Short Story

My client requested that I produce a short story which showcased all of the basic human emotions. I wrote the story from scratch for around 2 hours while consulting with my client about each paragraph along the way.

Upon resting my head on the icy leaf carpet, I felt the dry autumn air nibble on my cheeks, its tiny kisses leaving burning marks on my warm skin, my breath dancing in the wintry atmosphere and the frigid ground grasping onto me, spreading its infectious iciness throughout my body. Just a while ago I would lay my head on my fiancée’s lap, and her warm, tender fingers would brush over my flushed cheeks as she held onto me, watching the fire twirl in her silvery eyes. It was the manifestation of pure bliss, and it has turned into nothing more than a memory accompanied by this burning, ecstatic passion. It has been 6 days and 5 nights since I left to get some fresh air, and at this point I’ve has enough of it. I want the car fumes, I want the bustling of people and engines in the civilisation but alas, I am nowhere near them. I am lost. My eyes began stinging as the boiling emotions bubbled up and overflowed, the realisation hit me hard in my empty stomach, punching the air out of me. I remember it as clearly as my ravenous mind would allow me to, I had decided to take an evening walk along the vibrant forest path, barely following the guides engraved inside the grand spruce trees. As I was adoring the array of different trees and leaf colours I snapped out of my trance when I was greeted with the heavy snapping of twigs and the low growl that accompanied it. Throughout my years of exploration, I had acquired enough experience to know how to act when faced with a wild animal, but nothing in this life could have prepared me for what I was standing before me.

No book, no sane person could describe the horrid creature that stood before my cowardly frame. Its tall, emaciated figure shifting from side to side as if wiggling in euphoria, but the eyes embedded onto its skinned head glowed with a deadly craving. My feet were rooted deeply into the muddy forest floor as if connected to the monstrosity in front of me, it’s menacing atmosphere grasping onto me. Only when it crushed the dampened, dead log did I manage to tear away from that predator’s deadly grasp. My feet carried my frozen body and ran but my even couldn’t tear away from its glowing meteors. This is the moment it happened, the moment I ripped myself apart from civilisation. The time that followed was a blur, it wasn’t until twilight that I stumbled, and everything went black. I woke up to the rain pounding on my head, my body dampened by the cold, autumn rain. Ever since I have been stumbling and attempting to discover any evidence of civilisation near me.

I started at the dim, lifeless sky. My stomach was twisting, alarming me to eat something before it’s too late, but I was lifeless already. I closed my eyes to savour all that was left of my memories. The familiar, distinct growl caused me to snap my heavy eyelids open and rip my body off the icy ground. I shifted my head towards the noise, though it was concealed by the dense forest I knew exactly where it was, where the creature that ruined my life was. To my surprise I didn’t cower, I looked through the trees into its glowing, ravenous eyes with pure hatred. I didn’t care if I lived or died, I was already too far gone, my life as I knew it was gone and I was never getting it back. Without second thoughts I ran, fuelled by noting more than rage, the mystifying forest with its welcoming nature pulling me into the gladiator arena. I grabbed the first thing that was close enough and lunged towards the grotesque monstrosity, as I heard its heavy steps run towards me, blinded by rage I thrusted the sharp branch deep into its orbs as it clawed deeply onto my skin, the deeper it clawed the deeper I pushed the long rod into its skull. Its knife-like claws digging through my muscles, but I didn’t weaken, I wrapped my arms around the neck of the beast and with all my strength felt the slow, gradual crushing. It was the manifestation of pure bliss, accompanied by a burning, ecstatic passion. The beast released its grasp from me and tumbled onto the hard forest floor, its eye wound releasing the most appetising smell of all, how to not take a bite. I sunk my teeth into its bony body, devouring as much flesh and muscle as I could, the savoury smell urging me to have more, crushing its brittle bones and swallowing them, the sharp flint shaped pieces scraping my throat, threatening to puncture it, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t and I wouldn’t even if I could. As I felt the adrenalin leave my body the world slowly started to darken.

Another layer came off. I was struggling to control the bleeding; I was scared it would get infected. Another layer came off. The pain made me produce an otherworldly scream every time I pulled off another layer. I stumbled my way to a nearby river and looked down onto the glasslike water. What hovered over the water was a monstrosity no different than the one I killed; its eyes were human yet filled with malevolent sparks that glowed like me meteorites. Its face covered in deep scrapes, with the muscles that remained producing specks of fresh blood. The naked bone of its chin shone into the water. I am calling it, ‘IT’? No, it’s not it, this is me.