Echoes.

 

 Via https://pixabay.com/en/users/esudroff-627167

Echoes.

Was it really her voice calling to him,as he walked along the claustrophobic valley,at the foot of the steep cliff faces on both sides,rising high.Bleak and desolate,not a sound.

                                                                                   ‘Come home’.the voice called.He tried to laugh it off,but could not.He knew he was tired.He had been walking for hours,even though it felt like weeks.Searching for a way,the way back.He was certainly going to argue with her,when he found her,if ever he would.

                                                                                                             The blazing sun weakening his body.The perspiration damp on his forehead and neck.The light grey khaki shirt sticking to his back.It seemed impossible.Unsure how much more of this he could take.The absolute silence.The blazing heat.The physical weakness,and now strange voices calling to him,from invisible people.

                                  It was greed,pure and simple that had taken them to this Godforsaken place.This God awful country.This not a third world country,more a fifth world country.How he so wished he was back in civilization.Back in London,city of his birth.Even though at times he had complained bitterly about the cost of living in the city.The noise,the overbearing traffic,and way too many people.What he would give to be there now.

                                                                                    ‘Come home’,the invisible voice called again.He looked around behind him.He scanned the sheer cliffs to his left and right.His eyes following them as they reached high into the clear blue sky,but nothing,and no one to be seen.How he hated her for bringing him,no,forcing him to come to this damn country,far from normality,all in the name of money,and wealth.The usual in her case.The same grasping attitude.Greedily chasing after wealth.It was never ending.Some like her would never be satisfied,no matter how much they had accrued.They would always be grasping after more.Their greed and thirst was unquenchable.

                                                                                                              He was even unsure what had attracted him in the first place.Of course the shapely figure.That sweet smile.That charming personality.Like any normal man he was drawn in.But he had decided that once this was sorted,he would be waving goodbye to her.There had to be easier ways of moving through life.Here he was like a fool,searching for her.Having no idea where she was, even if she was still alive.Silently wishing she was dead,and now voices calling to him.

                      Tired beyond belief,he sat on a nearby rock.The blazing sun,sapping him of energy.He eagerly bent forward to the merger water filled hole,and greedily splashed his face with the warm water.Ingesting as much as he could.It had been at least three days since he had eaten solid food.Having had his fill,he moved from the blazing sun,and sat in the shade by the foot of the cliff.Grateful to rest.his body weak,his eyes resisting the his struggle to keep them open.His sleep was deep.The dream intriguing.He could see her clearly in his dream.In her designer clothing,totally unsuitable for the sweltering heat.The prime white cotton blouse,now torn and sullied with the dirt of the earth.The expensive designer blue jacket,looking so out of place in the cave.The expensive bracelets on her wrists,still sparkling in the darkness of the cave,as the rays of the sunlight touched upon them.

                                                                           He looked at her hands,which were locked in a harsh grip around the prize she had chased.The blue diamonds and sapphires were so sharp and clear,glistening as the sun touched upon them.The snakes,guardians of the diamond encrusted cave,slithered over her body.Pecking at the veins in her neck.moving down,stopping to sink their fangs into the insides of her wrists,gorging on the sumptuous flesh.Others,taking it in turns to gorge on the soft skin of her once beautiful face,as they slithered away,through her long mousy brown hair,and into the darkened corners of the cave,from where they had come.

                                                                     He looked down from where he was viewing her,and saw her eyes wide and smiling,as she held the sapphire and diamond encrusted jewels in her hands.At least she was happy.His breathing became soft,barely audible,as his body began to close down.The blazing sun,overhead,offering no respite from it’s sweltering heat.

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Inspired by a writing prompt : Echoes.

 

                                                                                                                                     

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