Came Back Wrong
Whumpuary 2026 Day 15
Whumpee looks the same at first glance. Normal enough, for dying and returning.
But in time, the... subtler changes become apparent.
Their best friend looks them in the eye for the first time since they came back.
It's a different shade of blue.
Their touch is always icy cold, as if they never recovered the body heat lost during death.
They smile just a little too wide.
Or not wide enough.
Their teeth a little too sharp.
Sometimes Whumpee stares into the shadows, perhaps lost in memory, perhaps challenging a lurking entity.
The evidence of the wound that killed them is still there.
A jagged scar, messily healed.
The shoulder that was broken before the final blow still aches, healed, but not properly.
Yet pain doesn't affect them in the same way.
Whumpee stares at the blood running down their arm from an accidental cut numbly, as if it were happening to somebody else.
They walk off injuries that would have incapacitated anyone else, ignoring stab wounds, injuries to vital organs, blows that should cause severe concussions.
But the only wounds that bother them are the old wounds from the day they died.
Whumpee flinches at sudden movements.
When they sleep, they are tormented by nightmares.
In battle, they are a force to be reckoned with.
Enemies are found torn to pieces with no mercy.
Their teammates try to reconcile with the changes.
Whumpee is still the same person, after all.
Aren't they?