Epiphany of Alpha

What is that dark abyss that looms over the skies?

He wondered while running faster

He didn’t mean outer space of course

He was talking about the thickest blackness that is only visible in dreams and nightmares

Perhaps visible in death

If the tiger caught up with him, his flesh would become sustenance

Perhaps it was an alternate reality or the absence of everything

As his feet flew perilously before him so shaky with every step

He should rather concentrate on running

That’s so me! He thought, thinking about all sorts of abstract nonsense

Trying to multitask while running for my life

If one step falters or god forbid a sprained ankle, it would be over

They might collapse and seal his fate, inviting the tiger to lunch

He could feel the hot breath on his neck, the smell of many an unlucky chap

Still rotting between the tiger’s teeth

It seems like hours and days flew by, since this chase began

If only the tiger would lose his scent

He could hide in the dilapidated urban jungle he now called home

Yet this was hardly the case as whiskers were now scraping his neck

One faulty step and it would be over in the blink of an eye

He found himself screaming I was not born for digestion in a tiger’s stomach

I will not be dinner to a lower, (however muscularly impressive) beast of prey

He dashed a sharp right into an old sewer pipe

The spray of tiger spit hitting him on the tip of his ear

Is this what humanity has devolved to him?

Fighting for his life only now to possibly be dinner

The glorious end of the so called human race

Digesting in the foul intestines of a creature that could not solve a simply riddle

Oh the humanity!

It was a terrible choice that right turn, as the sewer came to its foreseeable end

Unwittingly he realized the terrible decision just seconds before the tiger made his final blow

Looming in the shadows it seemed as dozens of predators of all sorts

Had come to bid adieu to the human race

In an ironic feeding frenzy

He cannot and will not die being eaten gruesomely, his intestines still warm in the mouths of beasts

His legs and genitals being torn asunder while screaming in death defying agony

The life that his mother gave him, the life he always told himself was so special

What was it now? Is this over?

The so called destiny, karma, meaning of life, philosophy, religion, morals, love and potatoes with

Beef?

Mother used to always say how special he was that he was Gods’ greatest gift to her

She said He gave her an only son of Immaculate Conception

Indeed probably the most muscular well-proportioned and handsome man to ever walk the earth

Now she too was rotting in the mouth of that same tiger that had every intention of claiming

Gods’ special gift as his lunch

Every war, every fight just everything seemed so pointless now.

If he could go back in time he would scream

Everyone!

Lay down your arms and embrace each other in brotherly love

Not so much that I care about bad life decisions

However the last human on earth being eaten alive in a pathetic bid of man versus beast

Is not how I picture the end of mans’ cruel and god forsaken reign of the earth

I am sure you all would agree

If mankind had known how this would play out

We would have skinned every last tiger into cozy fireside skins

Where we would make love to our women while drinking sweet wine

In front of him the sewer now at an end, water cascading over the edge into mountain tops

Thousands of feet below

The untouched wilderness as far as the eye could see

Never anything more beautiful had he laid his eyes upon

The mountain peaks glistening with snow

Lush forests and vegetation thrived beside rivers and lakes so clean that the tiniest fish were visible

On the edge of the horizon great oceans fought with the land in an ever ceaseless bid to destroy it

Suddenly he felt ashamed

He scolded himself for his arrogance

Fooling himself to be so much more than just another creature of equal value on this planet

Yes perhaps the tiger couldn’t solve riddles

How was he to know for sure?

If all the intelligence and technology could not save the human race

Maybe we were wrong about the tigers too

His whole body drenched in sweat, his muscles shivering in fear

Urethra now gushing forth every ounce of liquid

All bodily functions seem to have a life of their own

He guessed the fight would be over before it even began

Now not even his limbs would move how he wanted but rather flopped lazily at his sides

Except one limb that inappropriately stood at full mast

Perhaps making it literally its’ last stand

His feet burning with exhaustion frozen solid in their tracks

The tiger halted as if for a second he somehow understood the anguish and the pain

Soon to be inflicted on this now very wet and shaking all you can eat buffet

Nonetheless his hunger was greater than his pity

Am I capable of pity? He thought to himself, and why am I thinking in English?

What I really meant to say is grrr (translation problem)

Decisions, decisions, the others are getting impatient and hungry

Waiting for the stupid narrator to stop yakking about the meaning of life and nonsense

Please dear author, let us finally eat him after all isn’t this how the story ends?

Death inevitable to life? The strong devour the weak? Natural selection

Hush now my minions, for in your fantasy world you may do as you please

However, I am writing this story, therefore stop interjecting or you will all remain hungry

I have not decided to kill off my only character just yet!

His eyes interlock with those of the tiger the showdown has begun

He can see every detail on the tiger’s face the crusted blood matted against its’ fur and snout

Ironically, like watching a David Attenborough bluray movie.

Only though, the first rule of filming in nature is to not interfere

However gruesome and heartbreaking it may seem

Unlucky for him I guess

Oh how he missed those long hours curled up on the couch with his wife under a blanket

Fondling her breasts, while watching animals get about their business

Sometimes ignoring the show on TV altogether, as a more promising entertainment opened up to

him on the couch

The condensed breath of human and beast interlock in a whimsical cloud between the two of them

Sharing each other’s breath, the very air keeping them both alive passing from him into tiger and

back into him again

Soon perhaps only the tiger will breathe and bits of him will be wedged in its’ teeth

Together at last in flesh joining his mother and wife

The tiger strikes

Nothing could prepare him for this moment no martial arts or meditation

No prayers to God and Jesus

Self-righteous holy piousness asking for forgiveness, magic or Satanism

No donating all your belongings to charity, good will or visiting old folks

Being the bleached teeth, chewing gum chewing, all American chum

No wine bibbing, fake French babbling, baguette and cheese feasting for this fellow

In stereoscopic flash the tiger flanks at him left and right claws simultaneously

His hands push out feeling the wet darkened red fur of the tigers face

The blood of former kills now dripping through his fingers and spraying his face

Their noses touching and foul breath envelops them, as he is gasping for air

Claws ripping at his face he feels his skin opening up to dirty claws entering his body

Raping his face of comeliness

Teeth penetrate his larynx, stifling heroic screams

The tiger’s beard feels soft and cuddly against his face

His destiny as apparent now as a man being hit by a bus

Man and beast precariously close to the edge of the abyss

The old world behind them where nothing remained after the Great War that killed billions

Both man and beast were severely decimated and many species, now extinct

Live only in the memory of one last human being who is being shaken around

Suspended by jaws sunk firmly in his neck his feet lifted straight off the ground

Ironically flopping back and forth like a rag doll

Buildings reduced to dangerous rubble and predators who scour the landscape for prey

An especially hungry tiger who seemed to really have it in for humans

Perhaps it used to live in a zoo or god forbid even worse it was doomed to be a celebrity’s pet

Maybe this was payback for everything, good old fashioned tiger style

The flesh in his neck gives way and severs partially beheading him

The tiger loses his grip and he momentarily breaks free

Notwithstanding the hopelessness of the situation with his last seeming moment of consciousness

With every muscle in his body in synchronized motion he decides to throw his body off the abyss

At least a partial victory knowing that after death the tiger will be denied his meal

Maybe now he will finally see beyond the darkest blackness

That he always sees in the skies while flying in his dreams

He has tried many times to fly through the blackness but always either fell back to the earth

Or woke up drenched in sweat his hands and feet tingling with excitement

He tries to imaging what the impact to the ground and the transition of life to death will feel like

He remembers being born, will he remember death?

Will his being continue its consciousness after his body splatters all over the mountains below?

He laughs to himself

People always looked at him weirdly when he told them he could remember his birth

The looks said “Who are you trying to fool? Are you so pathetic that this is how you try to get

attention to yourself?”

Sometimes the look would be more bewildered and even intrigued.

Sometimes rarely he had the notion that someone actually believed him

After all his story was not at all extraordinary

No big explosions, little teenage girls shrieking and fainting as they do when pop star trash passes by

No showdown of wit or thunder and lightning in the sky

No plagues scorching the land or prophecies foretelling his arrival and wise men bearing gifts

None of that bullshit

Just little old him being pushed out of his mother’s vagina

Transcending from pitch black to dark red and then out into blinding white light

Which he later realized to be just an ordinary neon light bulb

Sometimes he wondered why he can’t remember what it was like before the pitch dark

Before he felt all sticky, gross and tired being cut off from his mother at the life source

Ginormous heads and eyes looking down at him with their huge teeth

His eyes trying to make sense of the images, sounds and a million other things

There was definitely sensations of hunger and cold

He felt water run down his body as a huge hand caressed his bare skin

Then being wrapped in a large towel of some sort and carried through the air yet again

Now finally enveloped in a loving mother’s arms and suckling at her breasts

The smell was wonderful and he fell asleep the first and the best sleep of his life

See? Told you! Nothing extraordinary at all

What is extraordinary however is the fact that he was still breathing

Even though most of his blood if not all of it was either in the tiger, on the tiger or next to the tiger

His trachea no longer connected to anything and his spinal cord severely shattered from the attack

He found himself not falling to his death at all

Rather he was floating in the air, his blood dripping from his bare feet

Far down on to the snow coloring it pink

The mountains and forests below the blue sky above

That ever so curious blackness just out of reach

His gaze meets that of the tiger’s

The tiger now a complete loss for words is bewildered to see his lunch just suspended in the air

As the tiger pants, three severed fingers fall out of his mouth

The tiger licks them up again and swallows

Almost as if on purpose he never leaves the man’s gaze

Taunting and ridiculing this bizarre change of events

As if the tiger would say “I may not have gotten to eat you, but I have at least disfigured you”

A small satisfaction perhaps?

The man’s body starts to rejuvenate while still floating in the air

His fingers start to grow, and his throat reassembles itself

His memories from before birth start to unlock themselves

Somehow his essence has triggered his cellular structure to change and mend itself at will

Although he still is not quite sure how

He remembers what is beyond the blackness

He remembers everything, all the knowledge in the world floods his conscious

His whole body now immaculate and completely naked for he has no need to hide

He is the most beautiful human creature that has ever existed

He shouts to the tiger

“You are no match for me, I have lived millions of lives, since the dawn of time

My consciousness has transcended through every death

I cannot be destroyed. You are an alpha tiger I grant you that

However, I am stronger, older and much more powerful than you.

When you die you will return to dust and your consciousness will lay to rest

I thank you kindly for you services tiger

For in hunting me down and almost killing me you have severed me from weakness, from mortality

In the eyes of death I have remembered who I am, who I always was.

I am the oldest existing creature since before the dawn of mankind.

I was born unto millions of women

I am Alpha”