Obsession One

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I think it was mud, but it could just have easily have been shit - the significance was minimal. The mound was about two metres high, and was situated just to the right of the grass land that we were hurtling towards. Our hands gripped the roll cage with all our strength, the absence of seatbelts meaning that this grip would almost certainly determine the brevity of our lives. The fact that the speedometer had broken somewhere along the ride was perhaps more worrying than what it would have read had it not been. With one last shank of the wheel, T* turned the contraption sideways and we skidded sideways for a few metres - our wheels leaving deep trenches in the grass - before shuddering to a halt in a haze of exhaust fumes and sweaty panic.

Amongst the dimming engine noise and lifting cloud of smoke, we could now hear it much clearer than before. We were close. C* must have alighted at some point prior to our arrival, as I glimpsed her behind the rear of the vehicle, stumbling forward onto her hands and knees, desperatley trying to cover the ground before it was too late.

The ringing noise was getting shriller. We knew that she did not have long.

The floral print dress she was wearing had deteriorated so that it was no more than a mess of dirt, blood and and the odd segment of a sunflower. It was ripped so badly that with each lurch forward, parts of it began to fall from her body. I think she was screaming, none of us in the vehicle could tell. We were all transfixed by the ringing noise, now so loud that it drowned out our thoughts - let alone her pitiful yelps.

With what appeared her last scraps of energy, she launched herself at the horrible mound that lay festering to our side. Now naked, her hands quickly became absorbed by it, and before too long she was covered in a foul brown membrane, her tears cutting white lines down her cheeks as she clawed frantically. She pulled herself to the top of the mound, each length forward accompanied by the shrill ringing, as if she was feeding of its energy. Finally atop the putrid mountain, she raised her contorted face to the sky. With one last agonising sob, she plunged her open mouth into the peak of the mess, instantly muffling her screams and throwing the once deafening scene into complete silence.

The ringing had stopped.