Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
«WATCH IT» vomit, gore, main character death.
The sun viciously licked his tanned skin, even if it was barely seven in the morning. The journey had started around four, and now he's getting off the old bus that brought him from the city to Highway 5. No one used it anymore, at least that's what the driver said, and he would have to walk it by himself if he wanted to get to the only place the highway led to. His childhood summer town.
The old asphalt road had a few holes, signalising the frequent use it once had. The little town at the end of it was left to its own luck, and only a few old women and their husbands remained there. Trying to keep ancient traditions going, but not having anyone to share them with anyway.
Hongjoong cleared his throat and ripped a piece of fabric from his battered shirt, wrapping it around his neck to protect the skin. The heat was starting to get to him, but the excitement of being a few hours away from his family's summer house made the burning sun easy to ignore. He had been looking forward to relaxing all day and night and exploring the town after so many years of not being there. However, he was a bit disappointed with himself at how his childhood memories didn't seem to flood his head like many times before, even with what should have been familiar surroundings.
This summer town wasn't really a summer town. It wasn't a beach getaway place; it was in the middle of a desert-like zone. Dry and hot weather was all it had until winter came. He and his family didn't like staying for winter; the cold was the type to settle deep in your bones, slowly freezing the joints until it felt impossible to move. The high temperatures were more bearable; that's what the family had decided, even if the heat was too strong during the day to go out, and the plants would burn inside out if they were watered with daylight. Somehow each year, they seemed to forget the daily fatigue and lack of energy to even get up and drink water.
He spotted the entrance to the town after an hour and a half walking, an unexpected uneasiness bubbling up in his stomach, bringing bile up his throat too fast to try and swallow it down. Gagging and spitting the little water he drank throughout the day left a chemical burning feeling running up and down his throat.
His family house hadn't been touched in years, so it was no surprise that it was as dusty as the desert and filled with dry insects. The only giveaway of them ever being alive were the spiderwebs and the little legs that fell off the prey. Realisation dawned on him that before he could relax he would have to clean the house, he sighed and left his bag at the entrance as he decided to explore the old town, desperately trying to get his memories back.
There was a kiosk at the heart of the town, which was less than a block away from his house, and it was the only place that had trees with green leaves and grass that was miraculously kept alive even in the middle of the summer. Looking at the church, he noticed that a coffee shop was next to it, and although he couldn't remember much, he knew that it must have been opened recently, as the neon LED lights above it were far too modern for the rest of the town. On the other side of the church, a tall house stood, with the two faintly familiar white steel rocking chairs. The old women who sat on them all day in front of the house entrance were nowhere to be seen, and he figured that they must have passed a few years ago; after all, they were quite old when he was just a child.
The air had gradually shifted, telltale of an unannounced visitor crossing the entrance to the town. When Hongjoong returned to the front of the church after a brief excursion around the town, he admitted that everything felt hotter, and that the air was too thick and hard to breathe in. His limbs were heavy and his breaths shallow, until they turned into frantic gasps to try and get some air. He didn't get time to sit down before he choked to death. His body laid limp in the middle of the street, the last tears in his eyes blurred the neon lights of the coffee shop.
Many days must have passed before someone in town noticed his corpse. The town was so hot, no flies were tempted to settle their eggs in his decaying skin. His body bloated and threatened with bursting soon, so the men that had taken refuge in their houses for the past few years, made a makeshift grave beside his body, put him in, covered him up, and ran back to the safety of their homes before the lack of air killed them just like it had done with Hongjoong.
A piercing scream resonated across town, waking up the rotting bones of the once alive town residents. Hongjoong screamed and thrashed in his grave, arms barely being able to lift above his head. His nails dugs into the dirt trying to find their way back to the surface. After hours of useless digging and crying, he gives up and settles comfortably in his new home. Gentle and pitying voices advise him to get comfortable, he would be resting here for a long time, maybe he should have just cleaned the house up. Curiosity kills the cat and this was his last life.
