Written for this week's @flashfictionfridayofficial theme, "Seek for Insight"!
Word count: 993
cw: suicide, death, blood, gore, body horror
--
Humans are made of flesh — bones, meat, skin, organs, muscle. This is fact, though people often forget, sometimes purposely.
Certainly, Emily had forgotten, until her train jolted suddenly on the track and came screeching to a halt. As if all of them in the car were hooked to the same machine, she and everyone else's heads snapped towards the windows, searching the landscape for any clue of what happened, as though it had not been in front of the train rather than beside their windows.
As it happened, however, there were indeed clues outside the window, and quite a lot in fact — shredded bits of viscera scattered all over like bloodied chunks of confetti. The idea of it, before reality could fully sink in, drew a small giggle out of Emily, imagining bits of meaty red showering down upon a dance floor. It was an absurd image. Absurd!
In the next moment, as logic caught up to senses, she felt her eyes go wide, blinking hard. The sour taste of vomit came rushing up, and it took all her willpower to quash it down. Somewhere behind her, another unfortunate soul was not so composed. The rank scent of puke filled the train car in an instant, causing a few others to lose their stomachs as well.
Emily's hand flew to her nose and mouth, determined not to join them. She had an important interview, and she'd worn her nicest dress clothes for the occasion. She couldn't afford the dry cleaning bill if she got it dirty.
Even so, the conductor's announcement crackling over the speakers made clear enough that she wasn't going to actually make her interview time. She squeezed away a tear at the stench and snatched up her things, picking her way through the aisle to reach the door to the next car. The situation was marginally better on that side. But as if of their own volition, her legs marched her forth to the next car past that, and yet another after that too, where the people were still looking around amongst themselves in confusion, trying to figure out what had happened. The splatter hadn't reached back that far for them to have seen. Lucky bastards.
She collapsed knees-forward into the nearest empty seat and took a deep gasp for breath, burying her face into the worn, fraying pleather of the head cushion. Distantly, she could hear people gathering around her, asking if she was okay. She thought one of them asked if she knew what had happened, too, but it was hard to tell. All their noises sounded muffled through her ears. She only shook her head at all of them, not looking up from the cushion, afraid to open her mouth to answer.
After what felt like a very long time, she turned herself around to sit properly in her chair, digging in her bag for her phone. She'd need to call the company, to tell them her train had been delayed due to an accident. Hopefully, they'd understand. But she had a sick feeling in her stomach that they might think she was making excuses, or maybe that was still just the lingering nausea. It had only been a few minutes ago, after all.
As she fixated on those worries, she tried to fight back the rising panic in her chest, fingers still searching their way through her entire bag to find the missing phone. She tried to think — had she had it in her hand before all this? And then what? Had she dropped it when the train jolted? Or when she'd whipped towards the window? Was it still in the other car? Even though it had only been moments ago, her memory felt blank.
Or, rather, it was full of confetti.
When she finally managed to fish out the phone's hiding place and make her call, her mind was still full of confetti. It was full of confetti when the train at last began to move again, after the firefighters called to clean up the mess had come and gone. It was still full of confetti as she got off the train, and full of confetti as she wandered into a cafe to figure out what to do with her newly freed time in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Confetti was still lingering in her mind all through her yoga class in the evening. That night, she dreamt of red confetti falling from the sky like hail, and when she got in the shower the next morning, it felt as if her body could dissolve into a flurry of red chunks.
Emily walked into the kitchen in a haze, eyes vacantly passing back and forth across her arm elbow to fingertips, trying to imagine it coming apart like that. She tried to imagine what it would feel like. She didn't even know anything about whose flesh it was that she'd seen scattered out on the dirt.
Maybe if she did, if she had a name or a face to attach to the splatter, she wouldn't be seeing it cracking apart all across her own body.
Suddenly seized by the thought, she jolted up from her seat, abandoning her half-eaten granola. She rushed out the door and dashed the four blocks from her apartment to the train station, where she slammed open the station manager's office door.
"Excuse me!" she announced herself.
The woman inside raised an eyebrow. "Yes…? How can I help you?"
"There was an accident on the train I was on yesterday. Can you tell me who it was?" Emily blurted.
"I'm afraid that's not information I can just give out to anyone who asks."
"Please, I need to know!"
"Ah. I see." The manager's wary look turned to a pitying understanding as she saw Emily's desperation for insight. "Well, as I said, I can't give that information out. But…I know of some grief counseling resources. Perhaps you ought to speak with them instead?"
YES, finally an excuse to share my Horror-ish Witch Naofumi AU (+ TheRuFumi) that's been hiding away on my discord!
Naofumi is a With without a cove, living on his own in a haunted and cursed forest where most others would quickly be driven mad or die, unless they take drastic measures.
Naofumi did so. He's too curious and hungry for knowledge for his and everyone else's good, that he was cast out for how little care of the consequences of practicing the cursed and forbidden crafts.
So, he went to the only place that could only assist and further his research on the forbidden crafts. If he learned more, maybe people would properly know why they were forbidden crafts, and maybe he could prevent many of the accidents that could happen when doing the crafts without the full knowledge.
Good thing he's not usually afraid of committing various horrors for his experiments and research.
Hell, two of the experiments that probably should've killed him ended with something vastly different.
He now has a demonic girlfriend living in his shadow, and an eldritch horror boyfriend living inside his body, whose real form is that of a cloud of pure smokey fog of darkness dripping with blood, and countless crimson red eyes.
Some of the other experiments didn't have the same positive results, though.
The skin of his hands are now stained a permanent inky black for trying to deal with Fae and Octafolk blood at the same time for a potion.
His eyes will forever cry tears of pure ink, already having left prominent black marks on his face from the first time when his eyes stung like a thousand fires, for trying to mix merfolk's pearl tears with the scales of an undead dragon.
His whole left leg, and left arm up to the elbow is pure wood and plants, though they function like normal human limbs, for trying to enchant the remains of a dryad with the use of the fur of a celestial fox's tail and a zombie's flesh. The plant parts withers and becomes black at his wrist.
And, he has little nubs of premature horns on the sides of his head, hidden by his hair, for trying to perform magic on the horns of a haunted and cursed ram.
His skin is littered with shatter-like lines shifting between dark gray and silver, from when he summoned L'Arc and Therese.
However, his dear L'Arc and Therese always try to assist and provide what they can for his experiments, and take away any residual darkness from the experiments, strengthening them, and in exchange lengthen and share their life force with Naofumi, letting him live much longer than the average human.
———
Being summoned to another world was not what Naofumi expected to happen when he'd gone on one of his rare outings outside the forest. He'd been wanting new books to fill how new shelves for a while, and had gone to a faraway bookstore to look.
He's picked up a book with a peculiar sense of magic around it, and had a few moments appeared in a different place, books completely gone from his grasp, standing inside a magic circle with three other people, surrounded by mages in identical robes.
And, there was a Shield stuck to his arm.
Before Therese and L'Arc could come out, Naofumi rubbed his knuckled across the knobs of his lower spine, through his clothes, a signal to both of them to stay hidden, and that he's alright.
As he followed the other three who'd been summoned alongside him, all wearing different and strange clothing, and the head mage, he tried to examine the Shield on his arm. Focusing on it, he could feel immense, different powers coming from it. Interesting.
As they arrived in the throne room, Naofumi noticed the scornful, distasteful, and trustless snarls and glares sent only his way. He was now glad he'd chosen to wear his veiled hat and gloves. If they already disliked him just from being there, he wasn't about to give the more reasons to hate him.
Instead of outright planning with L'Arc and Therese, Naofumi met with them in his dreams, where Therese showed that she'd managed to keep the book that summoned Naofumi, for him to read through and study.
Later, Naofumi would discover that while his affinity for magic is about the same as before, his skills and affinity for potions and enchantments have become drastically higher, and he's ready to take full advantage.
———
After the whole thing at the castle, and turning down any party members, Naofumi wanders into the forest, and the first thing he does is start finding and comparing the herbs and plants in the book he bought with the ones he finds in the forest, and keeping as many as he can. He gets even more excited when he learns of the Plant Shield Series, which lets him grow and level up the plants with magic.
So excited, that he doesn't notice the balloon monster clinging to him until L'Arc's distorted voice whispers it inside his ear.
Inconspicuously, he feeds them to his shadow, and discovers that L'Arc and Therese are both defaulted to his party members, letting him gain the EXP they do as well. Seems like he doesn't even need to hire party members anyway.
——
The next morning, he's dragged to the castle and his hood ripped off, leaving him for everyone to see. They stare is shock and horror at his face and hands, the only parts revealed.
He's called a monster, thrown around, and accused of things he did not commit.
He may delve in the dark and forbidden, the dead and haunted, but he does have morals, alright? Even he wouldn't take anyone against their will, plus, L'Arc and Therese can satisfy his needs in ways no human or demi-human ever could.
——
He ignores the stares and glares as he walks the streets, face hidden by his veiled hat once again.
In the evening, Naofumi goes walking through the dark streets, having changed into a sleeve-less cloak with a large hood and a high collar to conceal his face.
He follows the feeling of darkness and despair, and ends up in a slave tent filled with people with various degrees of different animal features, some more human- or beast-looking.
In the end, he leaves the tent with directions and advice for the best dark magic and curse masters and sellers, and a sick slave in tow.
With a few simple potions, of which Naofumi knows the recipes back to front now, Raphtalia is fully healed. The first few days, they don't converse much, other than Naofumi getting gear, clothes, and food for Raphtalia, and holding her when her night terrors appear. A simple spell to ward off nightmares seem to help a bit.
Then, Naofumi tells her he would like for her to help him as the Shield Hero. If she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to, and he will set her free. But, if she wishes to, he will teach and protect her from whatever may wish to harm them. But, she must become prepared for many horrors ahead.
In the end, she accepts, and that evening by the fire is spent teaching Raphtalia to read and recognize a few regular plants.
As they progress, Naofumi teaches her more and more, and she tries to soak the knowledge like a sponge, though sometimes she doesn't understand.
After the fight with the dog monster in the mines, where Naofumi let Therese take down the monster with one swipe of her jewelled hand, Naofumi decides to introduce Raphtalia to his two otherworldly lovers.
Therese easily slithers out of his shadow, merging from the darkness into her beautiful and horrifying form of flesh and jewels mixed together into her being, strong and indestructible, and yet beautiful and lovely.
Naofumi turns his back to Raphtalia as L'Arc's form crawls its way up his body and through his throat, out his mouth, accompanied by black goo (Naofumi has yet to identify it as anything by to help L'Arc leave his body) as a few ink tears escape his eyes, drawing the lines on his face darker again. Once he's finally out, L'Arc dons his human forms, and Therese as well. Though, there's simply still something distinctly non-human about them.
Raphtalia is terrified at first, hiding beneath his cloak, before he explain them to her, that they're there bonded to him, to keep him and those under him safe at all costs. Slowly, she warms up to them, but she'll never get used to how L'Arc leaves and enters Naofumi's body through his mouth.
She isn't allowed to see their real forms, as it would simply be too much for any mortal not bonded to them to comprehend. She would go mad if she saw them.
Later, when they get Filo (before the first wave, Naofumi always wanted a familiar), she is much less scared, and keep talking about how they have some 'Funny Energy' around them, that she thinks tickles when she gets close.
As they fight the first Wave, Naofumi lets L'Arc and Therese pose as his party members to help fight. They all gain many levels then.
———
At some point, Naofuim also curses Myne and the King with some minor inconvenience curses, that to nobility and royalty have been known to absolutely humiliate them.
———
When meeting and fighting Glass, she's wary of the Shield Hero calling himself a Witch. In her world, witches are known to make any demi-human they deem useful their slave.
But, Naofumi shuts that down, telling her that he doesn't commit any kind of bonding or binding without the other party's consent.
With their powers and warped morals, the two some to respect each other, even when fighting to kill.
———
When Naofumi finally gets his revenge, the trial again Myne and the King, when they're forced to kneel before him in front of countless people, Bitch is forced to do so by her slave crest. But, Trash refuses to kneel before someone who won't even show his face. He will not kneel unless he's sure that he's kneeling for the actual Shield Hero and not some imposter.
Before the Queen can shout again, Naofumi rips off his veiled hat, leaving his face bare for everyone to see the black tear lines running down his cheeks, and the gray and silver crack crawling up from his neck.
"How do you know that I'm the Shield Hero, even after seeing my face? The only people I've shown my real face to before today, is my party." Naofumi says
He was getting tired of wearing that hat everywhere he went with a risk of seeing people.
He does not mind if these people fear him now. If they didn't already, they really should've.
———
When fighting against Kyo, Naofumi becomes interested in the book his holding, and silently asks Therese to see if she get can it. No one notices when a part of Naofumi's shadow slithers away along the edges of the room to merge with Kyo's.
Moments later, Therese comes up behind Kyo, holding him stuck as she tries getting the book, but it appears to be stuck to him.
After some fighting, Kyo manages to escape, and Naofumi and his party manages to hurry and follow after him and Glass.
Though somehow, whatever Kyo does, it makes Naofumi forcefully get separated from L'Arc and Therese, who both end up with Glass, while Naofumi finds Kizuna.
What she hated about dreams was how quickly they could change. One moment she could be with her friends, enjoying their company, free of concerns. Such trivial things as school and homework were abandoned, and Ahri could, for once, forget of the responsibilities bestowed upon her as the leader of the Star Guardians.
It was for moments of peace like this she lived for, worked hard for, and was willing to die for.
The change was slow to come. The dark clouds on the horizon were shadowed by the bliss of the moment, the joyful emotions, their laughter. Even Soraka’s melodic laughter was echoing through the fields.
And just as that – it was gone. By the time Ahri noticed the static in the air it was too late.
She could recognize this sinister and chaotic energy anywhere. Rakan’s and Xayah’s blood was still too fresh on her hands to forget the corruption, and it looked like Zoe finally found them to fulfil her promise – to eradicate the remaining Star Guardians on this planet to move on to the other.
Thousands of eyes were scattered around in the eternity of the horizon, stretching and revealing horrifying visions of what was to come.
It had only taken a moment for harbinger to establish absolute control and carnage over the group. Ahri, stripped of an opportunity to defend or fight back, turned her head only to discover the bloody mess and the ripped corpses of her friends. It was foolish to think that Zoe would leave a surviving messenger. The whole scene would serve as one instead.
When the tendrils of void extended after the leader, Ahri tried to rush out of the way, offer some sort of a fight before the inevitable, but her limbs felt like cotton and she was trapped. Lifted from the ground, she was brought to an eye level with the murderer. Zoe’s childish yet sinister laugh filled her before the sharp void-blade pierced her chest and –
Gasping loudly, the blonde stirred from the nightmare. Her whole body was covered in sweat and upon investigating what caused the pinching sensation all over her body, Ahri discovered bright pink trails on her wrists, thighs and even neck. Sighing quietly, she turned to take a look at Kiko. The companion, clearly distressed by the Guardian’s anxiety, had also awoken and was staring at her with its large eyes.
“It’s nothing,” the vixen muttered, rubbing at the aching parts of her body. Though she collapsed back against the pillow, she could not fall asleep for the rest of the night. Zoe’s laugh and the image of her friend’s dead bodies haunted her even after days had passed.
I'm attempting to watch the first episode of Mind Hunter for the first time and I don't know if I can last for 50 mins without switching to Hannibal. Send patience and snacks.
Imagine that one day, you are chosen to go to some far away planet to work at a museum which is near a graveyard of inventors.
As you get the job, you will find that you are the only one who works there, as there is nobody else but your employer, who informs you of what you need to do.
Each day, at this museum, you have a list of inventions to check on, all of these inventions can have these problems:
• It being dirty and dusty (normal)
• Different spots it keeps changing to (not so normal)
• New modifications installed by (seemingly) nobody
Those are just a few, but as you continue working, you will slowly unvail the mystery of these inventions.And on special days, you will acquire new inventions from past time periods.
But this ain't just imagination, this is my creation, "Tragedy by Wonderlust"
"So you want to hear the story? They probably dared you to ask me about it. It's become a fucking right of passage at this point. Alright, I'll tell you. It'll cost you a drink though. So it started as a fairly normal call. The basics were clear enough. 'Drive this person to a place. Drive home, he doesn't need a pick up.' But then I got to where I was supposed to be driving him, and that was a bit odd. Start at Phoenix, and drive west on I-10. 'More specific directions from passenger'. And his special requests: 'Don't talk. Drive at an even 65 miles per hour, no drinks allowed in the car, no radio, and I will meet you outside the airport'. My reaction, and probably yours at this point, was that it was some narcissistic asshole who wanted to impress people in his podunk town in the middle of the desert. Assholes like that are the worst. At least the rude celebrity did something to deserve being rude. But hey, he paid, and I was assigned to it."
"It was pretty typical at first....Nah...I'm lying to myself. It wasn't even typical to begin with. First off, how the hell did the guy know where I was? I radioed in when I arrived, but I was forced to move from our usual spot. He found me right away though. Didn't squint or strain or anything. Just walked right up to the door. And that leads me to the second weird bit. No luggage. No suitcase, no backpack, not even a fucking duffle bag.Just some white guy wearing a big trench coat with the collar turned up, dark sunglasses, and wearing black mickey mouse gloves. The gloves honestly were the weirdest part. I've seen people dressed in all sorts of weird getups. Video game costumes and all that. But most of them? They aren't wearing the gloves when they get in the car. I dunno why, but they aren't. This guy though, he had the gloves on. He sits down, and immediately checks to see if there's any water. I had already taken everything out. Tossed my soda from lunch a few minutes ago. He seems pleased I can follow basic instructions and gestures like he's some sort of king. I guess he means I'm supposed to start driving now, so I do."
"The drive was...hold on. I need something to drink before I keep going. Sorry. The drive was the weirdest and most uncomfortable drive in my entire life. First thing I noticed was that there was hardly any traffic once we got on the interstate. Real good. It was nearing rush hour and we didn't slow down at all. I thanked my lucky stars for that because the moment the guy got in the car I started to sweat. Not a creepy cold sweat, but like a 'You've been running for 4 hours' type of sweat. I try turning the air on and no luck. It just blows hot air in my face. I turn it off and tell myself that when I get back, I'm going to kill whoever told me the AC was working. Meanwhile the guy is just staring out the window. He's not asleep because I can see him moving, but he's just...staring. Looking out into the sun with his giant sunglasses and his black mickey mouse gloves and black trench coat. We drive for about...three hours I think it was? Three hours before I start to notice things."
"You know about Highway hypnosis right? We all have our own way of dealing with it. Me personally? I count. Bushes, signs, anything. As long as I'm counting I'm paying attention. So today I'm counting bushes. I get up to five hundred forty-three before I notice that there weren't any more. Not a single bush on either side of the road. Then I notice it's getting hotter. I look at the dashboard thermometer and it says it's 115 degrees out there. It was only supposed to get up to 102 that day. I look back and...I can't explain it. No, it's not that I don't remember I just...Have you ever looked at a picture of a tropical island? And it's clear sandy beaches up to a point, and then it's jungle, but there's still sand? It was sort of liked that. I looked back at the road and...it was still a road. Still looked like I-10, but nothing was the same. There were no more plants. No more clouds high up in the sky. The sky was a flat blue, and there was nothing around but desert. No plants, just flat desert as far as the eye could see. At this point I would have said something, but my throat was...so dry. It was like every drop of moisture had been sucked out from it. Even breathing too deep hurt. I looked back and the man was looking back at me. He was smiling. And that's when I noticed for the first time that his skin was the same color as the sand outside. I looked away and kept driving."
"God...I have no idea how long I drove after that. It felt like months in that hot, dry car with Mr. Sand sitting in the back, staring at me, grinning like a loon. My lips were chapped. Licking them hurt more then just letting them bake. And as I kept driving, the landscape kept...changing. Becoming...flatter. Like the sky was getting closer and closer to the road. And as it got closer, it turned more and more that yellow sand color. The texture started to change as well. I started to get dizzy, could feel myself getting sick. It was like I was driving through a tunnel, and the light at the end of it was getting dimmer the closer I got. At one point, everything outside the limo looked like it was flat. Like at any point I was just gonna...drive through the world and see what was on the other side. But the worst part...the absolute worst part of it all was the sun. It was...white. White and burning. There was no mercy in that sun. It reminded me of the time I fell down the stairs and broke my arm as a kid. I passed out when I hit the bottom. When I woke up, the brighter it got the more it started to hurt. This was like that, only the brightness never went away. What? Why did I keep driving after that? Why didn't I stop? You gotta understand...I don't think I was here anymore. I was still in Arizona, but I don't think it was any Arizona that any normal human had ever seen before."
"And then...the worst thing on that hellish day happened. The man spoke to me. He told me to pull over. His voice sounded dryer then my throat. It sounded like two pieces of sandpaper being rubbed against each other. I pulled off to the side of the road.He opened the door. It sounded like it was covered in grit. In dust. He shut it, and walked over to the driver side window. I rolled it down, and he spoke to me.
'You followed all of my instructions. Most never make it this far. I can go the rest of the way, but you deserve a tip.'
He held out his hand, and when I reached up, He placed something in it. I can't remember if I thanked him or not, because the next thing he did was to take off his sunglasses. Where his eyes should be were two, perfectly miniaturized suns. Glowing white."
"I don't remember anything after that. I don't remember driving back. I don't remember breaking down. I don't remember screaming at the dispatcher about the three suns of hell. My next memory is waking up in the hospital, restrained. I had been there for three days, screaming any time I wasn't sedated. I had second degree sunburns over 90% of my body. And I had my tip. A round, 14 ounce piece of solid gold. Worth nearly ten thousand dollars. And that's my story. Buy me another drink, would ya?"
If you guys like horror musicals/ReAnimator/kind of horror things, I made a blog for that stuff. (i dont wanna lose any more followers from my main blog because of ReAnimator. But its a totally cool thing everyone should know about IMO :P)
Mostly inspired by my new love for ReAnimator and Lovecraft.
