She let arsenic seep into her DNA…

Chromosome splitting, gene defecting mistake,
Or merely a matter of survival?

It became a type of sickness, a different kind of leprosy
An undetectable, new breed that hollowed out the nerve endings connecting what she did to how she feels.

So she hid her disease under blinding, white straps of purity.
Until there came a time when she needed to rip off her bandage; Expose the festering wound beneath so that it could breathe.

Pulsating to its own beat like a malignant heart spreading pus through her veins with each thump.
(Tha-thump      Tha-Thump)
It doesn't get faster or slower
(Tha-thump      Tha-thump)
Just a steady throb rubbing out the part of her brain that knows right from wrong. Creating an endless stream of possibilities free from the restrictions of conscience; free from sanity.

But all she ever wanted was something that would drain arsenic from her wound before it burned out every strand of her DNA. Time was running out for her;
Each beat was another number melting off the face of her biological clock.

(Tha-thump      Tha-thump)

---

He put it on the back burner to let it simmer. Then forgot about it while it slowly cooked.
Finally it turned into a slow roasted meal that was all his to eat; he took it by the spoonfuls.

And always asked for seconds.

Each bite banded together to create an entire different entity living and thriving by the scraps
they scraped from his stomach lining with coat hanger precision.
Clumped together it rang his intestines like a dinner bell, reminding him that it is alive,
It is hungry and it wants more.

He knew there would never be enough to feed its? his? desires.
It didn't want money, food or anything you can see.

Just everything that makes you   you and me   me.

He roamed town to town searching for something that would kill the beast dwelling inside his belly. But everywhere he went he just left a trail of the disposed and used; trying to find something to kill what he created inside himself.

And each time he finds that he needs something stronger.

---

Led by the sickly smell of the arsenic corroding her from within he found her.
Needle in arm trying pump the poison from her veins but it would disintegrate before it had a chance to pull a drop from her arm.
(Tha-thump     tha-thump)

The touch of her skin made something inside him recoil and whimper. The feeling in his gut would spike with excitement like a cold sweat evaporating the heat of the day from his skin.

He offered to take her disease, a fate she wouldn't wish upon anyone but herself.
It was born and raised within her like a malignant child that she couldn't bear to give away.
(Tha-thump      Tha-thump)
Minutes melting off the face of a clock.

It was her burden to carry.

Before she could say no again he siphoned the disease from her arm with a greed so great she couldn't shake him off. As he drained each drop from her the infectious itch of life began climb its way from his bite marks.
(Giving her the opportunity she never had, bringing back the minutes she lost if her life)

When he finished they heard a whimper and a triumphant scream explode from within him.
He killed what was inside him but he only killed the part he didn't know he had.

Evil screams so you can't hear the whispers of good.
He couldn't hear it. But she could.