Presenting, Cracks
“Come on gang! Let's get to work!”
The minute shouts of the ants on me could be heard as they hurried back and fro across my surface. Uninterested, I continued my nap as they day passed by. All of a sudden, I felt a prick somewhere, like a gentle prod into me. Irritated from suddenly being awakened from my nap, I hollered at the ants. “What are you up to now?”
“Oh, nothing. We just wish to dig a small hole through you, so we could get across you easily. You won't mind, will you?”
Laughing at the ants, I mocked them. “You, puny ants? How could you possibly even dig through me? I am so big and you are so small!”
Furiously, the ants retorted in unison, “Just you wait and see! We may be weak but we will succeed!”
The angry ants rushed off to continue their seemingly futile project. As I felt their bodies scurrying up and down my surface, cries could be heard, “Come! Let's show this arrogant wall what we can truly do!” Ignoring their tiny pricks into my skin, I continued to lay there, staring out at the world.
Many days later, I heard the triumphant cries of the ants. Feeling around, I indeed felt an extremely small and nearly invisible hole bored through me. Unwilling to admit my mistakes, I jeered at them, “Why, is that all you can do? Make a hole so small it's invisible to people? Sure you could make a hole into me, but you can't even make anything visible to the people! Just like you all, invisible!”
“Why you arrogant wall! You may look down on us, but this is simply too much!” Even further enraged, the ants went back to pick at my skin. I wondered what they could be up to, but soon gave up, being simply not bothered.
After what seemed like months, I felt something a scar emerging upon my skin. A crack, just a hair's width. Pissed off, I hollered at the ants, telling them to halt whatever they were doing but they would not listen. As days went by, I realised that the number of ants were increasing and the sensation of being prodded by the ants was turning into a sharp and painful bite. A multitude of cracks had emerged all over me, all thin and small but slowly being widened and elongated by the ants spurred on by rage.
Fearful for the condition of my face, I now pleaded with the ants to stop. Still, they refused to back down, increasing the pace at which they dug into me. I cried and cried at them, “Oh, ants! I realise my mistakes! Do stop!” But the cracks grew and grew and grew.
Suddenly on one day, a portion of me started to crumble into dust. The ants had not only dug out cracks all over me, they also created a honeycomb throughout my inside. I was a wreck. Thick cracks had emerged all over me, my insides were crumbling. As agonising days went by, I felt parts of me fall to the ground.
“Hah! You used to mock us about our size, but what about now? You are cracked all over and crumbling into dust. That's for mocking us!” The ants, done with their work and having their thirst for revenge quenched, left.
Sobbing miserably, I waited and waited, hoping that somehow, a miracle would happen and I would be fixed. Finally, after months of waiting and hoping, a man appeared. He looked like a construction worker, probably here to fix me. But what I heard later deflated all of my hopes.
“Look at this wreck! I'm going to to have to bring it down.”
Hefting his sledgehammer, I looked at it in fear. The last thing I saw was the sledgehammer swinging at me, like Death's Scythe.
Then nothing.
