Afterlife - A Horror Story

3 - Haunting

[Blood]

———

GRADIENT

———

I woke up at the beginning of that night, almost automatically.

I sat up and got out of bed, rubbing my eyes as I looked around the room. Moonlight flooded through the window behind me, yet casting no shadow from me on the ground.

The door was open already (no surprise, don't think I ever closed it. Or could close it), so I simply walked out to the corridor outside.

To my left, I immediately saw Aiko sitting in the hallway. She was just kind of sitting there, staring at a door that I assumed was Akhet's room.

"Aiko?" I said, "You good?"

Aiko turned around, and I nearly fell over in surprise.

Her usually light yellow eye was now pitch black, and the other was a red X. The black on her hands had spread up to her chest. She smiled.

"Gwadient!" She said cheerfully. She ran over and hugged me like the five-year-old she was. I chuckled nervously, and patted her head.

"Gradient?"

I turned around to see Xyan and Praxus - or, it looked like Xyan and Praxus - standing behind me. Just like Aiko, the black from their wounds had spread across most of their bodies, and their eyes were the same as well.

"OH MY GO- What happened?" I exclaimed, confused as hell.

"This? Oh, this is normal," Xyan explained, gesturing to himself and Praxus, "Why aren't you in killing state?"

"Killing state?" I said, perplexed, "That sounds like something I would want to avoid."

"It's usually unavoidable," Praxus cut in, "So this is pretty confusing. Hi, Akhet."

I whipped around to see Akhet standing behind us. Black reached up her arms and tail, and her eyes were like everyone else's - one black, one a red X. The mute spirit waved cheerfully.

"What the hell is this?! Why do you all look like you just fell into some fire?!" I questioned.

"This is killing state!" Xyan said, "When the full moon rises, we basically become this and go to bring another Yudae into limbo. That's how these three got here."

He gestured to the others.

Okay. This is weird.

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked.

Xyan thought for a moment before saying, "Try thinking about it really hard. That's all I can think of."

I nodded, and did as he said. I thought the words "killing state" over and over, not really knowing what it meant.

"Hey, it worked!"

I opened my eyes, and saw that, similarly the others, the black from the wound in my chest had spread across my torso and down my arms.

"Come on!" Xyan said, "Let's go find some new guys!"

———

XYAN

———

I pulled Gradient along with me as we dashed out of the house. The silver light from the full moon shone down to the ground as we stood outside the house.

"So... what do we do?" Gradient asked.

"Just possess someone, and kill them," I replied simply.

"Say your joking right now," Gradient said, worry edging his voice.

"No jokes here," I said, "And trust me - if you don't do it now, you're gonna have to do it when the moon strikes midnight."

"How does that even work?"

"Well," I said, "If you haven't killed someone by then, you basically lose control of yourself and you'll do it anyway."

"Oh," Gradient shuddered.

"You get used to it," I said, patting him on the shoulder, "Now just go find someone, step inside of them, and do your thing. We'll meet you here when we're done."

Gradient nodded, and walked off, still looking slightly confused.

———

My target ended up being a guy in his early-ish thirties. He was already pretty drunk when I possessed him, so all I really had to do was go down some stairs carelessly. I jumped out of him as he fell to the bottom, and a crack rang out as his head hit the floor.

But I couldn't see his Yudae.

Curious now, I walked forwards, and knelt down beside the guy's body. He was definitely dead - a large bloody spot marked the side of his head that hit the ground. But usually when I kill, their Yudae is next to their body.

Yet there was none.

Suddenly, a pale orange orb shot from the dead man's chest, sped past me, and left through the wall.

And me being the curious ghost that I was, I flew after it.

But I lost it a few blocks from where I had been.

As I sat there for a moment, confused as hell, someone barreled into me. I was knocked to the ground, and the memory of air was knocked out of me. I looked up to see a surprised Praxus standing over me.

He chuckled nervously. "Sorry."

"No, its fine," I said, laughing. I gave Praxus a hug before standing back up.

"Did you get someone?" Praxus asked.

"Yeah, but their Yudae just disappeared or something," I replied, "I lost it here."

"The same thing happened to me!" Praxus said, "Just poof! And it was gone! I was chasing it through here, but I think I lost it."

"Huh," I said, "You think the others had any luck?"

"Hope so," Praxus replied, "If not, I'm concerned."

———

Turns out, neither Akhet nor Aiko were able to get a Yudae. We didn't find Gradient until later that night, around 3 a.m.

He was coming back to the house, still in his killing state. Which was a bit strange, since he should have changed back by now.

"Gradient!" I called out. Gradient ran over to me, changing back to his normal state as he came. "Any luck?"

"I... don't think so?" Gradient said, scratching the back of his head, "I mean, a random ghost didn't appear out of nowhere when I killed a guy, so I'm assuming no."

"That's a no then," I confirmed. "I wonder why it didn't work this time?"

Gradient shrugged. "I don't know how this works, so I'm just gonna go sleep. I'll see you guys tomorrow night."

Before I could say anything else, he was going back inside.

"Maybe I could check the spiritbooks?"

I turned to Akhet, who had spoken to me through telepathy.

"You do that," I agreed, "Something's definitely going on with Gradient."

As Akhet lead Aiko inside, Praxus wrapped his tail and wing around me reassuringly.

"Don't worry," Praxus said, "We'll figure this out."

I hoped so.

—————

HMMMM GRADIENT WHAT ARE YOU UP TO

EVEN IF ITS UNINTENTIONAL

1085 words