Cozy Little Horrors

Welcome Back

"Hey, Elin, do you have a moment?" Lev's voice made Elin open their eyes.

They were in their office: a dimly lit room full of strange potions, old books, what they called "spare parts" - you shouldn't look too closely at what those are - and, probably the most prominent sign of their profession, giant amounts of thread.

When Lev called them, they were chanting a spell from one of their books, drawing symbols in the air over something on their office table covered with a sheet. They interrupted their movements to raise their finger in a "just a moment" gesture, after which they traced a few more symbols, a yellow glow following their finger, and slammed the palm of their hand into the object under the sheet. A bright flash, the sound of an explosion, and everything seemed to be exactly the same. Except it wasn't.

The figure under the sheet moved, raising its- her head, looking around. A moment later, Angelica was sitting on the table, swinging her legs in the air, her smile as wide and carefree as ever.

"Welcome back," Elin breathed out, wiping the sweat from their forehead, "and try to stay with us a little longer this time, okay?"

"What do you mean?" Angelica tilted her head, a few locks of dark-blue hair covering her forehead, "I stayed alive for three whole weeks! That's a personal record!"Elin sighed and rubbed their temples.

"Anyway, what did I miss?"

"Umm," Lev interrupted, "We... it appears we have a problem. Elin, may I borrow you for a while?"

"Sure. It's not like I need rest after performing one of the most difficult spells in existence," Elin squeezed out a sour smile, stretching on their way to the door, "I promise to get you up to speed later, Angie. So, what are we dealing with?"

In a classroom near a broken window, a disheveled figure sat in a trapping circle, one of their arms wrapped around their legs, the other lying near them on the floor, disembodied. 

Disheveled was what they looked like at first glance. After a more thorough look at their form, the word decaying came to mind. The student who brought them back tried their best, but the illusion of life can only last so long.

At first, they didn't notice the differences, distracted by their chase of that pesky vampire, fueled by their rage, but now they were stuck with themself. With their corpse, to be exact.They tried to ignore it. The knocking sound their fleshless hand made when it touched the floor, the strange, unfamiliar movements of their body. But some things couldn't be ignored. Their mouth felt wrong: after a few seconds of shock, they discovered they had no tongue. Breathing didn't work, so they gave up on that. They didn't want to think about what was going on inside their body.

They told themself they were lucky that there are no mirrors in the classroom, but they were stuck with something much worse than reality: their imagination.

"How long have they been like this?" Elin asked, peeking through the keyhole.

"A few hours now. They were fine at first: they tried to kill Evgeny, we talked about education, things were going great! But then, when their arm fell off..."

Elin nodded and, without further questions, opened the door and walked over to the trapping circle.

"Hello there! Wonderful day today, isn't it?" Elin asked, leaning over to see the undead's face. This ridiculous statement shocked them enough to raise their head and look at the newcomer.

Even though the sight displayed to Elin was far from pleasant, to say the least, they did nothing but smile in the most honest and friendly way.