above the elbow.
I backed away, the knife slippery in my hand. A deep fracture had formed where he'd struck me. We circled each other, I was waiting for him to strike out again. I'd be ready this time. I waved him closer with my knife, grinned back at him.
He clenched his teeth, I braced myself. I stabbed towards his gut. The blade slid in to the hilt.
He laughed, grabbed my knife hand by the wrist and kicked my broken arm. It separated from my body right above my elbow leaving a ragged edge. It was like getting a tooth pulled at the dentist.
I clutched the jagged remains of my arm. The Blue Man threw my dismembered arm to the ground and advanced on me. I backed up to the ledge, my heels hanging over into the void.
"You're coming back with me, in one piece or a hundred, you're mine," he said.
I couldn't get a break. The chasm below was deep, I didn't think I could survive the fall in one piece. I took a step back.
I hung in the air for a second. The meaty hand of the Blue Man flashed out and clasped my arm in an iron grip.
"Now now, wouldn't want you to spoil yourself," he said.
I gritted my teeth at him and an odd sensation tingled behind my eyes. A finger twitched on my dismembered arm, the sharp gravel beneath it faint but present. I focused and it dragged itself forward. It brushed against something smooth, the hilt of the knife.
"You win, I'll come back with you," I said.
"Really? All that running and now you give up?" his grin spread from one side of his face to the other.
"Agree to one thing and I'm yours."
"Oh?"
I stabbed out, the knife slid cleanly into his exposed foot through cartilage and bone. He screamed and let me go. As I fell my dismembered arm faded from my mind, gone forever.
I spun and tumbled through the air and forced myself onto my stomach. A powerful updraft smacked into my face. I spun around until I faced the wall.
I pressed my arm to my side and directed my fall towards the wall. I had a few minutes before I hit the bottom.
I smashed into the wall and dug my hand into the pliable rock. I continued to fall as my sharpened fingers were filed to stumps. My arm vibrated, My fingers locked into the wall and my shoulder wrenched as it caught my rocky weight.
Miles above me the Blue Man peeked out over the wall at me. The blue smudge disappeared and reappeared. I had to be quick, if he could get up the wall he could certainly get down and he would be armed when he found me.
Cylindrical spires of rock jutted out of the darkness of the chasm. They formed a loose chain from the wall to the other side.
I tensed my legs and pushed off into the air. I slammed into one of the spires and my whole body vibrated. I slipped but my hand caught in a pit on the spire. A small moan erupted from the rock. The pit I'd dug my hand into had eyes and a mouth, I could see its fleshy lips trembling as I dug my fingers deep down its throat.
I jumped from spire to spire clasping the screaming rock. My remaining hand was near worn to the knuckles as I leaped to the opposite cliffs.
Between me and the looming gateways was a truly demented forest. The trees oozed pus and blood as they writhed around, stretching into the sky searching for the last little bit of light. Like the exposed veins of the earth forced from their protective flesh.
The roar of the Blue Man across the chasm made me tremble, he was coming and I could do nothing about it. I moved into the forest.
Strange channels and trails winded their way through the trees. I followed one in the direction of the powerful lightning strikes in the distance that marked the end of my journey.
I was sitting next to one of the fleshy trees when I heard something moving in my direction from the way I'd come. The trees moaned and flexed as it came closer.
The Blue Man stood about ten yards from me. I made myself invisible and small, just another rock in the forest. I wrapped my hand around a sharp stone and held it close to my chest, prepared to lash out if he came closer. I shivered with anticipation.
Footsteps moved in my direction, stopped, went further down the trail, stopped. I shifted my position, he walked further down the trail and kept going.
I opened my hand to drop the stone and it hung there from small tendrils poking out from the stubs of my fingers. I yanked the stone off and the tendrils stiffened.
I clasped the rock and pressed it against the ragged stump of my right arm. My shoulder vibrated and I let it go. The stone hung from my arm, attached to small tendrils. Veech's words came back to me. All alive all like you me nothing dies nothing ends. I laughed quietly.
I attached enough rocks to form a crude but functional arm. It had three thick fingers and weighed at least three times more than my lost arm. I affixed small pebbles to my broken fingers until my body wouldn't accept anymore. I was whole again.
I picked one last rock and broke it into sharp splinters. I affixed the largest and sharpest one on the back of my new hand.
The forest was silent except for the wet squelching of the trees. The lightning became more intense and woody saplings emerged from the stony ground and grass poked through clean dirt in clumps. I never thought I'd see grass again. It was alien, this life had the gall to spread and grow where no other life could.
The forests edge opened into a vast grassy plan. A cool wind swept across the plain and blew my cloak out behind me.
Sitting in my way was the Blue Man. He cleaned his teeth with his bloody blade.
"This ends now, I'm not yours. You can't force me to come back with you," I said.
He leaped to his feet. "Boy, I've followed you for over a thousand miles now, I'm not giving up now. We want the same thing."
"What?"
"I've lived in these lands for as long as I can remember, there is nothing here that I haven't seen, no flesh I haven't sampled. But you, you would be the biggest waste if I let you go and do what you want."
"I want freedom, the gateways will give me that, an out, I'm frustrated here, can't you understand that, I'm not of this world."
"We all started as something else, remember? Even now you begin to truly understand."
"How do you know what's best for me eh? All you want to do is make me one of your statues, a slave to your art," I brandished my new arm at him, gritted me teeth for the bloody struggle ahead.
He flashed his teeth at me and flung his knife into the grass. He held out his arms.
"It's your choice, you must suffer the consequences of your actions, from this point on I'll have no more say in what you do, It's all on your head now. But know this, I have you now and won't ever let you go."
Blood sprayed and gushed. I cut and tore at his raspy flesh until all that was left was ribbons. The soil soaked him up, convulsed and entombed him. From the mound sprung a small woody sapling. I kicked it and the ground moaned like I expected it to.
The gateway stood at the top of a large craggy hill. It climbed forty stories high and shimmered pearls against the cloudy sky. I was close, the air hummed with new possibilities, as if the gateway waited specifically for me.
The air vibrated around me as the inside shimmered and coalesced into an image. The world in the gateway enveloped, welcomed, and enticed me.
I dropped to my knees and wondered what stayed my legs. I wrapped my cloak around myself to stave off the wind.
I shook my head, stared at the gateway, and looked back into the eating wastes. The human Martin was no more, a memory of a memory. I examined my hands, ran my fingertips against each other, the scrape of glassy stone against itself. I was broken but pure, reduced to what I was meant to be. I couldn't escape this thing I'd become.
The gateway was dark. I'd made my decision. Blood stained cloak blowing in the wind I descended the mountain and returned the way I came. My home, where I would never run away from anything again.
Those of us who choose to stay in these lands end up becoming the land.
***
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