There is no memory inside its head. No name, no personality, nothing but a never-ending sense of grief and anger for something it can no longer place its finger on. Something rotten and long since rancid. The beast shambles, barely able to move anymore, but never stopping. Shriveled blind eyes and a mouth kept open by too-large teeth that dig into its lips; the sickly visage of something that used to be so alive, so bright, but has now faded to nothing but a dull ember. The agony is only a faint ache now.

Sometimes, it feels the foggiest sense of deja vu. Sometimes its nose catches the scent of something oddly familiar, but only for a heartbeat. Its past is gone now, covered in toxic black sludge, always out of reach. Too poisonous to touch.

The air is acrid today. Wires brush and tangle with its legs. This place used to be full of life, picturesque and perfect like a gift shop postcard. Now, it rots and bleeds, chemicals hanging heavy in the air and corrupting the creature’s lungs with every shallow, labored breath. This is its fault now. The ones who were supposed to bear this polluted cross are long since dead, and it is the last who witnessed how things came to this.

Its head dips down, jaws opening to flood with cool water, but all the liquid tastes of is filth and rot. Something makes the mistake of swimming into its mouth, and it snaps its jaws shut around it. Not enough. It remains hungry. So hungry.

Somewhere in the world right now, the ones who will end its pain are still young. A little rabbit darts with her siblings across the grassy meadow village she’s learned to call home. A father teaches his daughter in the sea, giving her one of many pep talks that will become the core of her being. Scaly bodies shift as two lovers cuddle together on the sun-baked rocks. A raven chick spreads her wings and leaps from the nest for the first time. Newborn antennae flick.

The warm winds smell of something new, the old power lines vibrate with the potential for change, the terrible stillness of the beast’s home begins to break. It won’t be long now.