"Nobody Can Hear a Screaming Marionette"

Scalding fish hooks connect strings to a marionette. Setting fire to wooden flesh. Digging into the solar plexus. Gashing rivulets across a forehead. A puppeteer spitting acid onto the legs of his fearful slave. Nobody sees. The puppet goes limp with shame. The fear and the panic make love within his mind.

He feels his legs tremble, but they aren’t. His eyes cannot close, cannot look away—but somehow they do. His organs rot, cramp. The puppeteer defies logic by forcing his slave—forcing me—to willfully twist the cruel hooks deeper into my guts, gouging my innards. Nobody can hear a screaming marionette. The puppet tries to breathe.

Sleep. The only time I am at peace. When I awaken, my first thought is always the same: when will they tug me again? Ripping apart my intestines, searing my dreadful heart.