CW blood, death, mention of abuse
smack
smack
smack
A hand smacked against the low stone wall one final time before slipping off, the stacked rubble having reached its end. A smear of blood clung to it as the hand’s owner toppled forward into the clearing. He groaned, then raised his face from the damp grass. “Huh. So this place really did exist.”
His arm reached out and he began to slowly drag himself forward, towards the large pond in the middle of the circular grassy meadow, across green vegetation strewn with the fallen purple petals of the heavy willows above him. “Thought it was just a dream …” His hand grasped the earth, soil digging beneath his fingernails as he pulled himself forward. “Kinda glad it isn’t.” His other hand reached for his stomach, flares of gasp-wrenching pain hitting him as he checked the wounds. They were so sticky with the crimson fluid, but at least that was likely the only thing staining the grass beneath him; his previous attempts to keep his organs inside himself were successful at least.
”Sorry if I’m making a, hhhh, mess of things.” Sweat dropped from his nose, plinking into the very edge of the pond water when he pulled himself towards the clearing’s center. Still clutching his middle, he slowly turned himself over, panting as arcs of agony coursed with every slow rotation. But now he could see the statue of the beautiful woman, reclining on a pedestal bedecked with the tree’s floral gifts. “Huh …” He smiled. “I remember you being smaller. And you really don’t look like stone, huh.”
His eyes lost their focus, gazing up into the heavens. “Apparently, those old Roman and Greek statues used to be painted like you too, tried to make them look more lifelike. Probably why it was so easy to ‘play’ with you. Could have sworn my imaginary friend was a kid like me though.”
Through the trees, he could glimpse the stars, twinkling their mischievous little lights. They’d never appeared quite so pretty before … although he had never been here during the night either. “Kinda wanted to say hi to her, really. But it’s hard to imagine her when the statue’s now some grown-ass woman .. like me.” He grimaced and took a shallow breath. “Well, I guess I’m a guy, but.”
“What were you going to tell her?”
He closed his eyes. “I was gonna ask her how she’s been … what she’s been up to … what sorta games she’s come up with. She loved to play pranks, be mischievous. We got into some of the wackiest dress-up games, let me tell you -”
He frowned. He was dying; regardless of other factors, the blood loss had been too severe. He wasn’t that close to death as to start hearing things. He opened his eyelids to see my mesmerizing purple pupils staring down at him.
“… I suppose it makes sense that my childhood friend is also some mystical shenaniganry.” He smiled weakly. “I seem to attract that sort of thing.”
“Oh. Really.”
“Yeah.” He exhaled. “There’s been, a lot of things. The vampires. The werewolves. The aliens. The Culverin Tax Regimenters. To name some. Hell, even my parents turned out to be cultists planning to sacrifice me to some ancient evil god at the place where I was born. Guess that’s why my life was so crappy from the start.”
“Your gut does reek of dark magic.”
“Mom got me with a cursed dagger while I was in the middle of some patricide. He deserved it, to be frank. I don’t think the evil god was happy with her stepping out of the ritual circle, though. Vaccuumed her right up into the vortex and vanished.”
“They do get upset when their strictures are broken.”
He frowned, focusing on my expression. “Is it just me, or are you upset with me?”
I tapped my crossed arms with my fingers. “Oh, you picking up on that? Well done you, you deserve an award!”
“Apologies.” His breathing was becoming intermittent. “I can’t quite think why. It’s becoming real faint here.”
I inhaled, tasting the sour tones of Death in the air, and glared at the entrance, where a pool of grey fog was congealing. Two skeletal hands emerged from it, tapping a silver wristwatch. I gave them the middle finger before turning my face back down. “You mortals can always excuse things with faults of the body,” I said bitterly. “Failing memory, dying body.” I laughed, a twinge of hysteria in my mouth. “If only you were immortal, you could always do what you needed, what you promised. None of this … this foolish excuse crap.”
“True enough.” He smiled wanly. “In my next life, I’ll try harder.” He was silent for a moment, and when he next spoke his voice was barely a whisper. “Can I ask you one last thing?”
“What?”
“Can you … forgive me?” His eyes were glistening even as they began to look into naught but emptiness. “That day … when they took me away from this town … I really … wanted to see … what surprise you’d had planned … for tomorrow. So … Sor …”
I reached out one hand and pinched the unmoving lips sht. “Idiot.” I inhaled, then shouted, “You swindling stupid idiot!”
My hand rose, a vortex of water stopping the creeping mist before it could enter. “Halt.” I gathered the corpse into my arms, holding the mindless head in my lap. “This is mine. Our promise, our contract, our vow was broken, by his hand, and I have not forgiven that unforgivable crime. I lay claim to this person in his entirety.”
The coiling tendrils of fog were silent for several moments. “I profess,” tombs shifted open to unleash stiff words of rigor mortis, “to be an impartial figure, but I do feel the need to warn you that others will be upset not to see him enter their halls of judgement. They will seek him.”
“Fuck them.” Crystal clear fluid pooled down the corpse’s head, soaking into the clothes before sinking into the body. “Fuck them, and fuck you too. Not like even you were able to find this place without following the blood trail.”
“More like I sensed his imminent demise and came hither,” the halls of the deceased observed, “but your claim is true, and I acknowledge it as such. Farewell.”
I waited until the grey mist had dissipated before turning my gaze back down at the body. “Here’s your surprise. You better enjoy it.”
***
I looked down as my old friend stirred. Hands pushed the body up before dissolving, limbs jerking upright. Pale pink eyes stared into the semi-transparent digits of hands, which oscillated between the water of the pond my friend had awoken in, and the color of flesh and skin and pale white flowing garments above them. I watched the clear shock of continued existence in a new, immortal form register, and felt a twinge of satisfaction that I fought to keep from my face. Then, the eyes turned down.
“I have boobs?!?!” she shrieked with such shock I jumped, slipping off my pedestal and falling into the pond.
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