Dark eyes perpetually frozen open, the only image that ever met Septimus from the shimmering walls of his icy tomb was his own bearded image. With no frame of reference outside himself, he believed the man to be someone else. Over the din of fiery rats shrieking, ever clawing and gnawing inside his chest and belly, Septimus had ventriloquist conversations with the man he named Magnus.
The two became brothers. In a language no one else spoke on earth, they told one another secrets. Throughout the unending nightfall, they kept one another warm with made-up folktales, their beards curling campfire flames, illuminating their stoic faces and stilled tongues.
Never able to sleep, the rats always burning, always shrieking high-pitched arias, Magnus and Septimus swore a blood oath to never leave the other, sewn together into a unified image, inseparable.
In early spring, as the droplets of melted ice dripped its methodical clockwork, a group of scientists unearthed the two from the permafrost steppe.
Taken to a laboratory, the scientists cut through the ice in geometric shapes, rivers of ice flooding away, until they entered Septimus’ frozen sarcophagus. Fiery rats shrieking freedom, the air ignited with rage and lust and crippling sadness, scattering like molten sparks hammered on a blacksmith anvil.
With his very first breath, surrounded by wide-eyed frightened white lab coated-men, Septimus cried the long wailing cry of a torturously anguished newborn, mourning the loss of his brother Magnus.
.....
Ron Gibson, Jr.has previously appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Word Riot,Smokebox, Stirring, etc…, been included in various anthologies, andbeen nominated for a Pushcart. Twitter: @sirabsurd
