Teeth

Carla perched on her haunches, examined her foot. The rusty metal fangs of the bear-trap had chomped straight through her flesh, impaled the bones. The fierce snap was fast, brutal as a well aimed gunshot. She registered it a few seconds before she felt the pain sear through her leg. It coursed through her body, her muscles tensed and the nerves in her teeth squealed their empathised agony.

No tears escaped her eyes. No sound trickled from her lips. Instead she somehow manoeuvred herself into a position where she could inspect the damage. The rational part of her brain labelled her present condition as shocked. Inside her head, brain cells sizzled, sent their message to her obedient voice box. Soon, a slow but determined giggle began to erupt within her throat. Almost uncontrollable.

The orange flecks that coated the sturdy metal seeped into her torn flesh. Her blood oozed out of the wound. The teeth of the bear-trap leered up at her with its raspberry jam smile. Carla suspected she’d soon pass out if she didn’t call for help. Having left in a rush, she wore just a thin t-shirt. Her phone and her purse stacked neatly on the bedside table. Helpless.

She cleared her mind of the pain. Forced herself to concentrate on how she’d ended up trapped and maimed. An argument. The final straw. She remembered the musty smell of the cabin that Josh had rented for them. A romantic getaway. But they had been fighting. Carla breathed deep, slow. To steady her nerves.  She ran from the cabin. She had told Josh she no longer loved him. Screamed that she was sick of being stifled, tormented by the close confines of their relationship. He had said nothing; feet weighed him down like set cement.

Now, hysteria threatened to engulf her as Carla recalled how she had sped through the woods. Crackling branches, stomping on crunchy leaves not paying attention to direction or destination. Halted only by the teeth sunk deep inside her flesh; tearing her, leaking her lifeblood onto the forest floor. Succumbing to unconsciousness, Carla realised with cruel irony how she was no better off having run from her ruined relationship out into the dangers of the jaws of the unknown.

--Kate Alexander-Kirk