The Weight

It was cold, dark, and gloomy. But that was normal: it was winter in Chicago, around 2 AM.

Most people would do anything to avoid walking around town at this time of night, but it had become commonplace for Andrew. There was a bar within walking distance of his apartment, and most nights since the accident, Andrew stayed there until they closed.

Tonight was no different. He'd drank way too much and he was stumbling back to his apartment. He knew the streets well... the real problem would be ascending three flights of stairs to get to his room, since the elevator in his building was still broken.

As he turned onto his street, though, he realized something was wrong... he'd gone to the wrong apartment building. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten this turned around... this was the one he'd lived at before the accident.

He froze in fear as he heard a familiar voice... his own.

"Where are you going?!" His voice said from across the street. There was an odd, ethereal echo to the voice.

"Away from you!" A shrill voice called in response.

Andrew's face paled and he felt his heart sink.

"Liz..." he whispered softly.

The scene materialized in front of him... shadows of a memory danced before his eyes. He saw himself charging out of the apartment building... Liz running across the street... and a bus barreling towards her.

He saw the impact. Liz sent flying by the vehicle, he heard the cracking of her bones.

The shadows of the bus and Andrew's former self faded, and Liz became more clear. Her body twisted and mangled, her eyes lifeless as she lay there in a pool of blood.

Andrew sobbed as he collapsed to his knees beside her. "I'm so sorry..." he croaks. "I'm so sorry Liz..."

The apparition of his dead girlfriend twitches and turns, its unblinking eyes focusing on him.

"Sorry?" It says in a twisted version of her voice. "Look at me."

Andrew's eyes widen and he stumbles back as the twisted corpse of his girlfriend sits up with a series of sickening cracks.

"LOOK AT ME!" She shouts, blood spewing from her mouth. "Sorry doesn't fix this! Sorry doesn't fix anything!"

Andrew cries out in terror as he stands, trying to run away... but he's stopped in his tracks by an invisible force.

He looks around frantically. Liz is gone now... but he's trapped. He can't move.

He feels a heavy weight on his chest. Something unseen pushing down on him. He gasps for air as it slowly squeezes down on him.

He felt something in his chest starting to give. A few creaks and snaps, followed by a resounding crack as his chest caved in. His eyes went wide as a strangled weeze escaped his throat.

The pressure on his chest remains, but stops growing. Instead, it starts to grow on his arms. His fingers are the first to go, the smaller bones shattering under the immense invisible force. His forearms crack and twist moments after, his skin turning red, black and blue as veins and capillaries are torn apart by shards of bone.

He tries to scream, to cry out for help, but it comes out only as a muted choking sound, drowned out as the last bones in his arms crack with force. Again, the pressure stops growing, but remains.

His legs are next. He feels terrible pressure centered around his knees and shins. He cries out, choking on blood as his kneecaps are shattered in an instant. Tears stream down his face at the horrible, indescribable pain as his shins crack like twigs, and a pulse goes through each toe, squashing them like soft grapes. Two resounding cracks finish the cacophony as his femurs lose their fight against this terrible weight.

Andrew sobs as the invisible force releases him, and his limp, virtually boneless body collapses to the ground. He again tries to scream, but it only causes more pain and it comes out as a whimper. He stares up at the sky, trying desperately to breathe, but the pressure of his concave chest against his lungs makes it almost impossible.

His vision is filled by a familiar face. Liz... whole again, not mangled and broken like he'd seen her in her last moments.

She kneels down by his crippled body, a smile on her face. "Shh..." She says as she rests her hands on the sides of his head. "Don't fret..."

He trembles and coughs up blood as he tries to catch his breath... but again it's to no avail. Somehow, he manages to muster up the ability to speak.

"I... I m-miss you..." He wheezes, tears streaming from his bloodshot eyes.

"I know, Andy..." Liz coos, her voice soft and sympathetic. She strokes his hair before setting her palms on his temples. "But you won't see me where you're going..."

Her expression remains the same serene, peaceful smile as she starts to squeeze. Her hands have impossible strength... and as Andrew feels his skull starting to give, he finally screams.

*****

He wakes up in a cold sweat, sitting up in bed and breathing heavily. He attempts to calm himself down, placing a hand on his chest, which he was glad to find intact.

"Jesus..." He says after a moment. "You're not gonna believe the dream I just had, Liz..." He reaches over to the other side of the bed, and puts his hand on...

Nothing.

He goes still, slowly setting his head back down on the pillow. Not everything in his grotesque nightmare had been a fantasy.

Liz had been gone for over a year now.

And she had died because of Andrew.

Andrew couldn't even remember what they'd been fighting about. All he knew was that their last moment together had been him yelling at her, and her staring back at him as that bus flew towards her.

He feels a heavy weight on his chest. Something unseen pushing down on him.

He starts to panic, throwing the covers off, standing up to try and gain relief from the crushing weight. Nothing. It's still there... it persists, choking him from the inside. Tears well in his eyes as he feels himself seizing up.

It would never go away. It had been there since she'd died and it was only growing stronger every day.

He knew there was only one way to be free of the weight.

*****

His body was found in the morning. He laid in the street, the shattered glass from his third story window embedded in his skin and strewn across the pavement around him.

His body twisted and mangled, his eyes lifeless as he lay there in a pool of blood.