Corpse | Corpse Husband

1

Waking in a cold sweat, the raven-haired male looked around his bedroom with his hand over his chest. He caught his breath and slowly stood from his bed, slugging towards his bedroom door.

Once in the kitchen, said male didn't bother getting a glass from the cabinet. He dipped his head under the faucet and let the cool water trail down his throat and into his churning stomach, still shaken up from the nightly terror he constantly endured.

He stood up after turning the water off and wiped his mouth. After dropping himself onto the couch, he sighed deeply and let the warm tears that welled in his eyes dribble down and blanket his cold skin.

Every time he shut his eyes, he was ambushed by another nightmare. The vivid picture of his grey, decaying body being smothered by sand and invaded by slugs haunted him each night — and even the daunting scream of a horrified woman rang in his ears after his awakening.

The dreams were slowly taking away the little sanity he had, and he couldn't take it.

Not only was the scene disgusting, but it was also a topic he avoided like the plague. He didn't want to think about death, because he knew there'd be no one to mourn him.

He wanted to die, but as selfish as it sounded, he also wanted to be missed.

"These fuck'n dreams'll kill me one day." He muttered.

☠︎︎

"I'm worried about him..." Aspyn spoke to her best friend, Jadon.

"Aspyn — you don't even know the guy. What is there to worry about anyway?"

"Well, what normal person wakes up in tears every night?"

"What normal person stares through their neighbor's window every night?"

"Touché," Aspyn winked. "But seriously, I can't help it! Ever since the first time, it's just been an unconscious habit. What if something happens to him? From what I've seen, he doesn't have any friends or a family. There'd be nobody to help him if he got hurt."

"Look, this is nothing but your saviors complex kicking in. Besides, he's lived here for what? A week? Maybe his loved ones haven't made it around yet."

"No... something isn't right."

"Here we go again." Jadon sighed. "This is real life, Aspyn. Not every dark, mysterious guy who lives alone has some sort of deep backstory and needs saving. For all we know, he could just like being alone. Don't go meddling around."

"But Jadon—"

"Leave it, Aspyn." Jadon said curtly. "This is how people get murdered in movies. They go sniffing around and then BAM!"

"Bam?"

"BAM!" Jadon repeated with a loud clap of his hands. "AN UGLY MONSTER EMERGES FROM SOME OLD BOOK AND SUCKS THEIR BRAINS OUT!"

"..." Aspyn blinked. "Anyway, back on topic please."

"What is there to talk about? You're stalking an innocent man because you think something's wrong... he's literally just been minding his business. What's so suspicious about that?"

"For starters, he just showed up next door. No moving trucks, no one saw him, he just — appeared. Second, he's only been living here for a week and the amount of weight he's lost is alarming. Lastly, he's just weird. He's never left his home and he hasn't spoken to any of us neighbors or anything."

"So what I'm getting from all of this is, because your neighbor strays from human interaction and could possibly have an eating disorder, he's suspicious? Something's going on? Come on, don't be so insensitive. As you said, you don't know what's going on and it's not your business. If he wanted help I'm sure he'd ask for it."

"Well, when you word it like that I sound silly!" Aspyn complained. "I'm not trying to come off as insensitive. If you lived beside him you'd get it. It's not about the fact that he's skinny — it's the way his weight is dropping impossibly fast. There's just this weird aura that comes from that house. It's scary and unsettling."

"You make yourself sound silly, unfortunately." Jadon shook his head. "Listen, if it's that much of a big deal, go introduce yourself."

"I will!"

"Aspyn, get your ass back in here! I was just kidding!"

☠︎︎

The piercing ring of the doorbell jolted the half-asleep guy awake. He groaned as he stood to his feet, annoyed at having been interrupted when he was finally about to get some shut-eye.

When he opened the front door, he came face to face with a smiling woman. He eyed her from head to toe, confused on who she was and why she was at his door. He'd completely forgotten he no longer lived in his old home.

He'd been forgetting a lot of things recently — one being his own name. After the first nightmare, he woke up confused about his entire existence. He didn't recognize the house he was in, and he didn't recognize himself. It took looking around the house for any document he could find for a few bells to ring.

He was almost positive the new house played a large part in his nightmares. There was something weird about that house — he just couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Um... hello?"

"Oh, sorry," The guy mumbled as he took in her looks once more.

She resembled a doe from her fawn-colored skin to her large, sparkling eyes. She had a stature of 155 centimeters, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist that was framed by the cardigan she held tightly around her figure.

"Would you like to come in? It's cold."

"Sure!" The woman smiled as she followed him in. "I'm Aspyn Magbanua by the way. I've been meaning to stop by, but I wanted to let you get settled in first."

"I-I'm," He paused, watching the woman gaze over at him as he adjusted the thermostat. She sat on the couch with her dark bangs falling over her eyes. She blew them out of her face and quirked an eyebrow, waiting for the man to tell her his name. "I'm Corpse."

"Corpse?"

"Uhm, yea — Corpse." He repeated.

He had no clue where the name came from. He could've given her an actual name whether it be his or not, but something in him was screaming Corpse.

He felt like a corpse, he looked like a corpse, and he might as well have been one as he had no one to live for.

He was Corpse.

A/n: I don't normally like describing bodies/looks unless they're an oc, but this time it's important to the storyline.

Written Oct. 25th 2021