Runner up - Imogen
By Imogen
THE WILD THINGS
The anger is rising again; rage thrashing and clawing.
They took away everything, nothing is left, only me. It’s always been me and the world; now the world is scraped bare. My claws tighten on the lone tree; a solitary bird hovers slowly in the distant landscape. That ever growing hunger thunders within me, but they took all the food, they took it for themselves. They are disgusting; they are cowards. They hide behind metal and hurt what it is mine. The deer, the monkeys, everything has tumbled away from my grasp.
Days pass till they return. I hide in the ever fading shadows; but the shadows are disappearing, my ghost will soon be visible to them. My rein of king of this pitiful jungle will soon end, there will be no my jungle to rein, no more darkness to stalk through- just the emptiness that fills me.
My muscles tighten, my shoulders rise and my eyes dart- I thought I heard something. There it is again, the unmistakable cry of a lone monkey. There it is, dangling near to me, it is scared; I can smell it. One leap is all it would take. The monkey’s pupils had no time to widen as I cut its throat with a single strong strike. The blood drips onto its soft fur; staining its small body in streaks of red. I take it up to a higher perch; this is mine. Mine only. Greedily, I tear at its stringy flesh, my body in ecstasy. Seconds pass by; my meagre meal almost gone.
I am ashamed. I never heard or felt them nearby. Too late did I feel the dart pierce my wrecked body; too late did I try to stop myself falling. The ground feels warm; I feel the distant memories of my kingdom seep from the ground into my mind. They have come for me. I have lost.
Trapped, abused, mocked; what king am I? I cannot even feel anger anymore, even my ever present emotion that kept me alive is trapped my shame, fear and pain.
In the horizon I see lights, I look closer and I can see more of them. They have taken over everything. I let out a roar of anguish; I hurl myself at my prisons walls, I want to run. I want to run back in time; to a time when they feared me, the survivor of devastation, the warrior, the last one to fall. They are holding something in my face; they are yelling. I can taste the distinct flavour of fear emitting from their bodies. There’s a click and the metal steadies itself. I can sense death is nearly upon me; I growl and stare at them with my yellow glowing eyes. They know; they know who I am. There is the deafening bang.
They know.
They know they have killed the kingly ghost of the jungle shadows.
He lies still now- the panther breathes his last majestic breath.
What have they done.