THEY WEREN'T DREAMS

I should have known. They all tried to tell me. Why didn’t I listen? They said there were things in the mines, things in the forest. I thought it was all a heap of rubbish, but now I know I was wrong, wrong, wrong. There are things that bite and scratch, tear and claw. There are things that see your insides, but they don’t even have eyes. There are things that will chase you to the end of the world, and hold back exactly enough that you think you’ve escaped. That is when they pounce. You can try to keep your head up, your eyes open, but you’ll never even get a tiny glimpse before it's too late. They come from the sky, they come from the trees, they come from the Earth. She will send exactly what She knows will undo you. She will take you apart, piece by piece, just to hear you scream. She will put you back together, forever changed, forever maimed.

There’s not one thing you can do about it. Not once She decides you’ve gone too far.

I could have listened, I could have seen the signs. A strange animal here, a storm, a drought. Noises from the forest, noises from the mine tunnels. Pictures falling off of walls, plates flying from tables. An uneasy feeling pushed aside. Men becoming rowdy, becoming anxious, becoming dangerous. These are the things you have to look for, and I mean really look. Look with your eyes, heart, soul. Look long and hard at yourself before you become your own downfall. Look deep at the signs, because the Earth warns, warns, warns, and then She snaps. And then there's nothing left. You can try to cut the ivy tendrils away to reveal the meat and bones of what you lost, but it will only come back thicker. It will choke away anything it needs to, to keep living, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT. You did this. Live with it.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

You finally use your senses and see what you’ve done. You see how you’ve burnt everything to the ground. You see the bruises and scars you left behind. Each dark spot and red line will come back to you, traced in the skin on your face, sliced into your flesh, ground into your bones. You will fall, shattered, under the weight of your crimes. Each breath will tear the life out of your soul, and you’ll deserve it. You will know, and She will know.

When everything is gone, you might think that it's over. It’s never over, though. Someone will always have more to pay. Even if everyone else escapes, the one who remains pays the debts. They stack up, up, up. It’s the nature of man to take, and take, and take some more. It's madness, in a way, when the things we need are easily shared. It's greed, money, power that are manufactured.

Every wrong step you take has a consequence. Will you rise to meet it? Or will you beg the stars for mercy?