Soul Skull

She keeps souls in a skull she wears around her neck. At least that's what Mother told her. Not her biological mother, whom she doesn't know, but the Mother of the tribe. Although everyone seems to bow to Mother when she walks and bend their ears when she speaks, Mother isn't supposed to be special. The main teaching of the tribe is that everyone is equal. However, everyone is convinced from the day they are born that they are nothing. All glory goes to the higher powers, all faith and no self worth. She has always been confused by the "equality in nothingness" motto that Mother preaches and everyone else blindly follows. She questioned this belief once, earning her the very skull that pulls on her neck now. Mother told her that for every day she doesn't embrace the beliefs of the tribe, the skull gets heavier. When she woke up this morning her knees buckled under the weight of the skull...

She feels trapped under the weight of her own questions of existence combined with the constant pulling of the skull, compressing her spine and thought processes. The heavier the skull becomes the harder it seems to be for her to keep a clear head. It becomes almost impossible to think straight when the skull starts whispering. It begins as just a murmur, making her unsure if she's even hearing anything at all. The whispering becomes clearer and clearer as the weight grows.

With the stress the skull puts on her body and mind throughout the day, she sleeps heavily, the amount of sleep she gets a direct consequence of the weight of the skull. When she rolls out of bed this morning she cant even stand. The skull scrapes the floor as she crawls out the door and onto the rough, dry grasses that surround the village. She crawls blindly, not even able to raise hear head to peer in front of her. She gets direction from the skull's whispers. Telling her to continue on, dragging it, and herself, ever onward. She crawls hand over hand until she cannot move another inch and collapses into the ground, allowing it to take the weight of the skull and her exhausted body. This sleep is different though and she wakes up soon thereafter and mindlessly obeys the soul skull. Having to crawl on her elbows now after her shoulder dislocated against the weight of the first attempted movement, she remains in constant pain. The only relief she finds is the ground now feels softer, or maybe its just the cushion she is giving herself from the blood that her arms slide in as she pulls herself, and the skull, again and again towards an unknown destination.

The skull is screaming at her now. She rips at the ground under her fingers and digs her feet in to get a tiny bit more leverage, the skull now seemingly twice her weight. "Just a little farther, you're almost there" the skull violently shouts and she feels the words vibrate her bones. Feeling utterly defeated, and completely destroyed she forces herself to reach out one more time. As she reaches the wave crashes onto her hand. She now notices the ground beneath her is no longer soil but sand. The next wave that hits her touches her face and feels refreshing. The third forces water down her throat and pulls her a little closer to its void. The fourth is the last she knows, her body is being held at the bottom just inches from the shore as the tide continues to rise. She knows its not the water she has drowned in, it is her surroundings that have flooded her. Her culture has killed her. She never feels release, for she dies wondering, and questioning, WHY?