What seemed like a bad situation wasn’t necessarily all that bad.

One, I didn’t need to worry about food anymore. Probably. Two, I didn’t need to worry about where to live either. I could just crawl back into my grave if need be, I didn’t want to though. And three- I always wondered what it’d be like after death and….

But there were a few problems.

Did California have this much greenery?

Not just trees and grassland but… but lakes! Out in the open!

And was it me or were there no hills? Just flat lands. And yet, I didn’t see a single building or a road or anything for that matter.

At first, I thought this was a jungle, but given each tree was at least ten or so meters away from each other, didn’t feel like a jungle. And the lack of weird flora and excess bugs made this place, not so forest-y for me. It was still a forest though.

But wait, ‘No skin… but there are bones…’ I tried peering at my body and although I did have bones, I didn’t have any organs. I didn’t feel anything either. No pain, or senses. I could still hear and see for some reason, but no sense of smell or touch.

I did still have a bit of decaying cloth attached to my crotch though. Or so I would have liked to say. Except, there was nothing there. No skin, no muscles… and certainly no organs.

Sigh. It didn’t make it.

How is this working though? Poking around my bones felt very hollow; the bones and the empty space inside too. There was nothing there, and I felt nothing.

Despite all this, despite seeing the impossible before me, I didn’t feel the least agitated. Something was wrong with me, and it wasn’t just me. ‘Maybe because I don’t have a heart?’ But didn’t the brain feel, rather than the heart?

Rustle!

Breeze.

I didn’t feel the wind, but I felt something else. Something was here with me. A chill. Devastating chill that made me want to curl into a ball and stay like that hoping the world wouldn’t end…. I could sweat a bucket if I still had the glands.

No animals around. It was at least midnight.

So-

What?

Rustle!

“ARG-” Instead of a scream, a groan came out.

But I saw nothing.

Actually, how could I see with this little light? I didn’t see a moon up there, and clouds covered at least half the sky. So how come I could see despite there being no light source around me? Did I even have eyes?

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A lake was nearby but before knowing what was around me- Hoof! The sound of hoofs…

Slowly turning around, I witnessed true horror… yeah, not really. It was a deer. A large deer and the deer slowly went past me without even glancing at me once. Why was my subconscious to scared of a frigging deer, I didn’t get.

Where did it-

But how it get here? It wasn’t here even just a moment ago.

Black skin with red dots and massive antlers the size of half of my body. Is the deer big or am I just small? I didn’t feel small. Actually, I felt the same. I was vastly average in height, five-ten. And I still felt the same. So-

But wait, it was heading for the lake, right?

I also headed for the lake.

It ignored me… Or maybe it couldn’t see me? I mean, I was a frigging skeleton? So, it wasn’t unlikely I might have even been just a ghost that living things couldn’t see?

Didn’t know what compelled me to but I slowly touched the thing’s tail and got kicked in the nuts a second later.

‘Ow,’ grabbing my nonexistent crotch I got on my knees, and the deer just frigging went for the lake.

A sharp stabbing pain that slowly radiated upwards…. And here I thought I didn’t feel anything.

Oh, I felt that alright….

The pain was gone literally a second later. And honestly, it didn’t even hurt that much. Probably would have been a whole different situation if I did have stuff down there but oh well. My bones didn’t break and I did get to confirm one thing.

The deer could definitely see me. But it didn’t see me as a threat. It saw me as something not worth it’s attention and time. Which was both good and bad. Good because I wasn’t on its kill list. Bad because-

‘I’m weak as fuck, huh?’

I was an avid gamer of sorts, so this chain of events and a skeleton being one of the weakest monsters wasn’t surprising.

Managing a sigh, I pulled myself up, went to the lake but definitely farther away from the deer and stared… stared at my reflection.

Skeleton.

But not just a skeleton. There was more.

A bit of strange green glowing stuff just behind the eye sockets. And no, I didn’t really have eyes. Just holes.

And something behind those holes.

Slosh!

I stuck a finger in my eye. Didn’t feel a thing. And no, I couldn’t feel anything anyway. So that was a bad idea.

As for the green stuff?

Nothing happened. It didn’t stick or anything but rather just disappeared.

***

It took a minute to reorient myself and actually try to think straight.

Where was I? What was I? Why was I?

I needed to know. But more importantly- ‘What would people think of me?’

A naked skeleton walking around in broad daylight (Rather midnight)… yeah, I couldn’t really imagine that. Meaning people couldn’t either. So, they’ll brand me as a monster and hunt me or make me a test subject. Neither of which I liked. And then there was the chance of them just burning me alive… I wasn’t alive though.

Sitting on a rock, by the lake, I stuck a thinking pose, similar to that one particular old statue.

Maybe I could just live out here? I didn’t need food and I didn’t need-

Rustle-

“Groaw?”

I meant to say who goes there but I guess my groaning nature was still the same.

Apparently, a dark figure had been walking around.

I didn’t feel the whole crawly sensation like the deer earlier. Speaking of the deer, it vanished right after finishing its drink. And this hooded figure, for lack of a better word… didn’t seem threatening or startled as it gazed on me with wanderlust.

“Oh, didn’t realize someone was here,” a voice-

A male voice.

One step, two step, slowly he came out of the shadows.

Clad in some sort of metallic armor, the man stood before me; it was hard for him to cross through the thick grass. He had a helmet, so I couldn’t really see his face. But I had nothing on, he could definitely see mine, that was for sure.

“H-hi!” of course only a groan came out… sigh.

Yeah, I might or might not have forgotten for a second that I was dead, and people would freak out….

Yup.

He was going to scream now.

“ARGHHH!!!” A mighty scream, almost deafening! Didn’t bother me for a second though.

But as I thought.

Next, he’d scream- monster or something.

“Majestic!!”

Yup, a mon-

Wait-

‘Excuse me what?’ Huh? “Groan?”

Even my groan was confused.