Of Elvia and the Steam | Part 4

Table of Contents : Prt 1; Prt 2; Prt 3; Prt 4; Prt 5; Prt 6; Prt 7; Prt 8; Prt 9; Prt 10

Elvia watched her friends run from the feeding.
She could not believe the scene she was seeing.
Like the song brought the crowd for gators to eat.
Jubal Cain smirked in the midst of the screaming.

Elvia clapped her hands to her guilty lips
And watched as the barge vanished in evening fog
Rising like the steam off a boiling pot
Heated by friction of unwitting captives.

Tears in her eyes, Elvia began to run
She ran through the fog of chaos toward the barge.
Like a soldier into battle did she charge
To confront the catalyst of what she’d done.

Entering the fog, everything was unclear.
Choking on the thick air, her mind went hazy.
Wet heat made her body feel weak and lazy.
She felt the steam entering her through her tears.

Anger took over as she fell to the ground.
She yelled with fury, fingers and toes like claws.
Crawling cross rocks and sand as if she had paws,
She avoided the water fearing she’d drown.

She heard voices, but knew not from where they came.
It was as though the fog were itself alive.
As if the heat-mist wanted her soul to die—
To leave her vacant, take her body away.

In her rage, Elvia stood only to fall
Into the river where the current took her.
The water battered her and the rocks shook her
Until she awoke in a cavernous hall.

A hole dark and dank, filled with the stench of death.
Elvia’s body was full of aches and pains.
She wasn’t sure she actually was awake.
As she sat up sharp pain surged through her bruised chest.

The pain assured her that she was not asleep.
Her body in shallow water moving quick,
She slid herself across cold, slick stone to sit.
In the dark, her pain gave way to weeping grief.

But, amidst the sounds of her sobs something crept
Quiet as a lion, smooth as a gator.
Elvia had no fight left to save her,
So she defiantly just sat there and wept.

Then, came a low, growling, gurglly bellow
To which Elvia sputtered out a sigh,
Picked her head up and looked around in reply
Simply offering a confident, “Hello.”

Table of Contents : Prt 1; Prt 2; Prt 3; Prt 4; Prt 5; Prt 6; Prt 7; Prt 8; Prt 9; Prt 10