Wind blew past my face as I fell. I regretted so much. I thought back to my useless, wasted life, and considered it all in whole. There was only one thing I didn’t regret, and that was what I had just done. The surface of the water rushed toward me, and I was embraced by an enveloping darkness.

Everything was over.

But then, I opened my eyes. Coarse sand rubbed against my cheek. I groaned as pain racked my body. Pulling my head from the sand, I found myself washed up on a beach illuminated by moonlight.

I had failed. I didn’t know where I was, but I had failed. I didn’t recognize the beach. We didn’t have any like it in our area that I knew of. A few yards away from the shore sat a rocky cliff topped with a forest. I must have gotten washed pretty far out. At least I’ll hopefully never have to set foot in that god-forsaken home ever again. I pried my aching body off the ground and started walking. I had nothing better to do, after all. I suppose I could have just lain there until I starved to death. I didn’t have the patience for that though.

It didn’t really matter where I was. I just needed to find a way to finish the job. The bridge didn’t go well. Maybe a rope would work better. I’d just have to try and find some sign of civilization. If I failed that, maybe I would just starve to death after all.

After a while I found where the cliff ended and the forest met the beach. Getting lost in the woods sounded kind of fun. Maybe I could get torn apart by some wild animals. It would be painful, but I deserved it didn’t I?

The wind chill died once I got a good way into the forest. Without the wind it was a pretty warm night. That was odd. It should be chilly this time of year shouldn’t it? Not liked it mattered.

All kinds of tiny cuts appeared on my skin as I pushed through the brush. My skin began to itch. I kept moving. I had nowhere to go but forward. Before I realized the sun had risen and set again. I smiled. Still no sign of civilization. I’d gone pretty far from the river… Ocean? No one would find me now. I was surely going to die out here.

I collapsed onto my back, gasping for breath. Exhausted. I’d just close my eyes for a little, and then hopefully I would be dead.

A rustle in the bushes woke me up. Wolf? Coyote? Cougar? Bear? Oh, please be some sort of ravenous beast. Don’t be a harmless bunny or deer. I tilted my head to the side and saw… What is that? Inches from my face. Huge fangs dripping with venom. Hundreds of chitinous legs. Like a giant… Centipede.

My blood ran cold. I slowly drew my body away from the monster. That’s what it was right? A monster? I mean I had heard of giant centipedes before, but those things were still small enough to fit in your hands. This thing was bigger than me! There’s no way something like this could exist. A nightmare? I dug my fingernails into my forearm. It hurt. This was real.

This was real! Why should I be afraid of this thing? It could probably kill me right? That’s exactly what I wanted!

I reached out a hand and beckoned it. “Please kill me, mister centipede.”

A fang sank into me, and it felt like someone pouring hot lava into my open hand. Searing pain rushed through my body, quickly moving up my arm through my veins. I screamed in agony, yanking my arm from the creature’s maw, tearing a gash the rest of the way down my hand.

I couldn’t even feel the laceration. It paled in comparison to the magma pumping through my body. The centipede just watched as I writhed in agony, as if it gleaned some sort of sadistic pleasure from watching me suffer.

I finally managed to control my screaming. Curled up into a ball on the ground, I pried my eyes open and forced myself to look at the state of my arm. It had ballooned to more than three times its original size, all the way up to my shoulder. I didn’t even want to know what my face looked like. The cut in my hand had also grown, and oozed some sort of revolting slime, liquefied flesh I guessed, judging by how it seemed to peel off my bones.

My vision went black for a moment. The next thing I knew, the centipede had finally started to eat me. It grabbed hold of my bones and slurped up bits of liquefied flesh. I black out again, and this time it was feasting on my chest. The pain was still there, although duller now, but I had long lost the ability to scream. At least this was it. All the suffering in my life seemed trivial now. Who would have thought being devoured alive by a beast would be such a bad way to go. I was so stupid. At least… It was over now…