Disgust

written by Wolsal

September, 2024

I lay awake, awake? Was this wakefulness? I wasn't really so sure. My head throbbed against my skull, my heart racing at a thousand miles an hour. 

Distantly, I heard speaking. I didn’t want to open my eyes. My brain told me I needed to, that I needed to look up, but my body screamed at me to remain still. 

The voice closest grew louder, more frantic? I couldn’t tell. 

A lingering horrid taste sat on my tongue. I didn’t remember eating anything… 

I felt something grip tightly onto my shoulders, shaking me into full awareness. 

My eyes peeled open, staring at what was in front of me. Slightly too close for comfort was a small crowd of familiar faces, one closer to the rest, practically breathing down my neck.

Absently, I noted that the grip on my shoulders had not released. 

Slowly, the sounds began to morph from blotted out noises into coherent words.

My name. They were saying my name.

I forced my heavy eyelids to fully shoot open, the still blurred world came into focus. The face directly in front of me seemed scared? Worried? I couldn’t really tell. The one next to them seemed almost bored. No… that wasn’t right. There was something else I couldn’t place.

The person in front of me yelling my name jolted me back to my senses.

I could practically hear the worry melting off of their voice, oozing into their words like venom.

“SOLOMON-”

My eyes snapped back to look at them.

“What… what’s going on-” I managed to choke out, my voice came out as more of a squeak than I had intended, my throat seemingly too tight, too constricted. 

I saw the expression on [DMNLHTRTWBH]'s face relax as I spoke. But, as I looked, I could finally identify the expression on [DMNLHTRTWBH]'s face.

It was disgust.