Vines of Hunger | ONC 2024

chapter one | bodies

There were no skies to be witnessed, no blue ocean with clashing water above in the mighty heavens, only the limbs of towering figures smothering me as I stumbled through ever-growing stampede of faceless souls, caging me in this endless circle of substitute wandering.

The bodies of corse fabrics ruffle against my bare arms as I push my way through the sea of lively limbs. The arch in my muscles fade to the back of my thoughts as I seemingly pull my way through the bodies of the strangers amongst me, never truly knowing if I'm getting any closer to the closure of my small apartment, high above the mindless crowds below.

I'd just left the gruelling place that had me preforming simple movements with the same motion for thousands of minutes a day, for dimes to survive on, some also like to call it a job, I prefer to call it my own designated hell.

Gazing through the sea of swaying heads, I spot the small windows amongst the faded bricks that comes into view a few meters down from where I'm being pushed forward. My sore feet collide with dust riddle steps leading to the entice of the building, I lift my gaze towards the cluster of bodies below with a passive stare casting out over them as the overbearing scent of mixed colognes begins to fade a bit as I distance myself from the crowd.

There's more of them today, more people, more hustle then usual.

The odd sensation of my gut hollowing leaves my throat constricting from the fume polluted air.      

People are a funny thing, able to control their thoughts with just a simple live wire within their own minds, in such a way that there are capable of constructing objects of pure beauty; build whole civilisations with such intricate details that you would never stop searching for new concepts that they had implanted into these marvels that they call their own, yet in crowd they seemingly become one thoughtless mass, nothing behind heir individual gazes as they stomp forward, unseeing of the world outside of their cluster.

The study of the human mind; or any creatures mind for that matter, is one that is so fascinating, because the thoughts are one that holds so many intricate details, so many emotions, so much wonder that fills me with a need to learn about the ever-growing organism. Some try to understand the mind to better control the masses around them, to tame, to control them, but they will never truly be able to take hold of a mind, because the mind never stops learning, therefor it can never truly be contained.

I never attended a class specific to this topic, mostly because I never made it past senior year; money was tight or just plainly not there and the few shifts I was able to pick up after work weren't ever enough to cover everything, especially with the prices rising on even the basic needs we needed; that Eliana needed.

So when I get a spare moment to myself, I flip open the crappy laptop I had brought from a friend a few years ago and surf through the many articles that swamp the internet, and with a cramped hand, I swirl the new findings on the glowing screen into the wrinkled notebook I brought on sale. Oddly enough, a way to escape the thoughts that bind my own mind is to wander through another's.

My nibble fingers wrap around the cold nob laced to the flacking paint on the door. A brisk heat flashes over me as I enter the small complex I call home, letting the door swing closed behind me with a thud. The slim envelope slips between my fingertips and onto the waterlogged wood that makes of the base of the bench, as I circle around the interior of it.

With the lukewarm liquid slipping down my throat, my gaze flicks over to the creaking sofa as my Nana sits ideally in the faded green shape, eyes unmoving from the small glowing box in-front of her as the news rambles on about the cold flu that's recently been going around different towns around the state.