I couldnt stop spitting.
I couldnt stop thinking about how that thing had been growing inside of me.
I had been suffering from a crippling cough for two weeks now.
Alexander Steffes
I couldnt seem to shake it no matter what I tried.
I felt like cough drops were the only flavor Id ever taste again.
I sat up a little more in bed, listening to my empty apartment.
I wished I had someone here to take care of me.
Like a loving girlfriend or even a close friend.
I hurriedly took another steaming sip of tea, cutting off another cough in my throat.
Alexander Steffes
I needed to go to sleep, the repetitive wheezing exhausting my sick body.
The tea helped, if only momentarily.
I didnt know why I couldnt rid myself of the cough.
I had seen the doctor twice about it but no matter what he prescribed, the intolerable hacking continued.
Miserable, I set my mug down on the nightstand, giving in to my drooping eyelids.
I closed my eyes and grit my teeth against the sharp pain in my throat and chest.
Every time I coughed it felt like a hammer being drilled into my sternum.
The walls of my throat cried out as if I had swallowed razor blades.
I just wanted to sleep.
The moon trickled in from my window and washed over my face in a cool white glow.
I wondered what the moon tasted like.
Probably like a fucking honey lemon cough drop.
I blindly grabbed another cough drop from my mountain on the nightstand and unwrapped it in the dark.
I needed a new flavor.
Even sucking on the fake candy, I felt a tickle in the back of throat.
It was a sensation I had become familiar with and grown to despise.
It meant a big one was coming.
I sucked on the cough drop harder.
My chest was killing me.
It felt like a collapsed cavern and all my organs were trying their best to work around the rubble.
I put a hand around my throat, squeezing my eyes close so hard they watered.
My lungs filled with air and I expelled it in a series of thunderous explosions.
I thought I tasted blood as my bones crunched around my lungs.
Gasping, the spasms passed and I wiped my lips with a shaking hand.
I took slow deliberate breaths, begging the ache gripping my body to cease.
I felt like I was trapped in a giant vice that was slowly squeezing me tighter and tighter.
I cleared my throat and felt that tickle again, but this time it was stronger.
I slapped my neck, trying to batter the feeling away.
I needed to sleep, escape this torture for a couple of hours.
I knew I wouldnt be able to if the itching kept up.
Tonight was worse than it had ever been.
I realized I had sucked the cough drop out of existence and so I reached for another.
They were my only chance, my blue pill, let me forget Morpheus!
I sucked on the wretched thing and settled back down into my bed.
I spaced out my breathing and forced my body to settle.
As if by magic, my body remained silent.
I gently sucked on the drop like a pacifier, slowly feeling sleep creep closer.
I was almost there.
My thoughts began to slur together like running paint.
Soon they were being wrestled from me and formed into half dreams.
I gave in and let my subconscious take them.
My eyes snapped open suddenly as my throat erupted in intense discomfort.
A tickling so strong that I sat upright as the cough rocketed from my chest like a cannon blast.
I crunched over in bed, gripping the sheets in my shaking fists.
My throat felt like I was expelling glass shards as I hacked.
My chest screamed from the force of my wheezing and I suddenly saw blood splatter onto my comforter.
It didnt stop, my body convulsing as the seizure of hacking agony took me in its violent grip.
My head cracked and my ribs screamed, a hurricane of sickness drowning my senses.
Suddenly, I felt something enter my throat, brought on by an especially brutal cough.
It tasted awful and it felt like a gelatinous mass of congested mucus.
My eyes watered and my eyes bulged as I realized it was blocking off my air flow.
Vomit volcanoed from my churning gut and I leaned over the bed as it rushed towards my gasping mouth.
Because of the blockage, the puke redirected and ejaculated out of my nostrils.
It felt like wet fire as it splashed onto the floor, twin streams of boiling lava.
I wiped my nose, mouth still open, and drool stringing from my lips.
I couldnt fucking breath.
Hyperventilating, I crashed into the bathroom and turned the light on.
I jammed on the sink and immediately sunk my head to drink.
The water splashed down my throat but came gurgling back up.
I gagged it back into the sink, now colored pink from the blood in my mouth.
I was beginning to get dizzy, my lungs starting to ache from the lack of oxygen.
I knew I didnt have long to get the blockage out of my throat.
I opened my mouth and leaned towards the mirror, trying to see what was causing it.
My eyes widened and I felt my stomach flip again.
In horror, I stared at a second tongue that grew from the back of my throat.
I tried to scream, but the air wouldnt come.
The corners of my vision had begun to darken and I felt my head swelling.
I knew I had seconds.
Without thinking, I jammed my hand down my throat, my jaw cracking as it was forced open.
Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes as I desperately tried to grip the squirming mass of flesh.
I caught the tongue in a vice like grip between my thumb and pointer finger.
Slowly, I pulled it up my throat to grip it in my fist.
It fought against me, but I wouldnt let it go.
I could feel the tongue dislodging from its roots, a sickening tearing feeling in my chest.
The tongue fought back but I never stopped ripping it out, despite the blinding pain.
I retracted my hand, gripping the now motionless tongue, and collapsed onto the floor.
Air rushed back into my lungs in great waves of sweet relief.
I spit wads of phlegm and blood onto the tile, my bloody hands trembling in my lap.
I looked at the dead tongue and saw it was at least seven inches in length.
Disgusted and horrified, I threw it into the toilet.
I dont know how long I sat there gasping before I could get up.
I couldnt stop spitting.
I wiped the tears from my face and drew in a long trembling breath.
Read the whole story of Tommy Taffy.
THE THIRD PARENT by Elias Witherow is now available!here.
