The grizzled hunter was my first. Flesh from yellow bones was flayed. That grim repast did slake my thirst, but only for a day. I slunk out at nights just like a wraith and fell upon the camps. Through the power of their prayers and faith, their fat did light my lamps. I’m falling farther down the shaft. I know I’m never coming back. I slipped into darkness and laughed. Still farther, farther down the shaft. Their bones discarded down a pit, this hunter sought no trophies. I wallowed in my filth and shit, rags and gasoline. Voices called up from the depths; ghosts desperate for revenge. They chilled my blood and seized my breath as the cave filled up with their cold stench. They were calling up from down the shaft, skulking corpses first and last. Their skin was flayed, skulls were smashed, climbing up from down the shaft. I grabbed some clothes from my last meal and escaped down a crawlway. What I thought were angry spirits was just a posse out to slay me. I heard them break into my den. They were overcome completely. Their loved ones’ meat and heads and feet were stacked or hanging neatly. Now I’m crawling farther down the shaft. There isn’t any turning back. I stop to drop a burning match before I’m swallowed by the black.