Suppuration

Something in you is festering. Not in the moral sense — in the physical. Tissue becomes inflamed, cells die off, and your immune system sends an army of white blood cells to the site, where they fight, die, and collect as yellowish-white pus. The result is visible, often painful, and almost always accompanied by a feeling of disgust. Pus smells. Pus presses. Pus wants out.

Medically, suppuration is your body's response to an infection or to dying tissue. Bacteria invade, the immune system reacts, and the pus is the battlefield — the remains of a fight your body wages for you. But the deeper question is: why does your body let something fester at this particular spot? Why has something collected here that is now pressing outward under pressure?