I never thought that silence could be deafening; it just seemed as though silence would bring peace to the soul, not a ravaging panic. I can’t hear anything beyond the silence - now so loud that it drowns out all other sound. I wonder what I have missed hearing with my ears and mouth filled with soil.  

I’m trapped in the earth; unable to move, hear or see. Without any senses beyond touch to guide me, I don’t know how long I have been here. I don’t know what has passed in the world above me. All I have felt through the endless moments is the shifting of the earth around me. The vibrations and subtle movements of the world as it spins through space. Each gentle shudder makes me think of a child in a mother’s womb; slowly turning in the in/finite universe of a woman’s belly.  

I have learned to read the shudders of the earth. I only know how to tell them apart, not what each one signifies or what makes the earth move so. There are times the earth shakes so much I think it would split asunder and sometimes it shifts with a gentle caress. The earth is all I have now.  

I could tell you how I ended up in this shuffling tomb. 

I never lived a very good life. Even as a child, I was cruel and manipulative. I didn’t torture animals or anything like that. I just twisted people for my own ends. Who I tore didn’t matter to me – all that mattered was the instant satisfaction of my needs. As I grew older, I became skilled at hiding the manipulation. No longer was it the clumsy fumblings of a user, but the symphonic mastering of people. They would achieve things for me that they would never consider doing in their darkest nightmares. 

There were those who thought I’d been possessed by the Devil and maybe I had.