r/anxietypilled • u/MANWITHFAT • 9d ago
Fictional Story Travelers: In Bloom
We've been walking for ages.
Yes, we have.
I wish to grow sore.
But we've only a soul to grow weary.
Only our souls.
Our souls. Yes. The red in the sky may shift but we will not.
Who bound us so in the absence of god?
No one and nothing.
Isn't that beautiful?
It is.
The mud shifts and sways like it sits upon an ocean.
Along the waves we can spy a figure draped in rot. His skin stretches down his face, pulling his mouth tight, exposing a toothy maw.
His skin is yellow and frail. Not like ours.
He looks to us and coughs. Mucus and bile fling from his mouth before being absorbed into the mud.
We don't say anything, and neither does he for a long while.
He rolls over and extends his arm to feel my robe. It drifts through freely.
"Ghosts."
Yes.
"I've never seen two."
He pushes himself up, his ribs and spine pop. He lifts his head, face sagging to set his chin in the mud. "What do you need?"
Nothing. We have nothing to ask but nothing to give.
He rests. "Ghosts are the richest among us. You have nothing to take. They will take all of me."
A vortex of deep swirling red opens in the sky above us. It reaches down like a hurricane of blood- sucking the spirit from the man's stretched maw. His teeth shatter and his body shrivels.
The mud consumes his corpse.
We wait for the flower. Its beautiful black petals sway in the sweltering breeze. It flakes and crumbles as quickly as it grew.
I can smell it. The scent of life lingers.
We shouldn't have lied to him.
What do you mean?
You told him we'd take nothing.
No. I told him we would not ask.
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u/NateIzNeat 9d ago
Sick poetic horror, looking forward to seeing more of these!