An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
@juneofdoom @whumpers-monthly @witchermonstermayhem
For the June of Doom prompts: 3 "Hiding" & "Stalking", 7 "Stumbling", 11 "Collapse" 24 "Stitches" & "Bandages", the Whumper's Monthly Issue No 29 "Black and White" and the Witcher Monster of the Month June prompts "Full Moon" & “Tomb”
Chapters: 1/1 Words: 2,083
Fandom: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Coën (The Witcher)/Reader, Coën (The Witcher)/You
Additional Tags: June of Doom 2024, Witcher Monster MAYhem Prompt Event 2024, witcher monster of the month, ghost story, Spectre - Freeform, Full Moon, tomb, Whump, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alive Coën (The Witcher)
Summary: Walking home through the forest one night, you are stalked by an eerie, white shape - a spectre. Will it freeze your heart and rip you apart or will someone come and save you?
(Set shortly after the Battle of Brenna in which Coën did not die.)
The eerie shape floats closer and closer, a ghastly white against the black backdrop of the nightly forest. The perfect white orb of the full moon is the only other colour in this otherwise black world. No, colour is not the right word, you are aware of it. While black is the total absence of colour, of light, white is all colours at once. Yet, the white shape is far scarier than the darkness. For this shape cannot be natural, not alive. A supernatural, unalive being that emanates an otherworldly, spine-chilling, blood-curdling brightness from its inside. A light that will freeze your body and soul if it finds you in your hiding place. And what a hiding place it is. A place that even without the ghastly spectre - for a spectre it must be, there is no other explanation for this ghostly shape - would give most people goose bumps all over, and especially so at night. It definitely was not a good idea to walk past the ancient elven cemetery after nightfall. But your sister's new baby was so cute, and you have done it before. Never has anything happened to you on your way back home from the neighbouring village where your sister lives with her family. The dolmens, cairns and cromlechs are so old, they do not attract ghouls or other corpse eating monsters, nor have there been tales of spirits haunting the burial mounds, at least not tales told by trustworthy, sane people. You press your body harder against the megalith that forms the rear wall of the dolmen. It is a small one and you have to crouch so your do not hit your head against the single cap stone resting on the slightly taller portal stones that mark the entrance of the ancient tomb. The air inside it is moist and stuffy and you feel like you cannot breathe enough. Is it from fear or from running faster than ever in your life? And now you have to suppress your gasping and panting for air so the spectre would not hear you. Not an easy feat when all you want to do is scream for help. Scream like you did when first you noticed your eerie stalker and took to your heels. Yet, you know there is no help to expect. For who would help you against a ghost? Only a madman would. No, your only chance to get out of this alive is if the spectre does not find you. So, you have to calm your breathing and the throbbing of your heart and become as still as a statue, melt into the dark grey stone, and prey to all the gods of the universe that the ghost will pass by your sinister hideout. If not, this elven tomb will soon become your tomb, there is no doubt about it ...
