My consciousness slowly stirred from the abyss of sleep. At first it was simply me waking up normally, but as I gained further awareness, I could see lights dancing on my closed eyelids. Curiosity drove away the last of the sleep from me as I opened my eyes to see what was disturbing me.
It was still dark outside, though dawn was right around the corner, so the light couldn’t have been natural. My question was answered when a wispy blue orb floated over my line of sight. I stared dumbstruck at it as it floated around my head, seemingly adrift in the wind.
It was hauntingly beautiful in a way. Its smoky texture invited an experimental reach of my hand to test its solidity. I placed my hand in its path, and surprisingly it didn’t bother to avoid me, and just gently passed through my extended appendage with no effort. There was a bizarre feeling that I couldn’t determine if it was real or just my mind playing tricks on me. It was like a warm gentle breeze that was able to penetrate deeper than the skin.
After the last of the wisp had passed through my hand, it calmly floated off deeper into the room. As my gaze followed the little light in the dark room, I once more saw the body of mother on the floor. Instantly I was overcome with grief as I remembered everything that had happened to us, and I barely even noticed that the little light was moving closer to her.
The wisp stopped over her body, bobbing slightly up and down like it was floating in a pool of water. I got an overwhelming feeling that it was waiting for me, and something was tugging at that feeling in my chest, compelling me to follow it.
Slowly, I sat up and pulled my legs out from under the blankets that had kept me warm for so long. This would be the first time in days that I had been out of bed, and I was worried that I would suddenly find my body revolting against me attempting to move. My fears were unfounded as I felt the best that I had in a long time.
With newfound vigor, I moved towards the little wisp. The sight of mom’s body created a growing feeling of melancholy that only intensified with each step, yet the small light compelled something almost instinctual that drove me closer. Once I arrived at her side, I kneeled, bringing the wisp to eye level as it floated in front of me.
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be doing here, so I just followed the strange feeling that seemed to be directing my actions. My hands slowly rose until they were just below the wisp. It looked like I was cradling the blue light between my hands, and seeing no point in resisting, I started lowering my hands.
The wisp followed my hands lower, sinking through the air as if tethered to me. I realized that the feeling that had been directing me up to this point was wanting me to lay my hands upon my mother’s back. That made me hesitate for a moment. Even though I wanted so desperately to hug her just one more time, it felt wrong to touch her body as it was.
The light from the wisp flickered, catching my attention and pulling it away from her corpse. Looking at the gentle little light eased my concerns. It was almost like it was reassuring me, telling me to continue.
With a little trepidation, I lowered my hands completely, placing them upon the small of my mom’s back. As soon as my hands made contact, the wisp sunk into her body and disappeared from sight. I wasn’t sure what to do next. There were no more compulsions directing my actions.
As I sat there pondering the situation, a sudden happening startled me. Mom’s whole body twitched, scaring me and causing me to push away, landing on my backside in stunned silence. I watched as her body began to move once more, slowly at first as her fingers flexed and relaxed. In any other situation, it would have just looked like she was waking up from a deep sleep, but the creaking and popping of her joints as she slowly started to rise told a different story.
I could do nothing but gawk with a mixture of fear, trepidation, and inexplicably, hope. My breath came in rapid, shallow gasps while I watched her sit up, eventually coming to a kneeling position in front of me. When she opened her eyes, I could see a light in them, not the regular sparkle that normally inhabited her lively eyes, but it was a cool blue glow that was in no way natural.
Despite the fear I felt at this unprecedented moment, I couldn’t help the spark of yearning that drove me past my misgivings. With a quiet gulp to clear my throat, I attempted to speak.
“Mom?”
Her gaze fell on me for the first time, and behind the otherworldly glow, I could feel the softness of love. Slowly, a smile formed on her face, the same one that she always gave me. With still creaking limbs, she raised her hand towards me and cupped the side of my face with a tender caress. Her hand was cold, possessing none of the warmth that she once had, yet at that moment I did not care.
My eyes instantly filled with tears, and I lunged forward and embraced her, crying into her stomach as her hands came around to lightly stroke through my hair and across my back. “Mom! Mom!” That was all I could manage to articulate between gasping breaths and tears of joy.
I didn’t know if this was a dream, if I had died, or if this was real. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to let it go as I clutched onto her for dear life, not wanting to let go. As my tears slowly subsided and my breath came under control once again, I risked pulling off ever so slightly. She was still there, smiling at me with unmistakable love.
There were no words that could fully describe the amount of joy that I felt in that moment. After I thought that I had lost everything, I could feel my mother’s embrace once more and know that I was loved.
As I sat there, reveling in the bliss of the moment, a thought came to mind. What about dad? Could I do the same thing for him? That idea spurred me into action once more. I quickly got up and took mom by the hand, leading her to the front door as she was still seemingly getting used to moving again.
This was the first time I had been outside in what felt like forever. The early morning light from dawn illuminated the familiar village that contained a very strange sight. More of those smokey blue wisps floated around the village, almost aimlessly. I began to wonder if all those lights were people, like mom. With a quick breath to steady myself, I gripped mom’s hand a little tighter as I began walking into the village with her.
As we walked through the village, I could feel all the different wisps around me, and see that they were not all the same. Some drifted around lazily, seemingly lacking energy. Others darted from place to place in an agitated manner, sparking and flashing more like a flame than a puff of smoke. One thing that they all had in common though was that they started to follow me after I passed by, which was strange for me as I had quickly gathered a cloud of the floating blue lights.
Our destination was one that I frankly did not wish to see, yet it was nevertheless where we needed to go. The storage shed at the edge of town looked dark and sinister in the early morning light, especially so, considering what it held.
I hesitated out front of the building, trying to find the courage to open the door and lay eyes on all the death that had befallen my home. Mom gave my hand a gentle squeeze, prompting me to look at her. Her smile was one of reassurance and support. Knowing she was here for me helped me overcome a lot of my fears, and with a deep breath, I opened the door and descended into the basement.
The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was the rancid scent of rotting meat, which wasn’t a good sign. I gagged a bit and had to take a moment to steady myself before proceeding. Despite my distaste for everything about this place, I remembered vividly where dad had been laid to rest.
The short walk to his body felt like my own was being weighed down by a boulder. Before I knew it, I was standing before his corpse, wrapped snuggly in a cloth that had been somewhat dirtied since the last time I was here. With some reluctance and a general sense that I was doing something wrong, I unwrapped his head.
His face looked strange. It was pale and sunken, having lost its usual hardiness. Seeing him like this just didn’t sit right with me. It was almost like staring into the face of a stranger.
Beyond his appearance, a small problem arose when I looked around at the myriad of wisps floating about the room. If each one was a person, how could I tell which was his? Lacking any semblance of a plan in that regard, I just turned to the simplest solution that came to mind.
“Dad?” I called out to the wisps, hoping that one might respond. It was a tense moment, but eventually one did separate from the crowd, coming closer to me as it hung above his body.
This one was very bright, projecting a radiance that many of the others lacked. A sense of familiarity accompanied this one, and I could tell that it was dad. I wasted no time, mimicking what I had done earlier by reaching out and directing the wisp down into his body. The second time was easier for me than the first, and I did not react with fear when dad’s body jerked.
Even though I had gone through this once before, it was still a little unnerving to watch him stir, body crackling as the stiff joints were put into motion again. Like mom, dad’s ability to move was poor, and he had difficulty freeing himself from the confines of the cloth wrapped around him. Mom and I assisted in unwrapping him, and once he was free, he stood to his full height with confidence despite the odd situation.
His eyes glowed much the same way moms did when he looked at me. I happily smiled as both my parents were back now, and dad gave me a happy grin as well before patting me on the head, rustling up my hair a little. Not content with just that, I went in for a hug, wrapping my arms around his waist. He returned the hug, and even mom came up to join in.
I was so happy. It wasn’t that long ago I thought that everything was ruined, and I was as good as dead. Now, we had a second chance, and not just for us.
Looking around the room at everyone else, I felt an overwhelming desire to bring everyone else back and restore my home to what it once was. The first step to that was to place each of the wisps into their appropriate bodies.
They all responded to their names as I stopped at each body, floating forth to allow me to use this new strange power. Some of the bodies that had been in here for a while were starting to decay though, which explained the smell at least. I just hoped that it didn’t have any negative effects on my ability to bring them back.
It turned out it didn’t really matter all that much the condition that their body was in, however, I encountered a different problem. There were not an equal number of wisps to bodies. Even going through the village to revive those that died in their homes found that there were still several corpses that didn’t seem to have a light to fill them.
This discovery saddened me immensely. Some of those who I couldn’t bring back I knew well, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying that I found this out. I attempted everything, trying to summon some power that could restore them, but without the wisps, it seemed to be impossible. The only thing we could do for them now was to give them a proper burial, and with the help of some of the other villagers, we managed to dig enough holes to lay them to rest.
The funeral was a slight dampening on an otherwise happy day. The sun had started to rise and warm me as I looked around at all my friends and family. We could live our lives again, supporting each other as we always had. And so, they all returned to their daily routines. Despite the apparent adjustment to the condition of their bodies, they managed to fall back into their well-practiced roles quite readily.
Stolen story; please report.
Over the next few days, I took to helping everyone work out the kinks. There was an issue with very few of them being able to talk, let alone make a sound other than a grunt, so communication was difficult. They didn’t seem to need to eat anything anymore, so all the food went to me, which made me feel a little bad as I wanted to share a meal with them yet couldn’t.
Then there were the pests. Rats and crows were a menace, picking at their bodies and even stealing some flesh from those who had more advanced states of decomposition. I knew it should probably disturb me to see their bodies rotting and being picked at like that, but I found it more annoying that the animals wouldn’t leave us alone. Since most of the animals had died during the plague, my chore became defending everyone from the onslaught of the scavengers. I was particularly vehement about the protection of my parents. The idea of them being picked at revolted me, and I would prevent that for as long as I could.
It wasn’t pretty, but I had rebuilt my life. The people may have been slower, the smell might have been stronger, but I was adjusting to it, and it mattered little when I could see the smiles of those I knew. I was happy again, but the world wasn’t done with us yet.
Five days after I had first brought everyone back, I was out trying to bury a rat's nest that had sprung up under Annabelle’s bakery. The vermin had not only been stealing from what stores of food she had there but were also nipping at her heels whenever she was standing in one place for too long. To the best of my knowledge none of them could feel anything, so it was difficult to tell when the animals were biting.
I was under the house in the cellar, crawling around on the floor to collapse tunnels and stuff them full of rocks. It wouldn’t be a permanent solution knowing how resourceful rats are, but I wasn’t exactly an expert at exterminating pests, so this was the best I could do.
Being under a house has many drawbacks. It's dirty, a bit cramped, musty, and worst of all, you can’t really hear anything up above. I was only alerted to something being wrong when Annabelle shuffled down, grunting at me while making frantic motions. At first, I thought that maybe someone had gotten seriously hurt, there had been a couple of close calls before due to their limited mobility, but as it turned out, it was something far worse than that.
Fire. There was a fire! At the far end of the village a plume of black smoke climbed into the air. Panic immediately took hold, and for a moment, I did not know what to do. After I had processed the situation, I realized that the fire was close to my house, which snapped me out of my stupor and into action.
“We... we have to stop it from spreading!” I started running towards the source, with everyone who heard me shambling along behind me as fast as they could. My mind was going through plans for fighting the fire while keeping everyone safe, but things weren’t nearly as simple as that.
As I got closer to the source, I could hear shouting and whinny of horses, both of which were extremely out of place. Down the row of buildings, I saw Joshua, a former farmer that my dad had sometimes helped when harvest season came around, shuffling backwards into view. His arms were up in a defensive posture, and before I could even wonder why, a sword slashed at him, severing his arm.
A gasp escaped me as the shock of that happening hit me. Joshua stumbled backwards from the blow, wound not even bleeding all that much due to his heart not pumping anymore. An armored man stepped after him with another slash from his blade. This hit cut deep into his leg, causing Joshua to fall on his back. The armored aggressor quickly stepped on his one remaining hand to pin it in place before raising his blade for a downward thrust. I wanted to yell, to scream at him to stop, but fear froze my voice, and I could only watch as the sword was buried into Joshua’s skull.
The blue light in his eyes disappeared, and soon after a smokey blue mist leaked out of his chest, dissipating into the air. As the sword was yanked free, I realized that I needed to hide, and dove behind the nearest building. I felt like my heart was beating too loud and could be heard by the killer, despite that being ridiculous to a rational mind.
I huddled behind the building, fearing that the man was going to find me and kill me too, but as I listened, I could hear the clanking of his armor getting further way. Daring to peak out from my cover, I saw the surroundings were clear. With the last bit of my courage, I stepped out and towards Joshua’s body.
He was lifeless, and there was no wisp around to reanimate him. He was dead for good this time. Sorrow tugged at my heart, but it was quickly replaced once more by panic and worry. We were under attack, and a realization came to mind. Mom! Dad!
The fire wasn’t an accident, these people started it, and they were close to my house, my family. I took off in a dead sprint, trying my best to stay off the main road through the village. As I ran, I saw the destruction that had come to my home.
Houses were smashed into, bodies littered the street, and fires were starting to become more common. Despair was eating at me as I looked at everything I knew being destroyed. Why? Why is this happening to us?
Hadn’t we already been through enough? Why can’t we just live peacefully and be left alone? Why does the world keep trying to take from us?
My lamentations weren’t going to help me right now though, so I pushed them aside to focus on reaching my parents and getting out of here. Along the way I had to dodge more of the raiders as they scoured the village. I noticed that most of them weren’t human, with many of them being elves. Bitterness crept into my mind as I thought that dad was right, they don’t care about us and just want to take everything away.
I was closing in on my house, it would be in sight soon enough. With every step I silently prayed that my parents were alright, that maybe we could escape and salvage what little of this situation we could later. Rounding the corner of a building, I was finally able to see my home, but what was there immediately brought me to a halt.
There were at least two dozen individuals around my house, most of them wearing various levels of gear and armor, which most likely was a sign that they were mercenaries, possibly adventurers. However, there were a few individuals closer to my house that wore expensive looking sets of armor, and beside them were priests wearing robes that denoted them as the followers of light that had visited before.
While scanning through all the dangerous people who were surrounding my home, my eyes eventually fell on my parents, laying prone on the ground out front. It felt like my heart had stopped in my chest.
Dad wasn’t moving, and I couldn’t tell if he was there or not. Mom on the other hand was weakly struggling beneath two mercenaries who were currently pinning her down with swords stuck in her back. I didn’t know what to do, I was just a kid, and I was scared. There was no way I could fight even one of them let alone two dozen at least.
My panic-stricken mind was drawn away from the horrible scene when a horse rode up to the group. The rider was an elf, elegant in posture, and regal of features. The strong angular face common in their race gave him a handsome look. His silver-blond hair touched the back of his neck, even when tied up in a small ponytail. He wore a chainmail shirt with a tabard embroidered with a stylized sun that denotes service to the Lord of Light. His arms and legs were covered by steel plates for additional protection as a sword dangled from his hip in its scabbard.
All of that didn’t surprise me so much as the storm of agitated wisps all around him. These wisps looked strange, different from the ones that had come from my village. The blue light that I was accustomed to was tainted with black while the wisps themselves looked like raging flames as they darted around him, through him, in aggressive movements. He didn’t seem bothered by them, and it appeared that no one else could even see them.
The rider came to a stop in front of my house, looking down at my parents. He reached under his tabard and removed a sun talisman he kept as a necklace. Holding it aloft, he spoke, though his words did not reach me due to the distance and noise of the fires around us. The Talisman started to glow, and a sinking feeling hit my gut.
It was that feeling that something bad was about to happen, and it was validated when all the wisps that were previously around him scattered. I wanted to yell, shout at him to stop, but I was petrified in place. The light grew more intense, and it hurt to look at. What I saw next was more torturous than any physical harm you could possibly inflict on a person.
I watched as the light burned the flesh of my parents, turning their ashen visage black and charred. Mom’s struggling turned frantic for a moment before ceasing completely. With wide eyes filled with horror and tears I bore witness as they eventually crumbled and turned to ash, leaving nothing behind but the clothes that they were wearing.
My breath came in shallow, rapid heaves, and eventually the grief overwhelmed my fear. “MOM! DAD!” I shrieked at the top of my lungs.
Even if I was older and wiser, I still don’t think I would have been able to restrain myself in that moment. As it was, my cry of agony drew the attention of all the raiders, including the mounted knight. His face showed surprise for a moment, but that quickly turned into a commanding scowl as he shouted at the mercenaries.
“Get that kid, I want him alive!”
The armed men rushing me sent a sobering wave of panic through me. Even knowing there was nothing left of my parents, I didn’t want to leave, yet I was forced into motion out of a necessity to survive. So, I ran, tears of sorrow and fear streaking down my face.
My frantic escape took me past burning houses, the smoke and fumes choking me and stinging my eyes. I could hear the shouting of the armed mercenaries behind me, getting steadily closer as their well-trained adult bodies could easily outpace mine. Just as I thought they might catch me several forms came rushing around the corner of a house and ran by me on an intercept course for the mercs.
They were people from the village that had avoided the initial attack but were now rushing headlong to an assured death. “No! Don’t!” I tried to plead with them, but they ignored me and ran into the men, grappling them and trying their best to fight, not even being slowed down if they were impaled.
A hand rested on my shoulder and pulled my attention away from the carnage of all these familiar faces being cut down. It was Albert, his old face pockmarked with rotted holes. As the first to die, he had the most advanced decay when I got around to reviving him.
I stared helplessly up at him, hoping he had some solution, something that could save all of us, but all I got was a reassuring grin and strained word that made my heart sink. “Ruuun.”
It was all I could do to barely shake my head ‘no’ as tears threatened to blind me. The old man wasn’t having any of it though as both his hands gripped my shoulders, turned me away, and pushed me forward. “Ruuun!” That was the last thing he said before turning and joining the others in delaying my pursuers.
I didn’t look back, I couldn’t, because I knew that if I did, I would try to help them, making everything that they were doing for me pointless. It hurt, it hurt so much, like a dagger to the heart, but I kept running.
Despite their sacrifice, it didn’t take long for others to catch up to me again. Three of them emerged from behind a house directly in the path I was taking. I skidded to a stop and tried to turn and run again only to be snatched by the collar of my shirt.
“I got him!” The mercenary yelled triumphantly.
“No! Let go!” I tried to kick, punch, even bite at him while he wrestled me into submission, eventually forcing me into the dirt.
“Stop struggling! Someone get some rope so we can tie him up.”
Fear and panic welled up inside me even as I continued to struggle fruitlessly against the stronger man. I didn’t want to go; I was afraid of what they would do to me. Would I suffer the same fate as my parents, or would they do something worse? I cried so desperately in my head for help that I knew wouldn’t come.
The dread filled me up, but beside that, there was a strange feeling, like a cold gust of wind. No, I wasn’t imagining that, the air was actually getting colder. That was when I saw the blue-black glow of one of those wisps I had seen earlier pass in front of me, then two, and five, and a dozen.
They all were coalescing at a single point in the ground a few feet away from us. None of the mercenaries seemed to notice it happening, at least not until the last one disappeared into the earth only to be replaced with a black fog that rose from the ground at that spot. The mercenary holding me down released me at that point, gripping his weapon instead.
“What the hell?” The three raiders and I stared at the growing patch of black that seeped from the soil. Then, a rotted looking hand jutted up from the ground without disturbing it. The appendage was followed by another hand, and another, and yet another.
Everyone continued to look on with varying degrees of horror as an amalgamation of decayed spectral bodies emerged, fused in a single grisly form. This thing possessed no less than a dozen arms, grafted onto six torsos that all met in the middle of the form which was shrouded by black fog. Heads of men and women were not only found at the ends of the torso’s necks, but also jutting out from odd places on the bodies, with even a few faces trapped beneath the translucent skin, stretching it taut enough to make out the horrifying visage they held. Some faces had expressions of agony, others anger or rage.
We were all deathly still as we beheld the monster that had shown up in front of us. Then, in unison, all the mouths from every head and face opened at once, letting loose a piercing shriek. The mercenaries all cried out, dropping their weapons and clutching at their ears as they collapsed onto the ground and writhed in pain.
I didn’t know what was going on. The monster was loud, but I didn’t think it was that loud. Whatever the reason, the mercenaries were too busy adding their screams to the horrific choir to bother holding me down, so I used the opportunity to make my escape.
The woods were nearby, so I made a straight shot for the cover of the trees as fast as I could. As I moved deeper the sound of screams and fire faded, the smell of smoke and rotting flesh diminished, all these things being replaced by nature’s many attributes. I spared only a single glance back at my village, my home, watching as it was destroyed and knowing I could never come back. I wanted to collapse right there and cry, but my sense of self-preservation kept me moving, running off into a world beyond anything I had ever known.