Commonwealth Network
| Each step is pain. The knife edge cuts first into the balls of your feet, then slices through the soft sinews and the bone up to the deepest arch of your sole. With each new foothold, the gleaming blade cleaves a little deeper or lacerates you in a new place. The warm blood -- your blood -- bursts out of ruptured veins and dribbles down the sides of the bridge, its carmine trails forking and crossing the ferruginous traces left by previous travellers. Bones in your feet fracture with a snapping report as you steady yourself for the next step. Each crack echoes off the walls of the abyss. You dare not scream, because to scream is to lose hope and to lose hope is to fall. The sweat-provoking incalescence and low rumbling of the pit below remind you of the fate of the lost. You lift your back foot gingerly and then take the next purgatorial step.... | 
Alsirat |