IN...

I woke up with a start: ‘Huh?!’ I said gruffly as I strained my sleepy eyes to see the person who had tapped me. I couldn’t quite do that. My brows furrowed into a quizzical look, I could feel his…it’s breath on my face. It smelt better than it looked, this was no person.  

I scurried backward as my instincts kicked in. What is this?!!! My brain screamed as fear enveloped it and my eyes darted around looking for an escape route. It was hunched over, standing on two hind legs with hoofs that looked like those of a goat. It had only one fore limb, right in the middle of its hairy chest, its hairy body. Its body was red, a bright red that was deeper at its back than its chest. Its face was round..or is it square?...its angular jaws made it squarer than round. It had an unreasonably huge face!  

I was shocked at the ugliness of the beast before me.

It just stared at me. There was something a little odd about its eyes. I had long noticed its humongous body blocked the only tiny hole that was an opening in the dark cave. I was trapped. HA!! ‘I started to think I was dreaming. It could only be in a bad dream one saw ugly animalistic behemoths that had no place on earth; The contorted workings of one’s sub-conscious mind. My body was pressed hard against the walls of the cave, it was softer than I thought it would be. Rocks were hard, right? Why did the rocks in this cave feel like sand? I quickly realized the ‘soft’ rock could give way to another opening, I started clawing frantically at the rocks, throwing  big pieces across the small enclave. Panic heightened as I knew this would anger the  beast… I might not make it alive.

 I stopped short in my erratic scratch when I had a human’s voice: “Tony, it’s me. It’s daddy”.