumber. Your vision growing dim as you view your body sinking into the darkness, a turquoise color takes over your vision as you observe clear little sparkles of light rising up from around you.
Written by Driftingdragon on 25 November 2019