Wrath of the Firstborn

With a swift slash of my machete, her head was perfectly severed from her cold, dead body. Blood gushed out of the stump where her head had been, and I wiped my hand across her feathery corpse. The ceremony requires me to be clean, I reminded myself. Like a rusty machine, I instinctively jerked my head so I could look at my next target. Once again, I drew my machete and cut into her, further and further I went, trying to dig into the very center of her body. I felt around with my hand, and I grabbed onto something that was resonating a faint pulse. “This is it,” I told myself out loud. I grinned, because I knew I had finally done it. Furiously, I ripped the heart from its shell, and I didn’t care about how messy it all was, all I cared for was the heart. It was still pumping very lightly, and I knew I had to be quick about the entire ordeal. As I glanced at it, I felt like a man who has eaten nothing but stone for a hundred odd years. Without doubt or fear, I took a huge bite of it, then another, and another. Tears were rushing down my cheeks, not painful ones, but blissful, joyous tears. So tiny, it could fit in the palm of my hand, yet capable of generating such ecstasy. I was so caught up in the moment that I didn’t hear the rustle of the leaves, and the shaking of the grass. Slowly, the trampling footsteps came closer, and I became aware that there was something closing in on me. The noise became louder and louder, so I hid in a nearby bush, waiting to see what creature would arrive at my doorstep. The noise faded for a few moments, and the next second I was pinned down under the giant creature’s foot. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, and I looked up to see that it was the creature’s claw that was pinning me down. A feeling of dizziness came over me, but I managed to look even further up, and my worst fear was confirmed. It was the matriarch hen, mother of all chickens and protector of the people. Rumored to stand 30 meters tall, and have the speed of a jaguar and the power of an elephant, she merely stood there and looked at me. “You have forsaken my child, you have forsaken my lands, and I will banish you from these realms, oh desecrator of life.” I tried as hard as I could to wriggle out of her powerful grip, but it was too strong. I was a sitting duck. She raised her foot, and before I could beg for forgiveness and mercy, she dived at an unforgiving pace towards my chest. Before my very eyes, I could see my own heart, still pounding, between her huge, white teeth. I tried my hardest to mutter a prayer, as I saw my life flashing before me. Suddenly, I saw a dim light resonating from the matriarch’s wings. I couldn’t tell what it was, at first I thought it was a shadow, but when I looked closer it seemed very ghostlike to me. I raised my head to get a clearer picture of what I saw seeing, and at that moment nothing else in the world mattered to me. I felt my life energy pouring out of me. I looked one more time, and I saw something, I couldn’t really tell what, but it resembled a chicken, peacefully lying there, and for a second I thought it was smiling. Using all the strength left in my earthly body, I tried to push myself up, but at that very moment, the matriarch locked her jaw. 

N.d. Photograph. Phoenix New Times. Phoenix New Times. Web. <http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella/Chicken%20Heart%20Raw-%20Flickr-%20LucienTj.jpg>.