After a long day at work, April was walking home and imagining the dinner her husband was making her. They couldn’t afford a car yet but her commute wasn’t very far so it wasn’t that big of a deal. They lived in the middle of Arizona so it was extremely hot that night, she swore she could even feel the heat emanating off of the dirt she was walking over.
From her mile and a half walk, she was probably about half way home, but out of nowhere she felt herself suddenly be hoisted up in the air. Her feet flew from the dirt, and very soon after she felt a sharp pain digging into her shoulders. Scared and confused she twists her head upwards and sees a plethora of feathers and the large sharp talons that had gripped her and tore her from the surface of Earth.
Her screams and panic didn’t go far due to being so far up in the air, however she feared more of falling back down than her fate that was coming due to this enormous bird. Even though the talons shred her skin and muscle, she white knuckled her kidnapper’s legs and widened her eyes with pure terror. The ground was so far, house lights looked like stars, people were specs, and the air was crisp and chilly.
As she was up in the air, she couldn’t help but imagine herself being randomly released. Her gut would drop faster than her body as if she was on a carnival ride, but eventually her body would splatter on the ground. Leaving her a pile of broken flesh, shattered bones, and ruptured organs. Her imagination ran wild as her hair danced in the swift wind and her feet dangled and swayed with the birds movement.
What kind of bird is this? Are hawks or eagles even strong enough to lift a full grown woman? She wasn’t necessarily heavyset but she wasn’t ridiculously thin either. Thousands of questions, concerns, fears, regrets, and even some suicidal considerations crossed and crashed through her mind. If she was able to escape this birds grasp, the fall would actually be kind of peaceful, and she was sure the death would be quick and possibly painless.. maybe she would even pass out due to the drop.
Interrupting her anxiety a loud, ear piercing squawk erupted from above her as her new found mode of transportation roared to it’s babies in the distance. She cringed and huddled her body as her ears rung and hummed. She wouldn’t be surprised is they began to bleed. But as it subsided she heard lighter pitched tweets from a high lifeless mountain side they were coming up on. The thrust upward and swung around in large graceful circles before she was lightly brought down into the horrendously huge next of branches, mud, and fragments of what she assumed to be laundry from clothes lines.
She ends up being huddled into the nest with 2 lightly feathered baby birds roughly the size of fire hydrants. Before she’s able to fully take in her surroundings, her assailant begins pecking at her flesh, at first lightly but quickly escalating to tearing chunks of flesh and muscle from her bones. She can feel each inch of her meat being ripped and split. Starting at her shoulders then moving closer to her neck and collar bone. She screams with unbearable pain and tears rupture through her eyes and burn her cheeks.
The bird pauses then chews at what once used to be her meat. The babies begin chirping excitedly and bumping her sore body around as they beg their mother for sustenance.
How long did she have to bare this torture? Is there any sliver of chance for survival? She glances out of the nest and recognizes the view. She had been hiking on this mountain before, and her heart fills with dread as she realizes how ridiculously high up she is. She begins to fantasise about falling again, as the thought of an escape to a quicker death becomes more attractive than before. But before she can even reach the ground in her daydream the bird begins to feed off her body again. Her body is twisted to the side and it began tearing away at her ribs and stomach.
The pain was at radical proportions, but even so, she realized how cold her fingers and ears were becoming. Her blood was splattered and gushing out of her wounds, causing her body to become purplish blue. Once the bird stopped to chew and feed her babies again, April could feel a dull fuzz growing into all her senses. Her vision produced shadows that began to close in, the loud cries and whistling wind started to fade, and her pain finally but slowly became lighter and lighter. She could tell the bird was pecking at her again, but she was so out of it, nothing mattered anymore. Her last thought consisted of what her husband had made for dinner. She hoped it was chicken.