Deep Seeded Internal Decay (A Short Immersive Story)

Another sharp spasm kicked inside her intestines. The gut punch of shredding pain danced heat over her skin. Sweat beaded on her brow, adorning her flushed face in a glistening glaze. Bile rose, creeping up the back of her throat as a soft gasp escaped her parted lips.

She never should have eaten the tiny black seeds...

She torn at her top, fumbling as she tried to pull it off over her head. Her arms trapped in the half-tugged tangle around her face as she wrestled to breathe. Finally, the damp t-shirt fell sprawling on the wooden floor.

Each barbed blow knocked the colour from her pale cheeks. A thousand tiny blades ripping her intestines, clawing, scraping their way through her.

A lifetime of B-movies, low budget horror and blockbusters filled her mind. She clutched her stomach, half expecting the flesh to gape open, for hideous jaws to burst through the soft pink skin of her abdomen.

As she pushed her palms against the writhing tissue to repressing the notion, the pain intensified. It was as though multitudes of hooked teeth bit into the delicate folds of her digestive system. She moaned with the burning throb of deep pangs, the involuntary sound forcing its way out in her breath.

She felt the shift, the movement in her bowels. She had experienced IBS before, this wasn’t the hard smack it normally kicked with. Needle pointed fingertips clawed at her insides. She struggled to stand under the weight of the heavy pain.

A pathetic feeling of helplessness overtook her, as crunched over, she dragged herself to the bathroom. Each step, each movement stapled the pain deeper, her vision felt patchy with the swell of the deep prickling in her insides.

The bright tiles spun before her, white knuckles gripped the door frame. Stars closed in on her blurry vision, pain streaming down her face as her body struggled to process the overwhelming sensation.

The bathroom spun, she lurched towards the toilet, falling to let her hands find the wall as she dropped to the seat. Her tight jeans clung to her clammy skin as she struggled to peel away the reluctant denim.

A red slick lay beneath, a blotchy rorschach in sweat and blood.

Panic smacked her hard in the face.

She reeled, touching the back of her legs in disbelief, lifting her hand to confirm. Her blood tipped fingers seemed too long, misshapen in her unfocused haze.

The door began to move, keeling to the left, taking the floor with it as it slipped away.

---

She opened her eyes. Her face felt pressed… cold. Flat shining white stretched out before her.

Her mind moved slowly. First came the hurt, the wrenching pain jolting in her guts. Then the realisation. The hard floor beneath her.

She moved her fingers, pulling her hand along the grouted tile edge towards her dropped phone. Her finger rested on the unlock, scanning her print. She pushed through the fog of her mind, dragging her finger over the screen to the dialler. The pain was blinding her, crushing her thoughts. She raised her finger, tapping three times, barely managing to drop down on the call button, as slowly, darkness returned.

---

Bright lights flickered above her, blinding her periodically. A loud hum rang in her ears, punctuated with the distant echoes of distorted voices. An acrid chemical smell filled the air as she felt wooziness rising, a pleasant flush brushing dreamily over her.

---

She was in surgery for six hours as the doctor painstakingly removed the tiny black indigestible seeds. Their barbed tips had dug into the tiny folds of her intestines, ripping into the thin membrane, pushed further into her flesh with each passing meal.

I had seeded bread for my dinner, and realized it was filled with linseed, not something you can digest whole, so I got to thinking, what's the worst that could happen... Probably not this.

With thanks to @hazem91 for the second opinion, and to the glorious @neenarose who suggested the title, inspired by song lyrics from The Streets.

Photo Credit By Pixabay user StockSnap who has over 25,000 stock images in the public domain, all beautifully shot and edited, with some really nice lighting effects and images that capture an atmosphere wonderfully.