and when the sun comes up you’ll find a brand new god

[Wham Yubeesling]

Behind one of the dunes in the distance, by the outskirts of the arena, Isabella Lugosi held this game’s first victim in the cups of her hands.

[Wham Yubeesling]

She’d found the corpse inside her vision as her eyes flickered back to life. Before any thoughts entered her head, before the memory and reality of it all came flooding in, she’d reached out, pulled the body towards her, sat up, stared down. Its arms and legs were stiff, pointed upwards, halfway there to curling around itself. Its eyes had faded from the colour they’d once been — for a moment they were almost impossible to find amongst the brown fur covering the corpse’s body. She stroked its hair, found its mouth, tried to wipe away all the gunk that’d been thrown up, but it didn’t do anything to bring the corpse back. The tarantula, whether on the bus or in the room, had long since choked out. Her best friend’s dead body was there in her hands, and Isabella-

and Isabella-

and Isabella wailed. And Isabella cried. A high, wordless series of noises squelched against her throat as she cradled the body against her chest, as the tears on her face dripped down into her cupped hands. She closed her eyes, moved the cradle down to her waist as she shrunk inwards, froze up. She opened her mouth and she screamed. She opened her mouth and she screamed. She opened her mouth and she screamed and:

“Help me-”

But no person came.

“Get me- get me out of here-”

But no person came.

“I didn’t-”

So she screamed.

“I didn’t-”

So she screamed.

“Just-”

And she screamed.

“Just- get me out-”

And she screamed.

And she screamed, until she stopped. Until her head suddenly dropped, alike the strings of a puppet being cut. Until her arms fell limp to her sides, the tarantula bouncing onto the sand. Until her body slumped, kneeled, ceased all movement.

Until the Swarm came.

[Wham Yubeesling]

Ants, spiders and scorpions burst out of the ground, converging on the body in the middle of the desert. They entered under her clothes, crawled up, stabbing, biting, puncturing the skin however they needed to. Flies came from all around to land on her face, in her hair, to caress, to taste her flesh the only way they could. When everybody found their place, they all came together. Pushed and pulled, combined their efforts until her head was lifted back up, tilted backwards. Her eyelids — blank, colorless, indistinguishable from her skin — were attacked, bitten, pulled open, forced to stare directly into the sun. Her skin was stung, repeatedly, until the pincers and teeth reached her nerves and made them twitch, made a spasm rock all across her body. They kept going. Kept her moving. Kept her in pain.

Kept her there, kept on trying, until the vessel was finally brought back to life.

[Wham Yubeesling]

The body lifted itself up. Kept its head leaned backwards. The tears that had once stained its face dried up against the heat of the desert sun.

“hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-”

Its mouth laid open, agape, stuck in a perpetual exhale until it tilted its head, dropped it near limp on its left shoulder.

“kkkkkkkkkkkkkkuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-”

It opened its mouth.

It closed its mouth.

It opened its mouth.

“kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkuuuuuuuuhome- with… me…”

It lifted its right hand up into the sky. Stared at it, almost transfixed, before it lifted its head again.

“We- are…”

Stared, finally focused, at the endless rocky plains.

“...all- one.”

It took a step.

[Wham Yubeesling]

It finally brought its hand down from the sky to grab the dead tarantula below its feet. It lifted the corpse up, cupped them — like a cone — against its chest.

[Wham Yubeesling]

It took another step. Another step. The rocks that pierced and bled its feet were no obstruction. No pain. It took another step. Another step.

[Wham Yubeesling]

It saw what looked like a road, dry and cracked tarmac sizzling against the sun. It saw more desert, much less obstructive than the one it was standing on. It saw a carpark. It saw a fence. It saw a building, in the distance, taller than anything it could see.

It saw a nest.

[Wham Yubeesling]

It smiled.

[Wham Yubeesling]

It stepped forward.

[Wham Yubeesling]

((The song began.))